BMW M Motorsport · G82 · 2022

M4 GT3Anatomy of a race car

A GT3 car is a production coupé argued with until it can run for twenty-four hours. Scroll to move around this one, and into it.

590hp
Power, pre-BoP
700Nm
Torque
5,020mm
Length
2,916mm
Wheelbase

01 · Front

Familiar, then not

The silhouette is a road-going M4 Coupé. Everything forward of the windscreen has been rebuilt around cooling and downforce: an adjustable splitter, radiator ducting, and bodywork in carbon fibre rather than steel.

02 · Flank

Five metres, two doors, one seat

Just over five metres long on a 2,916 mm wheelbase. The proportions are production; the 18-inch centre-lock wheels, the flared arches and the absence of anything resembling a back seat are not.

03 · Rear

Where the balance is set

The rear wing adjusts, as does the front splitter. Between them a team can trim the aerodynamic balance for a circuit — or comply with a Balance-of-Performance adjustment handed down before a race.

04 · Entry

Get in

The body comes away and you are sitting where the driver sits — a fixed seat, a welded cage, and a steering wheel that carries most of the car's controls.

Technical

The whole car

Figures as published by BMW M Motorsport. GT3 is a Balance-of-Performance category, so what any given car runs on a race weekend is restricted below these numbers and varies by series.

P58 M TwinPower Turbo

Power

A 3.0-litre twin-turbo inline-six derived from the road car's S58 — the clearest piece of technology transfer here. Racing changes the hardware where endurance demands it: dry-sump lubrication, dual throttle valves, a revised mounting angle.

Configuration
3.0 L twin-turbo inline-six
Power
up to 590 hp (434 kW)
Torque
up to 700 Nm (516 lb-ft)
Lubrication
Dry sump
Based on
Production S58

Quoted before Balance of Performance. Series organisers restrict every GT3 car to level the field.

Six-speed sequential

Drivetrain

Drive goes rearward through a straight-toothed sequential six-speed, an evolution of the gearbox BMW ran in the M8 GTE. Straight-cut gears trade refinement for strength and lower losses — the right trade in a car that never has to be pleasant on a motorway.

Gearbox
6-speed sequential
Gear type
Straight-toothed
Clutch
Electro-hydraulic, paddle
Layout
Front engine, rear drive

The clutch includes stall prevention — meaningful in a car handed between amateur and professional drivers mid-race.

Steel shell, carbon skin

Chassis

Not a carbon monocoque, despite the assumption. The bodyshell is steel, built at BMW's Regensburg plant alongside the road car, with an FIA-compliant safety cell welded into it. The carbon fibre is the bodywork hung on top.

Bodyshell
Steel, Regensburg plant
Safety cell
Welded, FIA-compliant
Panels
Carbon fibre (CFRP)
Windows
Makrolon® polycarbonate
Base
M4 Coupé (G82)

Adjustable, both ends

Aerodynamics

Both ends of the aerodynamic platform adjust, which is how a team answers a circuit — long straights want the wing wound off, a twisting lap wants it back on.

Front
Adjustable splitter
Rear
Adjustable wing
Bodywork
Carbon fibre (CFRP)

Designed around the pit stop

Brakes & wheels

The braking system's headline feature is not a disc diameter but serviceability: fast caliper and disc exchange systems, and quick couplings on the brake lines. In endurance racing, the time taken to replace a worn component is itself a performance figure.

Service
Fast caliper + disc exchange
Lines
Fast couplings
Wheels
18-inch
Width
12.5 in front · 13 in rear

BMW does not publish disc diameters or caliper piston counts for this car, so none are quoted.

Fixed seat, moving everything else

Cockpit

Because GT3 crews swap drivers mid-race, the seat is fixed and the car adapts around whoever is in it: both the pedal box and the steering column adjust. The wheel was developed with FANATEC and matches their simulator hardware, so a driver can learn the exact controls before touching the car.

Wheel
FANATEC, sim-compatible
Seat
Fixed
Adjustment
Pedals and column
Climate
2× the M6 GT3's airflow

FIA safety cell

Safety

The welded cage, the fuel cell and the fire suppression system are the three structures a GT3 car is really built around. The fuel cell is an ATL safety bladder rather than a rigid tank, made to survive a deformation that would split one open.

Cage
Welded, FIA-compliant
Fuel cell
ATL safety cell
Capacity
≈120 L (31.7 gal)
Fire
Built-in extinguishing