Victim of complaints - 2001 BMW E46 M3 GTR GT2.

Back to 2001, BMW wanted to compete in the GT2 class, and to do this, they decided to enter the new M3 (E46). Of course, the road going version wasn’t going to be competitive enough, and they had to fabricate a homologation special series of M3s to be allowed to enter the American Le Mans Series, and so they begun the modifications to transform it into a GT2 racer.
To begin things, the tried and tested inline 6 had already reached a horsepower plateau, and extracting more power out of it would end up in either not having a reliable engine, or extracting very few hp out of it. Solutions were achieved by swapping the inline 6 by a newly developed 90° naturally aspirated V8, codenamed P60B40, made entirely from scratch for the new GT2 racecar (and its road-going brother), located longitudinally up front, displacing a total of 4 litres, or 3997cc, if you want to be exact. The new engine produced 444bhp @ 7500rpm and 354lbft of torque @ 5500rpm. The engine featured DOHCs with 32 valves total (equating to 4 valves per cylinder, basic math, I know), a flat plane crankshaft and a dry sump oil system. The “small” engine size allowed for an intercooler to be fitted in front of the engine, a modification that allowed air to be diverted upwards and out through the hood vents instead of flowing through the aluminum block.

All of the 444bhp were sent to the rear wheels via a 6 speed Hewland manual gearbox, paired with a triple disc carbon fiber racing clutch. This power ended up in the asphalt through some rather big 290 section tires all around.
The chassis was a steel monocoque and a rollcage, covered up by carbon fiber body panels. While suspension was in charge of MacPherson struts with coil springs, telescopic shock absorbers and an anti-roll bar up front, whilst central linked coil springs, telescopic hock absorbers and a racing ARB completed the setup at the back. All of this had to be somehow stopped, and Brembo 6 piston calipers and 381mm discs were installed in the front, with considerably smaller Brembo 312mm discs together with 4 piston calipers bringing the car to a halt. The final specs of the racing E46 were a 0-60 time of 3.3 seconds with a top speed of 165mph (265kmh), and, if you were in need of knowing how quickly the quarter mile was dispatched, it was done in 11.3 sec @ 125mph. The price of the car was rounding the 470.000 USD mark, if you were planning on buying one, there you go.

The E46’s racing history begun in the 2000 24 Hours of Daytona, with chassis 00-001 finishing in 9th place overall, with Bill Auberlen (USA), Chris Gleason (USA), Rick Fairbanks (USA) and Chris Miller (USA) maneuvering the 440bhp M3 through the day and night. The rest of the season was a standard season, and they managed to secure a win at the American Le Mans Series at Laguna Seca, taking 1st place for GT and a good 14th place in the overall final qualifying. Apart from this race, the car was trumped by another german competitor during the rest of the season, the Porsche 911.
For the next season, though, things flipped over in BMW’s favor, dominating the season. Winning six races out of the eight, taking both the manufacturers’ championship and the drivers’ title for German (Actually born in the Netherlands, but with a German license and ID, for easier sponsoring purposes) driver Jörg Müller.
After a debut season, and a complete decimation in just the second season of racing for the M3, for the third season, Porsche said that BMW’s ‘new’ races was stretching the rules a bit too far. Ecclestone being the money chaser he is, went for more competition, and determined that “BMW would have to suffer a 220lb weight ballast, or build 1000 road-going (Strassenversion) M3 GTRs”. Both alternatives were useless for BMW, because they were unable to produce the required amount of cars, and because the 1,7 inch restrictor plate was bad enough already (BMW made “440bhp”, 25bhp more than Porsche’s “415bhp” power output), a 2,04 inch restrictor would only further make things worse. This was, because BMW’s displacement was a 4 liter engine with a 1,7in restrictor plate that was also fitted to a 3.6 liter engine found in the Porsches.
The effect this had was that it allowed a smaller, higher revving engine to had a worse performance instead of a bigger, more torquey engine (Porsche being the small, high revving unit and BMW being the big, more torquey one at low RPMs). And the torque difference was no joke whatsoever, with the BMW making 73lbft more than that of the Porsche (BMWs made 354lbft, whilst Porsche’s cars made 281lbft, quite a difference).
Since none of those options were deemed viable by BMW, they decided to pull out of the ALMS, because it’d be senseless to have an underperforming car that won’t win, or to spend more money making road legal versions, instead of going with the normal engine, thing that could’ve kept on if Porsche hadn’t complained.

Luckily, the M3 GTR GT2 soldiered on, and although they pulled out of the ALMS, privateer teams bought the racing chassis adn begun racing them throughout the world, being sent to the Nürburgring 24 Hours throughout the 2003 and 2005 races. Scoring a back-to-back win in 2004 and 2005, it’s safe to say that the change of the old straight six for a V8 and the decision to no longer compete in North America’s racing championships was the proof that although it was a car that had not been updated since 2001, four years later it was still proven competitive.

The E46 M3 GTR (non Strassenversion) was a car not ahead of it’s time, because it had no technological advancements, but one of the last cars being able to race thanks to the homologation specials made for the road. It seemed like a great competitor (And, while it raced, it was) that had to be pulled out over some complaints about a rival company being beaten in their own game.

Until then, Sir GT-R, out

#blogpost