BMW M Motorsport pulled off a superb double bluff this past April’s Fools Day by revealing that its ‘fake’ M3 Touring GT3 Evo, a station wagon alternative to BMW’s M4 GT3 EVO race car, had actually been built.
Overseen by freelance creative director Simon von Broich, the BMW M3 Touring GT3 Evo project was one of two April Fool’s Day jokes by BMW, the other being a Dakar-spec version of its M2 sports coupe. But while the Dakar M2 was ‘just’ a heavily photoshopped render, Simon and his crew actually committed to the M3 Touring project, going as far as to fabricate body panels for – let’s not forget now – an April Fool’s Day joke.
“No Such Body Panels Exist.” So They Made Them
Looking to replicate the silhouette and profile of the ‘Evo’ evolution of BMW’s M4 GT3 race car, which made its competitive debut this year and won overall first time out at the 24 Hours of Dubai, Simon and his team went so far as to sculpt, and later fabricate, bespoke body panels for their project: “no such body panels exist,” after all. These bespoke panels included much wider front and rear fenders, longer side skirts, the bespoke rear bumper, and even an inlet for a refueling hose (whether or not this is actually connected to the tank has not been confirmed). All sculpted, incidentally, to the “highest standard,” just in case you doubted just how seriously Simon and his team were taking this project.
Unsurprisingly, the project was allowed to borrow some components from an official M4 GT3 EVO, including the hood, the headlights, the front splitter, the diffuser, and, presumably, that enormous rear spoiler.
It’s highly unlikely of course that much – if any work – was done to the BMW’s drivetrain, and one can assume the 523-horsepower being pumped from the 3-liter twin-turbocharged six-cylinder to all four-wheels via a eight-speed M Steptronic Sport transmission remains unchanged. Interestingly though, work does appear to have done to the suspension and the ride height, Simon explaining that ‘the biggest challenge was adapting the production chassis of the M3 Touring to match the silhouette of the M4 GT3 Evo.” The rear track of the M4 GT3 EVO is noticeably wider than the M3 Touring for example (sorry M fans, it won’t be coming to North America any time soon), and the ‘Touring’ GT3 sits much lower to the ground than BMW’s production model. In a neat touch, performance-focused Pirelli P Zero racing slicks have also been fitted.
TopSpeed’s Take
BMW fans and indeed everyone in the TopSpeed.com office doth their respective ‘M’ caps to Simon von Broich and his team for a truly superb April Fool’s Day effort (many thought the BMW ‘Ute’ from 2011 wouldn’t be beaten). Of course, it’s a project that’s also reignited the time-honored ‘wouldn’t it be great if…’ conversation about race-spec, factory-entered station wagons once again taking the GT and/or touring cars stages. A conversation born largely from Volvo’s 850 Estate, still one of the most famous touring cars of all time, and which took the British Touring Car Championship scene by storm in the mid-1990s. Honda even gave it a go 20 years later when it contested the BTCC in 2014 with the Civic Tourer.
What many people tend to forget, unfortunately, is that both the 850 and the Civic estates were… well, crap. The Volvo for example took no wins, no podiums – even with a former 24 Hours of Le Mans winner (Jan Lammers) and one of touring car’s all-time greats (Rickard Rydell) behind the wheel – and only two top five finishes before quietly being dropped for an 850 sedan for 1995. A model that was far lighter, more aerodynamic, kinder to its tires, and, oh yes, almost won the championship. Honda, admittedly, did slightly better, taking four wins and 12 more podiums, but even that was usurped by the Civic Type-R the following year.
“People tend to forget that the Volvo 850 Estate touring car was… well, crap.”
Long rambling story short then, it will be a long time before a station wagon ‘officially’ returns to GT and/or touring car racing, despite the marketing goldmine it would open. And given that the Bavarian brand already has its hands full with the M4 GT3 EVO, the M4 GT4 little sister, and a works M Hybrid V8 prototype program in North America ([cough], BMW Art Car, [cough]), it won’t come from BMW.
Of course, should Simon and his team fancy angling their CAD modelling prowess towards the M2 Dakar any time soon, it’s worth noting that BMW has yet to win Rally Dakar, first held in 1979, on four wheels…
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