{"id":1829541,"date":"2026-03-16T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-15T21:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1829541"},"modified":"2026-03-16T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-03-15T21:00:00","slug":"bmw-will-build-and-race-its-m3-touring-gt3-april-fools-concept","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1829541","title":{"rendered":"BMW will build and race its M3 Touring GT3 April Fools\u2019 concept"},"content":{"rendered":"
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On 1 April 2025, BMW announced an \u2018M2 Dakar\u2019 and an \u2018M3 Touring GT3 Evo\u2019, the latter described as \u2018garage born, track approved and ready to race\u2019. It was, of course, an April Fools\u2019 joke. A BMW estate with a massive wing built to go racing? Madness!<\/p>\n

Only, the joke\u2019s on us. Because on 16 March 2026 \u2013 today \u2013 BMW has confirmed what was once a joke is now \u2018reality\u2019: the bewinged M3 Touring GT3 will race in this year\u2019s N\u00fcrburgring 24hrs. Who\u2019s laughing now?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Probably not the M3 Touring 24H\u2019s drivers \u2013 Schubert Motorsport\u2019s quartet of Jens Klingmann, Ugo de Wilde, Connor De Phillippi and Neil Verhagen \u2013 because the N24 is quite scary. And the M3 Touring 24H will take the M4 GT3 Evo\u2019s technical base and sling it all inside that frankly excellent bodyshape.<\/p>\n

That means up to 582bhp from BMW\u2019s P58 3.0-litre turbo straight six sent to the rear wheels, plus various (obvious) chassis and suspension upgrades like new anti-roll bars, fatter brakes, and a tweaked diff. Among lots of other things, of course.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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BMW has quantified how much bigger the M3 Touring is compared to its M4 GT3 sibling \u2013 200mm longer, 32mm taller \u2013 but what it hasn\u2019t quantified is how much cooler<\/em> this thing is. Answer: much.<\/p>\n

It won\u2019t compete for top honours at the N24 because it\u2019ll run in the \u2018SPX\u2019 class, so won\u2019t eat up the efforts of BMW\u2019s three M4 GT3 Evos that\u2019ll aim for outright victory. It will instead compete for every BMW M enthusiast\u2019s heart.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cA project like the BMW M3 Touring 24H has never existed at BMW M Motorsport before,\u201d said M Motorsport boss Andreas Roos. \u201cI am thrilled, and at the same time, I am certain that our fans, who are never closer to us than at our second home on the N\u00fcrburgring, will be just as excited.<\/p>\n

\u201cI promise all fans a great show and look forward to an event of superlatives.\u201d<\/p>\n

Klingmann added: \u201cIt has to be said clearly that the car may have started as an April Fools\u2019 joke, but it has become an absolutely top-class and competitive race car. Our goal is to put on a great show for the spectators at the N\u00fcrburgring and to finish the race as far up front as possible. I am convinced that we can achieve a top result.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018As far up front as possible.\u2019 It’ll make its competitive debut at next weekend’s NLS, before the actual N24 in May. Ha ha ha.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On 1 April 2025, BMW announced an \u2018M2 Dakar\u2019 and an \u2018M3 Touring GT3 Evo\u2019, the latter described as \u2018garage born, track approved and ready to race\u2019. It was, of course, an April Fools\u2019 joke. A BMW estate with a massive wing built to go racing? Madness! Only, the joke\u2019s on us. Because on 16 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[226,237],"class_list":["post-1829541","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-crawlmanager","tag-topgear-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1829541","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1829541"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1829541\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1829541"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1829541"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1829541"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}