Set to become the pinnacle of BMW’s motorsport ambitions, the Le Mans Daytona hybrid prototype has arrived at the Goodwood Festival of Speed. However, attendees can’t see it up close since it’s part of the sculpture dedicated to the 50 years of M celebrations. The LMDh racer is celebrating its public debut in West Sussex and it’s in some good company.
Four iconic BMW race cars have been attached to the sculpture: a 3.0 CSL from BMW UK’s heritage fleet, Jörg Müller’s WTTC-spec 3 Series, the V12 LMR, and an M1 Procar. Mind you, these are real vehicles rather than some mockups, but their engines have been taken out. For obvious reasons, all the fluids have been removed.
As with all sculptures created since 1997, the latest creation has been penned by artist and designer Gerry Judah. We did our best to immortalize the Kerplunk-esque work of art reminding Goodwood attendees that 2022 marks half a century of BMW M. The Bavarian marque has quite the presence at the Festival of Speed, with the first-ever M3 Touring celebrating its public debut at the prestigious event.
Another addition to the family is the purely electric iX1, represented at the show by a fancy example finished in Frozen Pure Grey. Other new BMWs exhibited this week in Goodwood include the M760e – the first plug-in hybrid M Performance car – and the i7 representing the electric equivalent of the new 7 Series G70 flagship.
Getting back to the LMDh machine and its ultra-wide kidney grille, it’ll go racing in 2023 in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship in the new GTP category and might compete at Le Mans a year later. The endurance racer boasts a Dallara chassis and uses a plug-in hybrid V8 powertrain related to some extent to the one installed in the XM. Development partners include Williams Advanced Engineering, Bosch, and Xtrac.
