Wherever you look in GT racing now, weather it be VLN, Tudor United Sportscar Championship or British GT, it is hard to find a GT championship that BMW is not involved with. The German marques attack has been spearheaded by there Z4 model for countless years, however the car which has celebrated success worldwide is to be replaced.
The squad from Munich confirmed that they will be making there new GT3 challenger an M6. The V8 powers cars, which will be powered by a 4.4 litre twin-turbo engine will be replacing the familiar Z4 GT3 in 2016. The car is set to begin testing in the first half of the year and will be available to purchase by teams towards the end of this year.
If you read any experts view, no one is counting BMW out of a challenge in the 2016 WEC. 2016 is already a landmark year for BMW, with them celebrating their centenary in March. A return to Le Mans would defiantly be a good way to celebrate. For next season, there will be adjustments to the GT regulations in the WEC, which could deal BMW the cards they need to be able to enter the championship in 2016.
Whether the Le Mans winner will actually begin 1999 in the next year in the Endurance World Championship remains to be seen. Until now, only the current development of the successor to the Z4 GT3 has been confirmed.
Whether or not the Le Mans winning manufacture of 1999 will be a part of the WEC next year remains to be seen. Until any more information surfaces, all we know for sure is that the M6 GT3 is in the pipeline to replace the Z4 GT3 for 2016.
Picture – Walter Schruff