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What started as an April 1 joke will see a BMW M3 Touring take to the track in this year’s 24 Hours of Nurburgring endurance race.
A bewinged BMW M3 Touring super wagon that began life as an April Fools' Day joke will join the grid of the 2026 Nürburgring 24 Hours endurance race in May.
An overwhelming reaction from fans to images of an M3 Touring imagined as a GT3-inspired race car, posted to BMW's social media pages on April 1, 2025, has prompted the creation of a real-life version.
The concept was brought to life in just eight months, combining the body of the M3 Touring with the same underpinnings and race-bred components of the current BMW M4 GT3 Evo race car.
BMW says it has been "considering" a competition-ready version of the M3 Touring since "the market launch of the ... road car," but it claims it took the reaction to the April Fools' Day post to make it a reality.
Compared to the M4 GT3 Evo, the M3 Touring 24H is 200mm longer and 32mm taller, the tall rear wing included.
Under the bonnet sits a race-prepared 'P58' version of the twin-turbo 3.0-litre inline six-cylinder 'S58' engine in the road-going M3 Touring, producing up to 434kW and 700Nm, and paired with an X-Trac six-speed sequential transmission.
The wagon shares its underbody and much of its front end with the M4 race car, but most of the vehicle behind the front wheel arches is new, including the swan-neck mounting for the rear wing.
The project’s slogan appears in large lettering along the sides of the race car – "You dreamed it. We built it" – while the grille is illuminated akin to many new BMW road cars.
The camouflage livery BMW uses to disguise its future production models on public roads is used on the rear section of the car.
Schubert Motorsport will race the M3 Touring 24H in the SPX class of the Nurburgring 24 Hours in May, so it will not compete in the same SP9 category as the three M4 GT3 Evos.
Before its round-the-clock race – where it will share the grid with four-time F1 world champion Max Verstappen in a Mercedes-AMG – the wagon will make its racing debut next weekend at the second round of the Nürburgring Langstrecken Series, or NLS.
Emma has been on our television screens for over a decade. Most of her time in the industry has been spent at racetracks reporting at major motorsport events in Australia - from TCR and Superbikes to Porsche Sprint Challenge and Supercars. Emma has also hosted various MotoGP and F1 events interviewing the likes of Daniel Ricciardo and Jack Miller. Having previously presented on an automotive show, she made her move to the Drive family in 2020. Fiercely proud of her Italian heritage, Emma is a coffee loving, stylish-black wearing resident of Melbourne.
