There’s something immensely enjoyable about seeing a performance car evolve from street to full race trim, particularly when the stages of evolution are so clearly defined.
If you’re thinking that this car looks familiar, it just might do. The Art of Attack G82 BMW M4 Competition made a brief appearance in our overall SEMA coverage last year as a lightly modified street car which had been built to become the fastest time attack G80/82 in North America. That’s a feat it achieved earlier this year in Street class trim at Global Time Attack (GTA) as a pretty much full weight, relatively stock-powered S58 vehicle.
While the aesthetics of the new G-series BMWs continue to be up for debate (for no-one that asked, I’m all about it), their out-of-the-box performance has been pretty much universally praised, despite the cars tipping the scales at around 1,700kgs (approximately 3,750lbs). Even at that full weight, this particular car set a G-series course record on Buttonwillow’s 13CW layout of 1:49.7 with just simple aero, suspension and tyre upgrades.
With that record and early successes now in the past, Art of Attack have moved onto the next stage of the M4’s life in GTA’s Limited class.
Naturally, the first area of significant performance to be unlocked was the vehicle’s weight, the majority of which has now been gutted from the interior. At this point, the only BMW parts that remain inside the car are the dashboard, pedals and OE gear selector and surround.
The next part of this round of upgrades was the fabrication and installation of a full custom 8-point roll cage by Riley Stair of RS Motorsport. This is constructed in high-strength Docol steel. Once completed, a Recaro Pro Racer RMS 2600 seat, SCHROTH Racing harness belt and KMP Drivetrain Solutions 3-spoke quick release wheel, controls and shift paddles were added.
With the weight reduction and driver safety aspects ticked off, focus moved to adding more urgency to the M4’s powertrain. Pure Turbo Stage 2+ turbochargers with Injector Dynamics 1050x injectors, a Radium surge tank, Visconti port injection kit and an Eventuri air intake have all been added to the mix. Finally, RSR downpipes and a custom exhaust should see a power figure of around 700hp when it’s tuned via EcuTek engine management using E85 fuel.
Inevitably, cooling is a huge part of maintaining reliability and is no different in this case. With the help of the car’s main sponsor, CSF, a full 4-piece cooling package has been installed. This includes CSF’s high performance front-mount heat exchanger and their new halo product for the M3/M4 G8X platform, the “Level-Up” Charge-Air-Cooler Manifold, developed in conjunction with PWR and RSR Studio.
This billet intake manifold was designed to not only match the factory item’s performance, but take it to a new level with its ultra high performance features and durability. The liquid-to-air core has been pressure tested to 120psi (the OE unit has been known to fail at pressures as low as 27psi) and the manifold also features a top-feed port injection system.
Beneath the car you’ll find KW Variant 4 coilovers with a full SPL suspension arm kit. The 19×11-inch Titan TS5 wheels have been retained from last year, and are wrapped in Goodyear Eagle F1 SuperCar 3R tyres, 305-section at the front and 325 at the rear. The factory brakes have been deemed sufficient for the time being, but will no doubt be appreciative of now having less weight to pull up.
As an homage to Jenny Holzer’s 1999 BMW V12 LMR Art Car, the M4 carries messages of ‘Protect Me From What I Want’ and ‘Lack of Charisma Can Be Fatal’ on the exterior and the roll cage’s main hoop.
The RS Future aero kit from last year has been evolved and now features a prototype swan-neck carbon fibre wing and carbon fibre rear diffuser in addition to the carbon front and side splitters. The rear trunk is a custom carbon item with the inner lights deleted, but their shape retained. The bonnet is an Alpha N product modified with RS Future carbon vents.
That’s a distinct and clear list of upgrades and modifications for the BMW, which will unlock more potential as it sets forth into its new GTA Limited class competition. There’s not much time to waste either, as once the car is rolled out of the Las Vegas Convention Center it’s heading straight for tuning before attending the Global Time Attack Finals at Buttonwillow on November 12th and 13th.
These clearly defined stages of evolution will make for a fascinating retrospective in the future, as each round of upgrades will demonstrate the performance benefits achieved. From street to Limited and maybe Unlimited in the future? Consider me subscribed to the Art of Attack M4’s story.
Paddy McGrath
Instagram: pmcgphotos
Vero: pmcgphotos
paddy@speedhunters.com
Photography by Mark Riccioni
Instagram: mark_scenemedia
Twitter: markriccioni
mark@scene-media.com
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Love the seats, have them in my daily. The rest is yawn. Invisible even at SEMA 2010.
So what's next? A wrapped Tesla Nurbergring edition with a carbon bodykit?
Great shots tho! Scrolled fast due to content but the site is a beautiful scene, magic hour?
Something weird with the G8x platform, imo at least, when in street trim it's obvious BMW messed up things but in race trim it's menacing, agressive, feels like it's coming to eat you.
I've always thought the same. Base looks awkward, M looks pretty decent, race looks proper. The proportions of the grill just look weird in base trim.
Great photos!
Good time for a car that heavy!
I love how they kept the original interior somewhat in the bmw. Especially with the gear shifter.
At 3750 lbs it is simply too heavy. Drifting requires sudden and abrupt change of direction and the centrifugal force trying to throw the car is crucial in maintaining composure. Needs a significant weight reduction.
Agreed, too heavy to be taken seriously.
You don't like reading all the words huh?
And you Nate don't understand physics. lmao. This industry has become so stupid. Weight matters dummy. Same way a heavier fighter hits harder than a lighter fighter a lighter vehicle changes direction faster than a heavy one.
God damn people are getting more dumber every year.
And yes that was an intentional grammatical error to highlight the point.
Jfc...
Clearly your genius is absolute.
@prodriving_dynamics
Oh I do, I also understand motorsports and not every vehicle is created equal. I also understand that this isn’t a drift car, it’s a time attack car. I also understand that it’s a work in progress that will continue to improve in many aspects including weight reduction. I understand these things because I actually read the articles. What I don’t understand is why you continue to frequent this site and continually change your user name when you get humiliated over and over?
That tail light delete is something I didn't know I wanted.
Man that M4 looks so aggressive and mean and even meaner as a Time Attack car
Say what you will but those grilles look awesome and suits this car well
Great photos of an interesting car.
Any idea what it weighs after all the mods?
Any actual performance specs? 0-60 mph? skidpad G's? Etc?
Besides Time Attack, I'd like to see how it compares with Optima's "Ultimate Street Car" competition.
I think we'll get a better idea of its performance after GTA this weekend, but there hasn't been any performance data supplied yet (it still had to be tuned after SEMA)
Awesome build! And super awesome setting! This is what I call peak Speedhunters content
Now I wonder, what if that use Adro kit in front only.