eRacing Magazine Vol. 3 Issue 2 | Page 27

When BMW announced a replacement for the Z4 GT car, many endurance racing fans got very excited. In 2016 BMW will contest an all new GT car for global GT racing over the globe.

It replaces the Z4 that ran over the last 4 years with numerous wins to its name in the IMSA series in America and the Blancpain endurance series in Europe; making it one of the most successful GT car ever. In 2015, the Z4 got the perfect send off with a win at the 24h of Spa with the Marc VDS team.

But what was wrong with the Z4? “Well, not much,” says Jens Marquardt, boss of BMW Motorsport. One of the issues was straight-line speed, which was the biggest issue on the Z4. Marquardt says: “grip was good, but straight-line was not the best”, which BMW didn’t want with its next generation of GT car.

BMW Motorsport, therefore, looked at its current range of cars, with the outcome being that the M6 will be put forward. “The car has a suitable engine as a foundation, as well as an aerodynamic package we can work with” claims Marquardt.

Design and construction began in late 2014 with the new M6, which had to be adopted quite radically to suit either GT3 or GT LM technical regulations. For testing BMW had many issues with the cooling, which meant the car had to be tested on circuits well into the Arctic Circle, thus giving the car an awkward birth.