BMW M3 GT
The BMW M3 GT
Almost all of the iconic driving machines of the past two decades have been publically available homologation specials. Audi Sport Quatro and Lancia Delta Integrale? Rally bred tarmac chewers. Renault 5 Turbo? Ditto.
Without the public’s enthusiasm for highly strung 4x4 far Eastern road. machinery, Tommi Makkinen's company wheels wouldn’t be nearly as interesting as they are. And it's not unfair to say that the M3 itself would never have been spawned without Touring Car racing.
The E30 model, and all its Evolutions, were brought forth by circuit racing. Okay, the E36 was mainly envisaged as a road car, but it was extensively used as a track terrorist, too.
Thanks to BMW's desire to turn its GTR M3 racer into a contender in the European GT series, it was compelled to produce a street version, which for many represents the ultimate big M3. It takes the luxury car much closer to the raw spirit of competition than any other E36, a feat that won’t really be matched until the eagerly awaited E46 lightweight M3 roars forth.
The 1995 GT is, in reality, barely lighter than the standard Coupé's 1535 kg. But it does feature aluminium doors and carbon fibre bumper mouldings which, in the stripped-out circuit version play a crucial role. But a few pounds saved on bodywork make bugger-all difference to a road car fitted with air-con, full sound a 10-speaker entertainment deadening, system and four leather seats.
All of these attributes make the M3 GT a deeply civilised machine to drive. So much so that Chris Caine, who owns the example pictured here, takes his to work and back each day. Chris owns a company called Hypnos which, apart from being named after the Greek god of sleep, is a manufacturer of top-drawer orthopaedic beds. So he knows a thing or two about comfort.
Chris fully approves of the M3's barefacedly gorgeous interior. Unique to the GT, this involves green leather seat facings (train spotters get your notebooks out here: the colour is Mexico Green). The rest of the seats are trimmed up in massively desirable black Alcantara.
Personally, I've never seen the point of this man-made suede. You only have to wave liquid or mud in its general direction for it to break out in noticeable and irremovable staining, but the market loves Alcantara, so its use is BMW's way of telling M3 GT owners that they're very, very special indeed.
And that they're in a highly exclusive club. Homologation rules mean that, although manufacturers have to create roadgoing incarnations of their competition stars, they don t actually have to make that many. Only 350 M3 GTs left the Munich factory. The carbon fibre dash and centre console trim was a happy by-product of the need to homologate weight-saving devices. Chris has embellished his cabin with a Hartge gearknob and an aluminium pedal kit from the same source.
This is partly in memory of his last car, a Hartge H27 E30, which he ran for ages and loved like a member of his family. This was supplied by Birds of Uxbridge, the BMW performance maestros we profiled in the July 2001 issue. In fact, when we rolled up to take photographs for that feature, the GT was sat outside, having been dropped off by Chris for a service.
He's full of praise for Birds, and won’t take his cars anywhere else. But that might just be because its his familiarity with the place that caused him to own the GT in the first place. "I was over there one day," he remembers, "and one of the guys said that the car was for sale, and that I had to buy it. If they tell you to do something, you do it." So he.did it. It was in utterly mint condition with 56,000 miles on the clock, and ridiculously good value at under 20 grand.
Two years later, the odometer reads 90-odd thousand miles, and Chris is as besotted with the car as ever. He admits that many of his journeys are done at low speeds, as the engine hardly has a chance to warm up between home and work. But when he can escape into open countryside, he knows Birds' order to purchase was very right indeed.
There are peculiarities to the GT's engine that make it unique among M3s. It has the 3-litre engine, but with tweaks that would later find their way onto the 3.2-litre unit. A dual-inlet oil pump, for example. What, bored? Huh! Then how's about sculpted inlet trumpets? Open up the motor, and you’ll hear how wonderful those are. Especially as the GT has a remapped ECU which raises the rev limit somewhat, to make full use of aggressive cam profiles.
As a result of these fine attributes, the unit produces 295 blip, at a frankly un-BMW 7100 rpm. Given this, 238 lbf.ft of torque at 3900 rpm and a 3.23:1 final drive, the car sees off 62 mph in 5.7 seconds. More importantly, it can roar from 50 to 75 mph, in fourth gear, in 6.4 seconds. This is a get into-and-out-of-trouble quick kind of car.
Give it its head, and it'll steam on until an electronic speed limiter cuts in at 155 mph. Many owners feel this kind of nannying to be a little unnecessary, especially those who live in autobahn-endowed Germany. So they have the limiter bypassed, in order that the GT can reach its potential top whack of 174mph. At that point, the fiddly double rear spoiler begins to make quite a bit of sense, as it really does create a huge amount of downforce.
At this sort of velocity the car screams past you in a blur of British Racing green. Pub quiz devotees take note: this non-metallic finish was the only colour it was available in. Quite why BMW chose this shade, so redolent of Bentley's Le Mans-blistering GT history, is not really known.
But in 1994, it had signed a deal to supply the engines for both Rolls and Bentley's new wave machinery. At that point it was vigorously denying any interest in corporate invasion of the great British institution. In 1998, BMW put in a $575 million bid for Rolls, got into a massive squabble with fellow Teutonic behemoth VW, which also wanted a slice of Crewe, and ended up signing a bizarre four-way take-over deal which was overshadowed by the resignation of Roller chairman Graham Morris. Is the M3 GT a coded message of BMW's intention to dominate our motoring heritage? Answers on a postcard, please.
Not, of course, that Chris would ever be seen at the GT's potential maximum. Well not in this car, anyway. His family keeps a Nissan Skyline and a Sierra Cosworth for track days. The M3 is, for him, an entertaining way to get around on a day-to-day basis, which is why he has no plans to replace it.in the fullness of time, he admits, it'll have to make way for a younger model, but Birds will probably make sure that moment occurs quite a few miles down the road. Besides, he's not at all sure what he could buy to top it. "When they're not such stupid money," he muses, "I suppose I could get an M5. But they’re too expensive to justify right now, thank goodness.”
ENGINE Standard 2990cc, 24 valve in-line six cylinder
TRANSMISSION Standard Getrag five-speed manual gearbox
SUSPENSION Standard M3
BRAKES Standard M3
WHEELS & TYRES Front: 7.5 x 17 forged BMW Motorsport alloys, with 235.40 Micheline Pilot tyres. Rear: 8.5 x 17 forged BMW Motorsport alloys, 245/40 Michelin Pilot tyres.
BODY British Racing Green M3 GT, featuring carbon fibre front and rear bumpers, adjustable double rear spoiler. Standard BMW 10 speaker stereo
INTERIOR Standard M3 GT interior, in Mexico Green leather and black Alcantara. Hartge gear knob and aluminium pedal set.
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