Article Summary
- South African racing driver Jordan Pepper piloted the BMW M3 Touring 24H to a 46.54 lap.
- It was only 0.24 seconds slower than the car that finished in third place.
- The M3 Touring 24H is a one-off and isn't owned by BMW anymore.
It’s not every day that we see a wagon transformed into a race car tackle the famous Goodwood hill climb. The BMW M3 Touring 24H is unlike any other long-roof model Munich has ever built. It has been transformed into a full-fledged track machine and has proved its worth by finishing fourth at the Nürburgring 24-hour endurance race.
The one-off G81, built exclusively for the track, also impressed last weekend by setting the fifth-fastest time during the timed shootout at the 2026 Goodwood Festival of Speed. South African racing driver Jordan Pepper piloted the M3 Touring 24H to a 46.54-second run, narrowly missing third place, which Alex Summers claimed in the Shadow-Chevrolet DN4.
Nevertheless, fifth place in a wagon is nothing to sneeze at. The sound you’re hearing doesn’t come from the road car’s S58 engine but from the motorsport-spec P58. It produces nearly 600 hp and 516 lb-ft (700 Nm) of torque, sent exclusively to the rear wheels. Yes, the M3 Touring 24H ditches the regular model’s xDrive setup. Another major change is the switch to a six-speed sequential transaxle gearbox.
BMW Has Sold The M3 Touring 24H
Headed to Rainer Bonnetsmüller’s private collection, the unique M3 wagon race car took just eight weeks to build following a development phase of only eight months. Initially, BMW hadn’t planned to build it. As you may remember, it began merely as an April Fools’ prank in 2025.
It’s unclear how much Rainer Bonnetsmüller paid for it, but it almost certainly cost far more than an M3 CS Touring, which retailed for €152,900 in Germany. For reference, the M3 Touring 24H is mechanically related to the €219,900 M4 GT4 EVO and the €578,000 M4 GT3 EVO. It has more in common with the latter, so its price tag must have been astronomical given its one-of-a-kind status.
Although the car no longer belongs to BMW, the good news is we haven’t seen the last of it. Its next confirmed public appearances are scheduled for the MotoGP race weekend in Spielberg, Austria, and the Tutto Bene Hill Climb in Italy, both in September.
BMW has likely extracted everything it could from the G81 platform with the street-legal M3 CS Touring. Logic tells us it’s unlikely to build anything as radical as this race car with a license plate. The high-performance wagon story could continue with the next-generation 3 Series Touring, the G51. Although BMW M hasn’t made any commitments, another M3 wagon remains a possibility. Better yet, it could even make its way to the United States for the first time.
In the meantime, BMW M is working on giving the larger M5 Touring a Neue Klasse-inspired makeover for its facelift, due next year.
