BMW confirms Z4 GTE for American Le Mans Series

[Maelochs]

Again, BMW the corporation cannot afford to just bolt in bigger motors and dump the car on the market. Anything BMW sells has to be a BMW—it has to be as good as any other BMW.

That means the whole powertrain has to pass 100s of thousands of test miles, the chassis has to be stiff enough to handle the greater power, torque, and speed, and all the creature comforts have to be fully functional. Plus, the finished car can’t be a nose-heavy mess—it’s got to perform to the BMW standard.

On top of that, the car has to pass all emissions and safety standards.

I don’t know how much all that would cost, but apparently BMW doesn’t think it would be worthwhile—else they’d have done it already. Possibly they aren’t sure those 500 cars would sell, or at least not at a price which would cover the costs.

I can’t say for sure and I am not pretending to be an expert, but the simple fact is, BMW is Not doing that.

I can say for sure that in my opinion everyone is grossly underestimating what it would cost to produce road-going V8 Z4s. Most people seem to think it is just a matter of new motor mounts, but I don’t think BMW’s corporate office thinks about the whole corporation, its history and its future and its reputation (and their compensation packages) the same we way we as race fans, do.