MOTORSPORT: BMW's V8 supercar not for Oz

BMW has said previously that it would only be interested in the Australian-based series under DTM-type regulations – that it would not entertain campaigning cars peculiar to an Australian championship.

The Car of the Future project headed by Mark Skaife is intended, along with reducing and containing the cost of building race cars, to entice other manufacturers to take on Holden and Ford.

However, while the engine rules are not yet finalised for new participants – and are now more than a year overdue – it is clear they won’t accommodate DTM cars.

BMW announced nine months ago that it would return next year to the DTM - in which it competed from 1984 until 1992, winning three titles and almost 50 races – as the series with the most relevance to the development of its road cars.

That decision came after its pullout from Formula One at the end of 2009, no longer competing in the top class of sports car racing, and preparing to scale out of the World Touring Car Championship.

It has called the DTM its “ideal stage” and, while V8 Supercars is trying to expand its series to include six international rounds (including a new event in Texas), the German manufacturer has been attracted by the DTM having European rounds outside its homeland as well plans to expand to the US and Japan.

Late last week BMW unveiled its M3 DTM concept car - a 4-litre, 480bhp V8 with air restrictor and sequential six-speed gearbox, housed in a carbon fibre-reinforced polymer monocoque with a steel roll cage under a silhouette coupe body.

The car was displayed over the weekend at Munich’s Olympic Stadium but BMW said that, while the DTM’s technical specifications were set, its look “will most likely change considerably up to its first race” against its German rivals Audi and Mercedes.

“Next year BMW returns to the DTM after two decades and we will be facing our main competitors in the premium sector,” said Dr Klaus Draeger, the BMW board member responsible for development.

“We are looking forward to this challenge. The DTM comeback sees BMW return to its roots.

“We have enjoyed great success in production car racing in the past, and I am convinced we will follow on in 2012 where we left off.”

Three teams will field BMWs in the DTM – the legendary Schnitzer, the Belgian RBM and the newcomer RMG, based near the Nurburgring circuit.

Schnitzer has won 16 championships for BMW, including the 1987 World Touring Car Championship, three European titles and others in Germany, England, Italy, Japan and South-East Asia.

RBM won the 2004 European Touring Car Championship with British driver Andy Priaulx as well as the 2005, ’06 and ’07 WTCCs.

Priaulx and Brazilian Augusto Farfus – who will race at the Gold Coast 600 in October with Team Vodafone and Garry Rogers Motorsport respectively – are the first two drivers named by BMW for its new DTM assault.

New BMW motorsport chief Jens Marquardt, who succeeded Mario Theissen on July 1, said the pair were “ideally suited” to the DTM and the company’s other drivers would be named in coming weeks.

Marquardt worked on Mercedes F1 engines and Indy powertrains at Mercedes-owned Ilmor Engineering and later in the management of Toyota’s now-defunct F1 team before joining BMW.

“Getting a new racing programme up and running is a bit like doing a jigsaw - new pieces are added almost every day, and we must put them together to create the big picture,” Marquardt said.

“The concept car is an important milestone … we are now starting our test program out on the track.

“Our preparations are going according to plan. Over the next few weeks we will build more cars, so that each of our three teams can start working on the car.”

BMW already has lined up top-shelf sponsors including international hotel brand Crowne Plaza Hotels and Resorts, part of the InterContinental Hotels Group, as well as Deutsche Post – which has called the DTM “the world’s most popular touring car series” and “the ideal communications platform” - and Castrol Edge.

“The DTM preparation obviously takes up a lot of time,” Marquardt said.

“Despite this, we are going all out to ensure that this year’s GT program remains successful. BMW Team RLL is in a good position in the fight for the GT title in the American Le Mans Series.

“In the Intercontinental Le Mans Cup, BMW Motorsport is also well placed to challenge for the team and manufacturers’ titles.”

BMW M3 DTM car technical specifications

Length: 4,775mm (without rear wing)
Width: 1,950mm
Height: approx. 1,200mm (depending on set-up)
Chassis/Bodywork: carbon fibre-reinforced polymer monocoque with steel roll cage structure
Transmission: Sequential 6-speed gearbox
Engine type: Eight-cylinder V engine
Capacity: 4,000cc
Maximum power output: approximately 480bhp (with air restrictor as per regulations)

Pictured, left to right: Augusto Farfus, Jens Marquardt, Andy Priaulx

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