Why is the BMW M3 Allowed to Compete in GTE?

Looking at the current grid of ACO approved GTE cars (C6R, 458, 430, Jag, 911, Aston, Ford, and BMW), it would appear that the ACO is letting BMW run a car that is a massive upgrade from its production counterpart.
___________Road________Race
Porsche: (4L - 500hp) (4L - 455hp) - loses 45hp
Corvette:(6.2L-638hp) (5.5L-485hp) - loses 153hp
458: (4.5L-526hp) (4.5L-465hp) - loses 97hp
430: (4.3L-510hp) (4L -445hp) - loses 65hp
Jag: (5L -543hp) (5L -550hp) - gains 7hp
Aston: (4.7-420hp) (4.5L-480hp) - gains 60hp
Ford: (5.4L-550hp) (5L - 500hp) - loses 50hp
BMW: (4L - 414hp) (4L - 500hp) - gains 86hp

The Jag and the Aston also gain power over their road counterparts, but neither of them are by any means quick cars, so I'm counting them as irrelevant for now. The BMW on the other hand is one of the fastest cars on the grid. Why are they allowed to race a car that is a serious upgrade compared to their road car? If they don't think a racecar that is similar to the stock M3 would be competitive, them they should race something based on the M5 or M6.

I just finished watching the rest of the 24hrs, and even the Eurosport guys were ripping on the M3 as basically being a brick with wheels. All of the GTE cars are essentially supercars except for the Jag and BMW. I'm not following the train of thought behind racing what is essentially a touring car in a sportscar series. I'm all for having BMW being part of the action, but shouldn't the ACO be making them race a car that fits with the series? Its not like Honda could show up with a Civic and be like "Huh, this isn't going to be competitive in its stock form, so we are going to add a quad turbo W16 that puts out 1200hp to level the playing field."

>corvette
>supercar

pick one.

The ZR1 doesn't have the pricetag or the notoriety of a Ferrari, but it has the performance of one.

narboza22 wrote:The ZR1 doesn't have the pricetag or the notoriety of a Ferrari, but it has the performance of one.

which is exactly why the corvette is not a super car...

rather an everyday, blue collar sports car for the masses.

and to answer your question: marketing.

the series wins because they add a marque manf. and BMW wins because it uses this as a marketing tool.

How are we defining supercar? A Corvette isn't going to make a girl's clothes fall off like a Ferrari or a Lambo will, but neither is a GT-R. That's just a glorified Datsun, but its as quick around a track as any Ferrari isn't it?

You don't think BMW would have been interested in joining the ALMS if they had been told that they had to race a car that didn't require large performance boosts to compete?

GTE is far from production performance.

Any GTE car is very far removed from its road going counterpart.

I'm aware, but when the rest of the teams are fielding cars that need to be restricted from their stock performance, I don't see why BMW should be allowed to field a car that they can boost up.

There is probably more to it than meets the eye.

Hey.

All that matters, is that BMW are another manufacturer in GT racing. Win.

Why the need for this thread? Seriously. Just enjoy the damn racing.

Well, the road versions of the Vette, 911, and Ferraris all have ceramic brakes that have to be changed to steel on the race cars.

Yes, they are a manufacturer in GT racing. They should be racing a GT car. You don't see Audi racing an S4 or Mercedes a C Class.

All I'm saying is that Ferrari road tech and race tech are very closely related. The same is true for Porsche. Pratt and Miller played a role in developing the C6 ZR1 and applied a lot of what was learned from the GT1 C6R to the street car so that it could then be applied to the GT2 car.

If BMW is actually getting something other than PR out of their ALMS program, then why isn't there a modern M3CSL that has all of the elements of the GT car in it like the 911 GT3 RS?

narboza22 wrote:
If BMW is actually getting something other than PR out of their ALMS program, then why isn't there a modern M3CSL that has all of the elements of the GT car in it like the 911 GT3 RS?

because the life cycle of the chassis and motor is coming to an end.

not to mention that there are umpteen different versions of the E92 for all the various markets...various standards to build the car too...

in short. it probably wasnt worth the cash.

dont forget about BMW's M3 Gt4 customer program.

Porsche doesn't seem to have that much trouble selling 14 billion different versions of the 911. The 997 is about to be fazed out too and there's a new 911 model like every other month.

The GT4 car is basically just an E92 with a roll cage isn't it? It's not a 500hp Super M3.

I don't know, it just bothers me that BMW are able to get away with racing a car that I don't think belongs in the series by artificially making it more competitive while Porsche are drowning in the background with the iconic 911.

Why do BMW do it?

Because they have the money and desire to do so. I bet if Toyota had the money, they'd make the FT-86 a GTE car.

Just because they can, doesn't mean they should. How would you feel if Honda entered a Civic Si?

If Honda were to build a Civic up to current GTE regs, then I don't see why they shouldn't be allowed.

Because its a Honda Civic and I don't believe we live in a world where a Civic belongs on the same track in a professional racing series as Ferraris, Porsches, and Corvettes. If Honda want to compete, they've got the NSX successor, the HSV-010 or whatever its called. Certain cars just don't belong in sportscar racing if you ask me.

The M5 and M6 are both used in touring car series so how would running those be any different then the M3? The only thing the M3 lacks is the horsepower.

Also, the new 7 series has either a 400hp 8 cylinder or a 540hp 12 cylinder so I don't think that would work either, I would think they have something planned though as the M3 won't last forever.

The M5 at least has a powerful enough engine to to be on par with the other cars and the M6 is much more of a super coupe along the lines of a Vantage than the M3 is.

I thought I read somewhere that the next M3 is going to be a turbo 6 cylinder, which is going to make the jump to their race engine even bigger.

I think its great that we are seeing more ''mass produced'' cars in GTE. GTE is far more relevant to road car tech that V8 Supercar or DTM or the WTCC, because there is a lot of technical freedom within the rules.

BMW will be taking advantage of this.

The M3 isn't road relevant though.

Neither is the Corvette, 458 Italia, or 997 GT3.

I honestly don't see why this is such an issue.

nickyf1 wrote:Neither is the Corvette, 458 Italia, or 997 GT3.

Yes, those 3 are road relevant. Pratt and Miller have a Youtube series called Road to Track or something and they explain a lot of the technology cross over between what they do and the road car. Ferrari is always incorporating their race tech into their road cars, that's basically their entire business model. And Porsche certainly use the RSR as a basis for their road cars. Its pretty easy to track the evolution from the GT3 to the GT3RS to the GT3 Cup to the GT3RSR, and the last GT3 RS based on the 997 has essentially the same engine as the RSR.

This wouldn't matter to be if BMW were as slow as Jaguar, but they are the fastest GTE car in the ALMS, and I don't think that's fair to the other teams that BMW are allowed much bigger performance breaks in order to make a car that I don't think fits in the series competitive.

They have other cars that fit the ALMS better, the M6 or even the Z4, and if they were leading the field in one of those, then by all means, good for them. But that's not what they are doing.

I want one!!!!!!!