A special collaboration between BMW and EA to mark the 30th anniversary of the Need for Speed series has seen the marque produce and exhibit a one-off BMW M3 GTR.
The E46-generation M3 GTR is one of the rarest models in BMW’s history. Its genesis was, as with so many low-volume cars, the race track, with BMW seeking success in GT racing on both sides of the Atlantic.
While the already excellent M3 was most of the way there, BMW needed more power for the various endurance racing series, and developed the P60B40 V8 specifically for the application. This 444hp V8 unit was the first and only V8 fitted to the E46 M3.
Homologation rules of the time required that any car running in the series must be available as a road model on two continents, so BMW set about making the M3 GTR Strassenversion — a street-legal version of the car. Only produced in a run of ten cars, it combined a slightly detuned version of the engine with a six-speed manual instead of the sequential.
In addition to success on the race track in ALMS — after which the regulations were changed to require minimum production numbers — the M3 GTR found fame among gamers in Need for Speed: Most Wanted.
The GTR was central to the story, beginning as the player’s car before being taken in a nefarious manner by bad-guy NPC Clarence “Razor” Callahan — often leading to it being referred to as “Razor’s M3 GTR”. If you’ve not previously played the 2005 title then spoiler alert: you get it back at the end.
It’s become one of the most-loved cars across the whole 30-year history of the franchise, and appears in other media — and the livery is replicated countless modified E46 320i models on public roads around the world.
BMW itself has now embraced this connection by taking a genuine M3 GTR race car — which appears to be the ALMS-winning 2001 car of Jyrki Juhani Jarvilehto and Jorg Muller — and giving it the Need for Speed treatment, featuring a blue-on-chrome wrap to match the player car.
You’ll be able to see this M3 GTR up-close if you visit BMW’s special exhibition space, BMW Welt, in Munich over the next few months. It’ll be on display from Wednesday November 27 through to Monday January 6 2025 — when BMW Welt shuts for a month for renovations. We’re not sure if BMW or EA have any further promotional plans for the car after that.
The unveiling of the vehicle coincides with the release of Need for Speed Unbound’s Vol.9 update, which brings the car itself back to the series. It also features a very first playable motorbike in the history of the series which is, you guessed it, also a BMW.
See more articles on BMW and Need For Speed Game Updates.
