Last week, spy photos of a heavily modified BMW M4 started making the rounds on the internet. A lot of websites have tried to figure out what this could possibly be while the answer seemed pretty obvious. What we’re looking at in the video attached below is the BMW M4 GT4 version that will start racing in various competitions next year.
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The car will be aiming to replace the BMW M3 GT4 in a host of races around the world and will be used by private racing teams starting next year. As you can probably tell, BMW is currently testing the aerodynamics of the car using a stock M4 with more aggressive bits and pieces all around to get a baseline reading. The end product will most likely drop a lot of weight by using carbon fiber wherever possible and removing any sort of commodity feature from inside the car.
Under the hood you’ll find the same 3-liter straight six engine with its two turbochargers attached to it. However, the power output is likely to change, to comply with the FIA rules that demand GT4 cars to have certain power/weight ratios. For now, we don’t have an exact figure but as soon as the car will be done, we’ll know exactly how many horses are lurking under the bonnet.
“The GT4 category is currently experiencing a boom. It offers affordable motorsport with cars of technical high-quality and, therefore, attracts a wide target audience. We see enormous potential around the world for privateer BMW teams for whom the BMW M4 GT4 is an option,” said BMW Motorsport Director Jens Marquardt about the car back in 2015. “The BMW M4 GT4 is designed perfectly for simple use by privateer teams.”
Development and research done for this new racer should be finished by January 1, 2017. At that time we’ll also learn all about its specs and, most importantly, price tag. Since the BMW M6 GT3 costs around $400,000, the M4 GT4 should be a considerably cheaper alternative.
I was hoping it would be a hot-rodded ZCP, truthfully.
This is unfortunately not the M4 GT4 that the factory is launching mid 2017 season.
I race in the European GT4 myself and it is pretty clear that this cannot be the GT4 car due to 2 obvious reasons
1. There is no proper racing rollcage
2. It has a normal fuel filler cap and not a racing system
All this is, is either a technology try out car for the race car itself but I don`t think so as tech-wise the gt4 cars are pretty similar.
What I believe is that this is a more powerful, more limited M4 GTS that they need to make in order to have a clear margin between the M4 and the coming M2 GTS.
Thank you for your input. However, we’re guessing they’re just trying some of the aero parts here so there would be no need for the fuel cap or the roll cage. One of my sources,on the other hand, claims that BMW is also working on a M4 Club Sport model. However this CS M4 isn’t out testing yet.
Yes same as I was guessing. Could be the tech try out car. I already put down my interest on a GT4 Racecar to BMW and they replied by saying they will send me full specs in a couple of weeks.
It could be the CS tough…. They saw what hype the GTS created so this could be the next step
not to mention that appears to be a stock M4 exhaust
To me it just looks like some guys testing aftermarket parts, but we’ll see.
M4 looks best in white. Alpine white softens the demented look on the front of the fascia.