The BMW Motorsport efforts around the world are now experiencing a rather unusual situation. For the first time ever, one of the cars involved in races around the world is based on a model that is no longer in production. The BMW M6 GT3 and the GTD version are still pretty successful but at some point they will be replaced. BMW Motorsport boss, Jens Marquardt hinted at what car will take over when the time comes: the BMW M4.
We haven’t seen the G80 M3 yet and the G82 M4 might be even further off but they will have a lot of work to do when they eventually reach markets worldwide. One of the tasks the M4 might have to take over would be racing in GT3 guise. The BMW M6 GT3 will be retired at some point and the BMW M8 is considered too big by the German company to be able to pick up where the M6 left off. Thus, the BMW M4 and the BMW M4 GT3 become the obvious choice.
“The 6 Series is no longer available and I think the M8 is too big a car, so I would think that we would go smaller. The final decision is not yet there, but I think it would probably, very likely, go into the area of the new M4,” said motorsport director Jens Marquardt in an interview with Sportscar365. The problem with the M4 is that the regulations have to be changed in order for it to be allowed in the GT3 class by FIA.
At the moment, the regulations state that a GT3 model should be based on a car that doesn’t share its platform with a four-door model. However, BMW has apparently been in talks with FIA regarding the regulations and they will only proceed once given the green light.
“We are in the late stages of the concept phase now, discussing with the FIA all our concepts to make sure that we don’t encounter problems that we encountered in the past with other models that we have developed. With the regulations, as they were done for now, we would not have been able to homologate our car because all our cars are based on platforms that are shared between various ranges,” said Marquardt.
