BMW M4 GT4 confirmed

Heavily based on the M4 GTS – Australia’s 25-unit allocation of which is sold out at $295,000 plus on-roads – the M4 GT4 will cash in on what BMW calls “a boom” in affordable motorsport activities worldwide.

Munich has released only a teaser sketch of its big-winged two-door coupe racer painted in classic M livery, as it completes testing throughout 2016 ahead of a 2018 season debut.

In a mechanical mish-mash, the 300kW-plus 3.0-litre twin-turbo six-cylinder engine and electronics were pinched from the M4, the carbon bonnet from the M4 GTS and the seats, brakes and pedal box from the M6 GT3, with carbonfibre doors, a special front splitter and that wing all its own.

BMW tags the M4 GT4 as a “close-to-production” vehicle that “continues the long and successful tradition of BMW in customer racing” as a successor to the M3 GT4, and no doubt Porsche’s racing version of the Cayman GT4 is the target.

“The GT4 category is currently experiencing a boom,” added BMW Motorsport Director Jens Marquardt.

“It offers affordable motorsport with cars of technical high-quality and … we see enormous potential around the world for privateer BMW teams for whom the BMW M4 GT4 is an option.

“Developing a classic customer racing car such as this and offering it to privateer teams has always been one of BMW Motorsport's core competencies.”

At this stage BMW predicts the M4 GT4 will make its racing debut at the 24 Hours of Dubai in January 2018.