BMW was early out of the blocks with an announcement of a new generation, factory built GT4 customer sport offering, announcing in July that they would offer a new GT4 spec version of the BMW M4 for the 2018 season.
The early test cars have been testing in private with the factory (seen above at Jerez in November and below at Regensburg for the test car’s roll-out in September) now set to enter a number of test events in 2017, starting with the Dubai 24 Hours in January.
The new car has its entire drivetrain, including electronics, taken from the BMW M4 Coupé. The carbon bonnet comes from the BMW M4 GTS, with the M4 GT4 adding carbon-fibre doors, front splitter and rear wing, as well as a racing exhaust system.
The seats, the brakes and the pedal box use solutions carried over from the BMW M6 GT3.
The new car will slot into the BMW Customer range between the M6 GT3 and the highly successful M235i Racing which already features standalone races and racing classes in Belgium, China and Germany with 170 examples of the club racer already built.
BMW Motorsport Director Jens Marquardt: “Our international customers have celebrated many triumphs in the first year with the BMW M6 GT3. We hope this will continue in 2017. The comprehensive test programme with the BMW M4 GT4 will go on in parallel.
“We will also see the car in action in a couple of races. Our privateer teams will then compete with the newest model from our product range in 2018.
“I am particularly pleased that the BMW M235i Racing remains so popular. The widespread use of this race car and the positive feedback from our customers show that this model has been a hit since its introduction in 2014.”
