The BMW M4 GT3 will become the new flagship in the BMW M Customer Racing range of race cars from 2022. Today, the new racing car made its debut on the iRacing sim racing platform as a prototype ahead of its first real race outing. Furthermore, the steering wheel for the new race car was developed in cooperation with Fanatec. And for the first time, it will work in both a race car and a race simulator.
BMW says that absolutely no modifications are required for it to be used in the race car. The carbon steering wheel is a motorsport design, with illuminated buttons and magnetic, dual-action shift paddles also made of carbon. At today’s event in Munich, BMW works driver Philipp Eng entered the stage in the real BMW M4 GT3, emerged holding the steering wheel, inserted it into the simulator, and promptly completed a number of laps in the car’s virtual counterpart.
BMW Motorsport engineers have provided iRacing with CAD data and photos as a reference, which they can then use as a basis when programming and designing the virtual BMW M4 GT3. In an additional data package, iRacing received all the information on the driving dynamics of the BMW M4 GT3.
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BMW Motorsport engineers use the same set of data to operate the BMW Motorsport simulator, for example. In total, over 70 GB of data has already been exchanged. The common goal: to recreate the actual driving dynamics as realistically as possible.
Extensive tests allow the BMW Motorsport engineers to constantly monitor the durability of the steering wheel in real racing situations. It will be available from Fanatec in the first half of 2021.
