Thanks to a tip from Matt who is one of our readers, we found a few pics of the Rahal Letterman BMW M3 ALMS test session at Road Atlanta last week. This marked the North American debut of the BMW which will be making its competition debut in the GT2 class at the upcoming Sebring race. The car has been seen at a lot of auto shows this year, and its nice to finally see it out on the track. Just look at it! Is this car not one of the toughest looking ALMS cars out there?
Road Atlanta, fall scenery, and a badass M3. Sounds like the perfect combo to me.
The Ray's wheels make this car look like it could be a Super Taikyu competitor or even a GT300 car from the Super GT series. To me, the overall look of the car has a very "Japan-esque" feel to it.
It will be interesting to see how the new M3 does against its ALMS competition. The main thing I want to know is how this car sounds. The tuned E92's I've seen in Japan are some of the best sounding cars I have ever heard and I can't even imagine what the car sounds like in ALMS-spec.
Photos from the ALMS Official Site
-Mike Garrett
OFFICIAL SPEEDHUNTERS SUPPLIERS
Ohh My good.... When will see something like this in DTM ?
the vents behind each wheel are definitely interesting!
Do want.
Stunning....
Wow a whole lot of revisions have been made to the aeros on the body. Those NACA ducts on sides were never there at this car's unveiling at the Chicago show, and neither was the side-ported hood. Overall good changes I am sure they help a lot, but some part of me wanted them to keep the wheels they first used, as well as the canards up front which were originally painted white to match I thought that gave a uniquely clean look as most people tend to leave canards in their CF form to show how business-e they are haha.
Can't wait to see it in SLC. next year. Hope its nice and ready. It's been a while since BMW took a hiatus like this.
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
I love it.
The BMW M3 ALMS, GT2 version, flexed its muscles this past weekend at the Georgia track in Atlanta. The
the car which was unvieled at the Chicargo show was just a concept mock up. I expect the test car will also have more revisions before Sebring. Also, this is not the final livery/paint.
The car was also caught testing in partial camouflagea few weeks ago, I've not had chance to check the similarities, but any differences on the camo car mayb be more representative
It is very strange that the Rahal Letterman car is running on Ray's Wheels and Dunlops. Michelin are known to have an edge and one team boss recently said to me that the Dunlops arent being developed much.
.
Makes me and a few others wonder hoe much input BMW have on running this car, much in the same way that Penske ran the Porsche RS Spyders ( i.e: they were semi-works).
.
Now....if you think this ALMS car is interesting,,,wait till you see the forthcoming 2009 Acura LMP1 race car.....
This BMW "M3" has been a seen many times for the past few months of Jon's blog:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpo8RDyOEWY&feature=related
Great car !
good video of the car in action, earlier this year at BMW TV, complete with engine sounds.
.
http://www.bmw-web.tv/en/search/term?term=alms
.
note, no NACA ducts, so thats a recent development. That could be for brake, gearbox and/or even cockpit cooling (compareing other ALMS GT cars)
umm, alex, thats kinks to Patrese in a Civic (great video though)
My bad....:(
Wrong site.....lol
Here more info's on the car:
http://www.motorworldhype.com/2008-10-23/collab-rays-engineering-x-rahal-letterman-racing-alms-bmw/#more-1345
Filed under: Motorsports , BMW Click above for a gallery of the BMW M3 Racing Version Motorsports fans
Nice post Mike!. Thanks for using the tip.
Can't wait to see it running in anger against the RSR, 430, V8 vantage, and all the rest.
Great looking car, it would be great to see this car race in the GT300 class of the SuperGT. I can see BMW going back to the Nordschleife and the 24hr race with this car. That would be great!
Richo - I'm sure BMW or a privateer team will consider this at Nurburgring at some point (with mods), but your more likely to see the Duller BMW M3 E92 race car there
New video of the car testing at Sebring - Wow, that sounds awesome, like a Champ car
.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-f-AixS-N8
THIS CAR IS RAW..IMADE IT ON NEED FOR SPEED UNDERCOVER
Nothing to be exided here, Rahal made joke out of the German made original GTR , take a look at the presentation pictures in the begining of this year and compare ,this is different car ,exhaust,rear wing, rear bumper , front bumper,and the roll cage is different.