BMW rumour for Le Mans 2017

[bobec]

But all jokes aside, does anyone know why they chose to compete with the M8, and why for just one season (though a superseason with 2 LMs)

[chernaudi]

You're probably going to have to ask BMW Motorsport corporate. However, BOP has been more generous to the M8s in GTLM than the ACO were with the WEC's BOP.

[carbsmith]

Originally Posted by bobec

But all jokes aside, does anyone know why they chose to compete with the M8, and why for just one season (though a superseason with 2 LMs)

They wanted a car with a very large floor area for downforce and were intending to get a waiver to chop the car down and reduce its height but eventually the other manufacturers rejected it.

Pretty much all the 4 seat based GT cars end up with close to the same (maximum) width and height mind you. Obviously the 911 has a much narrower cabin than the saloon style 4 seaters though, but even the 991 looks massive beside the Ford GT. Heck even the Ferrari and Corvette look big beside the Ford, because the Ford isn't a GT car.

It actually turns out the outgoing M6 is slightly longer overall than the M8 though, but with a shorter wheelbase. So ignoring wings and mirrors in terms of overall dimensions the M8 GTE is on paper smaller than the M6 GTLM


Doesn't really look it though, does it?

It seems like even though the street M6 and M8 are also very close to the same width, the actual cabin/unibody width of the 8 series is bigger than the old 6 series, which even as a road car has wider fender flares. So the M8 GTE has a tiny bit more frontal area than the M6 GTLM did. But the effect is exaggerated even more because of the M8's weird styling with a very wide "face" where the headlights extend nearly to the edge of the fenders. So with extended race fender flares on both cars that hide the width of the middle of the car in a front on view where the a-pillars and headlights are your only point of reference the M8 appears to be a much wider base car than everything else.

[chernaudi]

Not to mention that the Ford GT was inspired by the old Ford GT40, and was designed to be as small in terms of frontal area as possible, though as wide as possible for grip and handling (the GTE/GTLM Ford GT is nearly 2050mm wide, and the road car is over 2000mm wide).

For comparison, the Porsche 911 road car (at least the 992) is 1850mm wide, while the 991 Mk2 and presumably the 992 GT3 RSRs are/will be close to 2050mm wide, which is why it has almost Group 5-like wheel arch flares and such.

Also for comparison's sake, the road car M8 is about 1910mm wide, while the 850 Grand Coupe (a very big fastback sedan) has not only a near 10 foot wheelbase, but is also 1930mm wide.

[TF110]

Originally Posted by crmalcolm

I'm not sure where you got that information, but Ford GT and 911 the same height?



The GT is as low as a prototype, if not lower. The BMW is big, but the height isn't unparalleled on the grid. Also the max width for GTE is usually always taken up by the manufacturers. The width allowed iirc is 2050mm. So "88 inches" wide for the BMW is wrong.

[crmalcolm]

Originally Posted by TF110

I'm not sure where you got that information, but Ford GT and 911 the same height?

The GT is as low as a prototype, if not lower. The BMW is big, but the height isn't unparalleled on the grid. Also the max width for GTE is usually always taken up by the manufacturers. The width allowed iirc is 2050mm. So "88 inches" wide for the BMW is wrong.

wrt to the M8 GTE width, the 88 inches is listed at Wikipedia, referenced to BMW-Motorsport. As it was discussed previously, the BMW width appears to be quoted with mirrors, whereas the maximum width of the series is 2050mm without mirrors as you quite rightly state.
I am unsure whether the other widths are quoted with/without mirrors - but the main point of the list was to demonstrate how the M8GTE is not, as was suggested, smaller than the GT-R Nismo GT3.

Porsche height from Wikipedia, although no reference is given.
Ford height also from Wikipedia, again no reference given.

Although I wouldn't take an image taken at an angle of cars at speed to give a true indication of height:

[chernaudi]

SC365 hints that the next BMW GT3 car (to replace the outgoing M6, as the 6 series will now be four door fastbacks from here on out) will possibly be M4 based. So it seems that the M8 in GT racing is pretty much dead.

[TF110]

Originally Posted by crmalcolm

wrt to the M8 GTE width, the 88 inches is listed at Wikipedia, referenced to BMW-Motorsport. As it was discussed previously, the BMW width appears to be quoted with mirrors, whereas the maximum width of the series is 2050mm without mirrors as you quite rightly state.
I am unsure whether the other widths are quoted with/without mirrors - but the main point of the list was to demonstrate how the M8GTE is not, as was suggested, smaller than the GT-R Nismo GT3.

Porsche height from Wikipedia, although no reference is given.
Ford height also from Wikipedia, again no reference given.

Although I wouldn't take an image taken at an angle of cars at speed to give a true indication of height:

I was mostly talking about the height of the vehicle compared to the others. Not the width or length because the GTE regs allow them to be 2050mm. GT3 is a different type of ruleset but my comparison is that big sedan type GT's are not unusual.

There's plenty of pictures that show the cars side by side and the Fords are clearly the lowest on the grid. But the BMW is about the same height as the Porsche which surprised me.

[hondafan37]

Originally Posted by carbsmith

They wanted a car with a very large floor area for downforce and were intending to get a waiver to chop the car down and reduce its height but eventually the other manufacturers rejected it.

Maybe instead of trying to get a waiver to chop the car down and reduce its height, they could have manufactured the 100 street units needed with the reduced height to homologate the model and it would have been legal.

This video of Michelin in Sebring 2017 shows the street and of race cars of all marks and can give an idea of ​​the sizes of the cars.
In that moment the BMW was the M6.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLrk...ature=youtu.be

[GriffM3]

BMW just unveiled the BMW Vision M Next concept sportscar yesterday with front and rear electric power and a 4 cylinder engine...wonder if we will see a version of this racing in IMSA and WEC in the future?