BMW Makes Need for Speed’s Iconic M3 GTR to Celebrate Series’ 30th Anniversary

[Famine]

This is the discussion thread for an article on GTPlanet:

BMW Makes Need for Speed’s Iconic M3 GTR to Celebrate Series’ 30th Anniversary​

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...

 

[05XR8]

It'd also be interesting to know how many "game" cars carme to life. Such as the real Gr.3 Beetle.

 

[McLaren]

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.

I didn't know they built 10 of them. Over the years, I've only seen 2 examples that BMW retains ownership of.

 

[PJTierney]

This is awesome, now the replica makers have the perfect reference.

 

[brockie]

Beast!

 

[-Fred-]

The article's title is a bit misleading, and I'm going to be very pedantic about it, but...

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.

They didn't build the car to celebrate NFS' anniversary, they built the car 23 years ago to race in ALMS and other GT series around the world and annoy Porsche who ultimately got the thing banned. They just took it out of the museum and put a fresh wrap on it to make it look like the Most Wanted car.

 

[Famine]

The article's title is a bit misleading, and I'm going to be very pedantic about it, but...

They didn't build the car to celebrate NFS' anniversary, they built the car 23 years ago to race in ALMS and other GT series around the world and annoy Porsche who ultimately got the thing banned. They just took it out of the museum and put a fresh wrap on it to make it look like the Most Wanted car.

 

[Mafio]

Confession: I was never into that car. I always thought the graphics were corny.

 

[DK]

This is awesome, now the replica makers have the perfect reference.

BRB, I'm going to find a 2-series GT and give it this livery.

 

[Strittan]

For a second I was certain that the thumbnail picture was from a game. Says something about how far we've come I guess, lol!

 

[Sum1s2pid]

Iconic. 😑

 

[MisterWaffles]

Confession: I was never into that car. I always thought the graphics were corny.

Yeah, tbh this livery is imbued with all corny mid-2000s energy of Slim Shady, Linkin Park and Tribal Tattoos. I've always disliked it a bit too. Especially with how overused it is on online racing games.

 

[Mafio]

Yeah, tbh this livery is imbued with all corny mid-2000s energy of Slim Shady, Linkin Park and Tribal Tattoos. I've always disliked it a bit too. Especially with how overused it is on online racing games.

NAILED it.

 

[INEEDNAWZZZ]

Corny or not, I do think it’s genuinely cool BMW has acknowledged and embraced that most people recognise the car thanks to NFS and was willing to do this.

I will say though, an actual M3 GTR really doesn’t suit the livery. I’m guessing it’s down to the modelling in Most Wanted / Carbon not being 100% accurate, but it just looks ‘off’ compared to how it does in the games. It’s not the wrap itself of course, just the whole thing put together if that makes sense.

 

[Nexus]

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.

Slight correction: the race car had a H-pattern with straight-cut gears - Source

 

[Famine]

Slight correction: the race car had a H-pattern with straight-cut gears - Source

BMW M says it was sequential:

https://www.bmw-m.com/en/topics/magazine-article-pool/bmw-m3-gtr-strassenversion.html

In contrast to the race version with sequential transmission, the M3 GTR “Street” had a 6-gear manual gearbox with a two-disc motorsport clutch and a variable limited slip differential.

I'm not familiar enough with the race car to contradict BMW M.

 

[GTboyz]

Corny or not, that ride is hot

 

[o000o]

Confession: I was never into that car. I always thought the graphics were corny.

I think it's unique to have an actual race car being put on a street racing scene. This one in GT's term

It's also rather unique that the player in MW 2005 didn't start out with nothing, but already better equipment than anyone else, that is even puzzling where did he got the car from as it's an actual racecar. But too bad many people assume the M3 GTR is Razor's.

 

[carljarrett]

Have to give a shout out to Andy Blackmore who designed the livery for this car!

This is the discussion thread for an article on GTPlanet:

BMW Makes Need for Speed’s Iconic M3 GTR to Celebrate Series’ 30th Anniversary​

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...

 

[ScottPuss20]

I didn't really get into Need For Speed Most Wanted because I was more interested in Gran Turismo and Midnight Club, but I'm a big fan of the E46 M3 so this gets my attention. Especially when BMW themselves are a part of it.

 

[AnimalTurismo]

Don't get me wrong, the BMW M3 GTR is fine. But... what about the others? Like Rachel's, or Eddie's? (or have they already did it and I didn't even notice?

 

[o000o]

Don't get me wrong, the BMW M3 GTR is fine. But... what about the others? Like Rachel's, or Eddie's? (or have they already did it and I didn't even notice?

Caleb's GTO 😜

 

[TiMcF1]

It's also rather unique that the player in MW 2005 didn't start out with nothing, but already better equipment than anyone else, that is even puzzling where did he got the car from as it's an actual racecar. But too bad many people assume the M3 GTR is Razor's.

I always thought about that, I guess you could make 2 assumptions, 1 being that the protagonist has a lot of money and/or influence, bought the race car and made it barely street legal. The 2nd being he still had quite a lot of money and made a replica from the street version being inspired by the race car. It's probably less likely he used a standard M3 E46 as a base but not impossible. Where there is a will...etc.

 

[Sonic939]

I hope we see this car in some Gran Turismo

 

[o000o]

I always thought about that, I guess you could make 2 assumptions, 1 being that the protagonist has a lot of money and/or influence, bought the race car and made it barely street legal. The 2nd being he still had quite a lot of money and made a replica from the street version being inspired by the race car. It's probably less likely he used a standard M3 E46 as a base but not impossible. Where there is a will...etc.

Cross still points out that his car isn't street legal in the beginning of MW 2005. I guess it's the actual race car version as it outperforms the high end supercars at that era (some people question why BMW can smoke Lambos or SLR, likely not everyone realizes the M3 is the racecar version).

 

[toastet]

But... what about the others? Like Rachel's, or Eddie's? (or have they already did it and I didn't even notice?

What do you mean? IRL or in-game? In-game Eddies R34 returned in NFS 2015 and Rachels 350Z in Payback.

IRL Eddies R34 was built after a real R34 GT-R. They first built the real one since they used this one for 3D-scanning it into the game. Was a full build with Audio etc. and was given away in a price giveaway. A young girl won it and had to sell it immediately due to be unable paying the taxes on it. Racing Trenz in Colorado bought it but it disappeared afterwards.

Imported car:

3d-scanning

Single turbo setup at import which was removed to the demands of EA bringing it back closer to stock hp and not giving away a 500 hp car.

Had multiple wheel-setups

These are the ones borrowed from the original Hero 1 silver-blue GT-R R34 from 2F2F

Final shot in Colorado at Racing Trenz shop

 

[GearHead36]

So the Legend is now real...

BMW better hope nobody tries to steal it XD

 

[MIE1992]

I hope we see this car in some Gran Turismo

Even if not in this current livery, I do recall this racecar being in GT4. I hope it comes back in similar form, as I think it'd fit into Gr.3 quite nicely.

 

[ZEE]

For those playing the game, Interesting video on how the M3 GTR plays in the game. I personally loved the Race car livery over the MW2005 version and wish we had in it GT7, but kudos to BMW to get a version ready for the games Anniversary and this new lockdown update.



Party on Dudes!!! M POWAAA!

 

[McLaren]

Even if not in this current livery, I do recall this racecar being in GT4. I hope it comes back in similar form, as I think it'd fit into Gr.3 quite nicely.

She was in GT4, GT5, & GT6 (her road going sister alongside her in the last 2). For whatever reason, PD suddenly stopped featuring her after that. Similarly, the car was also consistently in Forza up until FM5 where it disappeared.

Interesting enough, after those 2 games (2011 & 2013), NFS seems to be the only franchise that's been able to feature the M3 GTR ever since, except for GRID Legends who were able to showcase it a couple years back. Which might make one wonder if EA decided that the most famous car in the franchise should stay exclusively with them. I'm not sure on the timelines, but this might have also been the era where EA was pushing hard for exclusive licensing in their NFS games across multiple brands (I think Porsche primarily?).

T10/PG were able to bring back the road going variant in FH4, though, & has remained back through FH5 & FM2023 thankfully. That would also be a good car for PD to bring back.