Our fans asked for it, and we delivered. An overwhelmingly successful April Fools’ joke from 2025 is becoming reality at the 24 Hours of Nürburgring 2026 – the racing version of the BMW M3 Touring. On 16th/17th May, the BMW M3 Touring 24H will compete as a spectacular highlight for spectators in the “Green Hell.” The car will make its racing debut next weekend at the second round of the Nürburgring Langstrecken Serie (NLS).
Shortly after the market launch of the BMW M3 Touring road car in 2022, BMW M Motorsport began considering the idea of building a racing version as well. However, it took a special key moment to turn the idea of parallel engineers into a concrete plan – and that moment was, of all things, an April Fools’ joke. On 1st April 2025, BMW M Motorsport posted images on its social media platforms of a supposedly in-development BMW M3 Touring GT race car. The response from fans and the media to this post was overwhelming. It reached more than one million users and generated over 1.6 million views. Engagement on the posts was also many times higher than the usual figures for BMW M Motorsport’s social media channels.
Inspired by this success, the previously conceived plans to realise a racing version of the BMW M3 Touring became concrete in the summer of 2025. Within just eight months, the engineers at BMW M Motorsport built the BMW M3 Touring 24H. It shares the same technical base as the BMW M4 GT3 EVO, but is derived from the basic body of the BMW M3 Touring. The BMW M3 Touring 24H is 200 millimetres longer and, including the rear wing, 32 millimetres higher than the BMW M4 GT3 EVO. The technical data of both race cars are identical.
The BMW M3 Touring 24H is a car for the fans at the tight Nürburgring, with whom BMW M Motorsport has a very special relationship. This is underlined by the design of the car for the preparatory races, which features selected comments posted under the April Fools’ joke on the social media platforms. For the 24-hour race, the BMW M3 Touring 24H will receive another special livery.
At the wheel of the BMW M3 Touring 24H, which is fielded by Schubert Motorsport, will be four BMW M works drivers: Jens Klingmann, Ugo de Wilde, Connor De Phillippi, and Neil Verhagen. The car will compete in the SPX class and will therefore not be in direct competition with the three BMW M4 GT3 EVOs, which will be fighting for overall victory in the top SP9 category. The BMW M3 Touring 24H will complete its preparations at the second NLS race as well as at the 24h Nürburgring Qualifiers.
Like the #77 BMW M4 GT3 EVO from Schubert Motorsport, the BMW M3 Touring 24H will also run on tyres from BMW M Motorsport partner Yokohama. "We are deeply honoured to partner with BMW M Motorsport as an official tyre partner for this exclusive programme,” said Takayoshi Omae, Deputy Head of Consumer Tyre Product & Marketing Planning Div. "This collaboration marks a historic milestone in Yokohama’s motorsport history, and our participation in the Nürburgring 24 Hours fills us with immense pride and anticipation. Together with BMW M Motorsport, a global premium brand defined by visionary engineering and an unwavering competitive spirit, Yokohama looks forward to pushing the boundaries of what is possible on the Nordschleife, driven by our shared pursuit of excellence.”
A project like the BMW M3 Touring 24H has never existed at BMW M Motorsport before. Many thanks to everyone who put their heart and soul into this unique car and brought it to life. I am thrilled – and at the same time, I am certain that our fans, who are never closer to us than at our second home on the Nürburgring, will be just as excited.
This is truly a unique project, and I am absolutely delighted to be a part of it. The fact that we took our fans’ reactions to an April Fools’ joke as an opportunity to actually make the BMW M3 Touring 24H a reality speaks to our closeness to our community and our enthusiasm for motorsport.