Admittedly, we’re a tad sad to have heard that the BMW’s M3 GT will be retiring after four years of serious service, having won the it’s GT Class title in 2010 and 2011 at the American Le Mans Series (ALMS). So out with the old and in with the new, as the BMW Z4 GTE now replaces the M3 – with a rather tall order to fill if you asked us.
Entering the fray for 2013’s motorsport endeavours with the Z4 GTE will be Team RLL (Rahal, Letterman and Lanigan) who are a little less than hopeful, not putting in too much expectations, since their new stead will be using this year ultimately for development purposes.
Team RLL’s No. 55 car will be having ALMS veteran Bill Auberlain partnering up with Series rookie Maxime Martin as well as Jörg Müller for the endurance races at Sebring and Road Atlanta.
As for the No. 56 car, Dirk Müller will be heavily involved with the car on a full-time basis, so will Joey Hand – when he’s not tied-up with DTM duties and if so that’s where John Edwards will be brought in to fill in for the American, while Uwe Alzen will be the main man to watch out for having been charged with handling and helping out with endurance races.
The BMW Z4 GTE took BMW Motorsports engineers a little over 6 months to get it to what it is now, using their Z4 GT3 as the basis fort the work in order to have it comply with ACO regulations – requiring the removal of electronic aids, such as ABS and DSC.
With the Z4 being a more compact car in comparison to the M3 GT that it replaces, it now has the tall order of achieving, if not, surpassing pass achievements. The Team RLL remains vigilant in their endeavours after welcoming back Michelin as their Official Tyre Sponsors for BMW Motorsports at the ALMS.
