BMW quits sports cars???

[Big Daddy]

What, who's making these decisions?

"BMW will pull out of U.S. sports car racing after an almost unbroken run of participation dating back to 1995.

BMW North America says it will end its 12-year relationship with Tom Milner’s Prototype Technology Group team at the close of the American Le Mans Series season. It is the end of a successful partnership that has yielded 54 wins from 114 race starts from 1995 to 2001 and from 2003 to 2006 in almost every U.S. sports car series.

A BMW North America spokesman says the company canned PTG’s long-running program because it no longer has any relevance to BMW’s product range. PTG races an E46-shape BMW M3, a car that is disappearing from dealerships. A new M3 likely won’t appear in the United States until 2008, and BMW does not want to race a car it does not sell.

BMW has not ruled out returning to sports cars in 2008, and Milner says PTG will continue next season, perhaps running its GT-2 class M3s in the ALMS on a privateer basis."

Story Autoweek

 

[Kirby]

WTF??? What's wrong with running an E46 M3 for a couple of years until the E90 M3 is ready? This is an incredibly stupid decision - it should be about racing and commitment to the sport, not some marketing drone's whim.

[slap]

 

[bmw046series]

Probably because they don't want to put any money into the technology, when is the M3 Coupe suppose to be into consumers hands? Why don't they run an M6!!!!! It would thrash the competition!!!!

 

[brahtw8]

Probably because they don't want to put any money into the technology, when is the M3 Coupe suppose to be into consumers hands? Why don't they run an M6!!!!! It would thrash the competition!!!!

The M6 would have to be heavily modified to be competitive and would likely run in a higher class than the E46 M3 did. The M coupe is what they would like to be racing, but the factory race version doesn't meet the ALMS or Grand Am rules AFAIK.

The E90 M3 release is expected in 2007. The earliest I have heard is in the Spring, but I don't think a specific date or even season has been announced.

 

[bmw046series]

The M6 would have to be heavily modified to be competitive and would likely run in a higher class than the E46 M3 did. The M coupe is what they would like to be racing, but the factory race version doesn't meet the ALMS or Grand Am rules AFAIK.

The E90 M3 release is expected in 2007. The earliest I have heard is in the Spring, but I don't think a specific date or even season has been announced.

Who cares, they would be right up against Aston Martin, Vettes and Ferraris, puts them into a higher class, I see that as growth.

 

[bmwracer]

It appears someone at BMW got it all wrong. Many of you will recall the introduction of a competition version of the M Coupe, announced at Geneva last spring. IIRC, for 250,000 euros it was to be made available to private entrants. One small problem, it apparently doesn't fit ALMS, ACO (Le Mans), FIA GT, LMS, ADAC, or any other major sanctioning bodies' rules w/o significant modifications. What's up w/ that?

That said, PTG has done nothing this year despite lobbying for a special GT2S category in ALMS that, on paper, was tailored to favor the M3s they entered. Yet those things have been bog slow (and unreliable) at nearly every ALMS event this year, even w/ Auberlen and Hand at the controls.

Perhaps it's time to move the factory backing to Turner or James Clay.

Cheers