The dream is over! The "M3" became history on Sunday!
10/22/2013
"M3" A letter and a number that will be remembered forever in international motorsport. This combination has ensured success for 26 years. It began in 1987 with Roberto Ravaglia's world championship title in the first year of racing and ended last Sunday with a round victory at the DTM race in Hockenheim. As a result, BMW secured the 2013 DTM manufacturers' title.
The M3 was a car that always caused a sensation in all its evolutionary stages. But in the end, the E30, the four-cylinder first edition, remains the favorite of all its loyal fans.
Yes, it was 26 years ago that BMW launched the BMW M3, initially with 300 hp and 2.3 liters of displacement (later 355 hp and 2.5 liters of displacement), as the slim, pithy successor to the six-cylinder coupé, and was immediately successful. Ravaglia won the World Touring Car Championship title with it, and his second European Championship title the following year.
In 1989, the Italian won the German Touring Car Championship in the M3, followed by Italian titles in 1990 and 1991. Up to and including 1992, BMW M3 drivers achieved over 1500 individual victories and more than 50 international titles. Then things went quiet around the M3 for a while.
In the 2001 season, BMW switched from the prototype class to the GT class in the ALMS and competed with an ultimate driving machine, the new BMW M3 GTR. Under the direction of Charly Lamm, the beefy coupé won in all disciplines: BMW works driver Jörg Müller won the drivers' championship, BMW Motorsport won the team classification, and BMW became brand champion in the company's most important foreign market.
BMW presented the racing version of the new BMW M3 at the Chicago Auto Show in 2008. Powered by a 485 hp eight-cylinder engine, the impressive racing car was to compete in the American Le Mans Series (ALMS) from 2009.
The vehicle was based on the fourth generation of the BMW M3, the high-performance sports car from BMW M GmbH. And this M3 was then also used again in Europe.
At the 41st ADAC Barbarossa Prize, the eighth round of the VLN endurance championship, the new 485 hp BMW M3 GT2 was also on the grid for the first time. It was driven by WTCC works drivers Jörg Müller and Augusto Farfus. The two were able to record the first leading kilometers in the strong starting field.
Five years after the last overall success, the BMW M3 GT2 with starting number 25 claimed the 19th victory for BMW in the 24-hour race on the famous Nürburgring-Nordschleife in front of 220,000 spectators in 2010. The car was driven by Jörg Müller, Augusto Farfus, Uwe Alzen and Pedro Lamy.
And it continued successfully, in 2011, for example, BMW won the ALMS manufacturers' title with the M3, and in 2012 they won the 60th edition of the 12 Hours of Sebring.
The team then returned to the DTM in 2012 and became champion in its inaugural year. Bruno Spengler took four wins this season at the wheel of his BMW M3 DTM and was crowned the drivers' title. The brand title was also won.
BMW had won 51 victories with the M3 in the DTM alone, the last winner was Timo Glock, the first being Harald Grohs (DE) in Hockenheim (DE) on March 29, 1987. On the very first appearance of the new BMW M3, the German crossed the finish line as the winner, with eventual champion Eric van de Poele in second place for a double success. This was followed by a series of victories, achieved by drivers such as Steve Soper, Fabien Giroix, Johnny Cecotto, Joachim Winkelhock, Christian Danner and Roberto Ravaglia, who won the second drivers' title for the BMW M3 in 1989.
After BMW's DTM comeback in the 2012 season, BMW drivers Bruno Spengler, Timo Glock, Augusto Farfus and others have achieved ten more triumphs with the BMW M3 DTM to date.
A new era begins in 2014: BMW Motorsport is sending a new challenger to the starting line in the BMW M4 DTM.
Incidentally, we published a report on the BMW M3 racing car some time ago.
