BMW is trying hard to keep the attention of car enthusiasts, even as it peddles ever plusher luxury sedans and tools up an expanded fleet of electrics. The all-new 8-series and the upcoming Z4 roadster show BMW exploring fresh styling directions while the driving character of the 2017 10Best Cars?winning M2/M240i reassures us that we’re not entirely forgotten amid all the chatter about autonomous vehicles. BMW continued its momentum by announcing this M8 GTE race car at the Frankfurt auto show, and it’s a beauty, complete with checkered-flag-pattern carbon fiber.
Despite having been revealed in concept form in July, the production 8-series is not actually scheduled to go on sale until late 2018 as a 2019 model. Luckily, we don’t have to wait that long to see its race-car variant in action. The M8 GTE will hit the track in next season’s FIA World Endurance Championship and North America’s IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. It will turn its first wheel in anger at the 2018 24 Hours of Daytona and later in the year will represent BMW?s return to competition at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
The GTE’s turbocharged engine will use the cylinder block and head from the production 4.4-liter engine, but racing rules restrict displacement to 4.0 liters. Varying slightly depending on the rules for each racing series, the V-8 powerplant will make more than 500 horsepower (it could produce something north of 600 horsepower in the production M8) an...