Unveiling in Geneva: On the occasion of the Automobilsalon, Prof Dr Burkhard Göschel, BMW Group Board Member Purchasing and Development, introduced a new racing car for customer motor racing. The Motorsport Version of the BMW Z4 M Coupé, which has already made a big impression as a production model, is the first two-seater BMW Motorsport offers for customer teams. When it came to the development, BMW faced a huge challenge: The car had to have what is needed to race successfully on the world’s most demanding and spectacular racetrack, the Nürburgring’s famous Nordschleife. The new motorsport coupé can be used by private BMW customer teams in the German Endurance Championship and in the Nürburgring 24-Hour Race.
The power unit of the beefy coupe is a BMW Motorsport designed 3.2-litre in-line 6-cylinder engine delivering about 400bhp, with the suspension area in particular benefiting from the knowledge gained from the successful BMW M3 GTR project.
With its varied component ranges, BMW Motorsport and BMW Racing Parts Distribution offer customer teams a new technology platform for use in many miscellaneous international racing and club sport series, with the Nordschleife enthusiasts not being the only interested party, as the brawny coupe also represents the perfect car for use in the Belgian Belcar series and other, non-European, endurance series.
The kit can be ordered from May 2006 at BMW Motorsport and will be available for an estimated € 250,000 (plus VAT).(gotbroken)