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BMW Shows Off Its ALMS-Ready Z4 GTE: Video

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By Kurt Ernst

BMW Z4 GTE

For the past four years, BMW Team Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing has campaigned a specially-prepared BMW M3 in American Le Mans Series (ALMS) competition. During that time, Team RLL has won two manufacturer’s championships, two team championships, one driver’s championship and the Michelin Green-X championship. With success like that, you’d think that Team RLL would stick with a proven platform for the final year of ALMS racing.

BMW, however, has other plans for its racing future. Now that the current M3 is essentially end-of-life, BMW wants to replace it with a current product from its catalog. Enter the BMW Z4 GTE, which will replace the Me at Team RLL for the 2013 season. Neither BMW nor Team RLL will be starting from scratch, however, as the Z4 GTE is based on the race-proven, championship-winning BMW Z4 GT3.

Still, any new race car (new to a series, anyway) needs time to shake out the bugs, and Team RLL is hoping to do so in 2013, ahead of the 2014 ALMS – Grand-Am Series merger. They’ll have plenty of help on-track, as one Z4 GTE will be driven by Bill Auberlen, Joey Hand (or John Edwards, if Hand is fulfilling his obligations to BMW in DTM) and Dirk Muller. A second car will be run by Maxime Martin, with Uwe Alzen and Joerg Mueller stepping in to drive during endurance events.

The 2013 season of the American Le Mans Series kicks off on March 16, with the 12 Hours of Sebring from Sebring, Florida.

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at Automotive Addicts

Automobiles

Motorsports: This is the BMW Z4 GTE that will wear the Roundel in ALMS

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By Jonathon Ramsey

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The Speedweeks at Daytona International Speedway are a month of racing and reveals, with the season’s metal going for the flag at races like the Rolex 24 at Daytona and other cars being introduced to the public. In the latter category is the BMW Z4 GTE (click the image above to enlarge) joining the American Le Mans Series GT class this year with BMW Team RLL (Rahal, Letterman and Lanigan). This machine replaces the M3 GT that completed four years of service and won the class title in 2010 and 2011. Naturally, the team is tempering expectations for the Z4 GTE by repeating the fact that it sees this season as a development year.

BMW Team RLL drivers for its two cars will be Bill Auberlen and series rookie Maxime Martin in the No. 55, aided by Jörg Müller for the endurance races at Sebring and Road Atlanta. The No. 56 car gets Dirk Müller on a full-time basis, Joey Hand when he’s not competing in the DTM series, and John Edwards when Hand isn’t available. Uwe Alzen will help out with driving duties in the No. 56 at endurance races.

Want to know more? Scroll down below for the complete press release.

Continue reading This is the BMW Z4 GTE that will wear the Roundel in ALMS

This is the BMW Z4 GTE that will wear the Roundel in ALMS originally appeared on Autoblog on Sun, 17 Feb 2013 10:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at Autoblog

Automobiles

BMW’s New Z4 GTE ALMS Racer Makes M3 GTs Museum Pieces

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By John Lamm

BMW Z4 GTE race car

BMW’s championship-winning M3 GTs are now museum pieces after the Bavarian automaker replaced them with the Z4 GTE for the 2013 American Le Mans Series season. The Rahal Letterman Lanigan team—who’s run M3 GTs under the BMW umbrella since the 2009 season—has been involved with the development of the Z4 GTE, which is based on the successful Z4 GT3 race car, from the beginning and first tested the new racer in mid-January. The result is a 2745-pound (rules-mandated) car powered by a 32-valve, 4.4-liter V-8 restricted via intake to 480 horsepower, down from the GT3′s 508, with maximum torque of 354 lb-ft and mated to a paddle-shifted six-speed automated manual. While the GT3 race cars are allowed to use such electronic aids as ABS and stability controll, they are banned on the GTE machines. The Z4 GTE will give BMW a race car to bridge the transition from ALMS in 2013 to the ALMS/Grand Am combined series in 2014.

Given the M3‘s cult status, you might be asking yourself, “Why the Z4?” For one thing, with last year’s launch of the new F30-generation 3-series, the current M3′s days were numbered. However, the next M3 isn’t scheduled to be revealed until late 2013 or early 2014, and if BMW wants to continue using a coupe, as it has, the wait will be even longer with the new M4 expected to follow six months or a year later. Given this confluence of bad timing, it made sense to convert the established Z4 GT3 to GTE specification. Not only does the logic check out, but it also provides BMW with a platform to further market the Z4, of which 2751 were sold in 2012—nearly two-thirds being coupes—and making it the basis for a race car can only help sales.

BMW’s efforts will be in the hands of venerable U.S. driver Bill Auberlen, teamed with an ALMS rookie, Belgium’s Maxime Martin. German Dirk Müller will be in the second car, his co-driver being one of two American drivers, Joey Hand when his BMW DTM commitments allow, or John Edwards. That lineup applies to eight of the ALMS races for 2013, while at the Sebring and Road Atlanta enduros, German drivers Jörg Müller and Uwe Alzen will join the team.

Those M3 GTs will prove to be a tough act to follow. They took the ALMS team and manufacturer GT crowns in 2010 and did the same in 2011, adding driver titles with Hand and Müller. Chevrolet won the title in 2012 with its Corvette thanks to Oliver Gavin and Tommy Milner, and BMW is hedging its bets for 2013 by calling it a “development year.” The Z4 GTE will get its first race action in March at the 12 Hours of Sebring.

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at Car & Driver