29th-Aug-19, 08:14 PM
BMW M8 GTE Suckerpunched by the BOP?
As Anthony mentioned: On May 22nd 2019 The German manufacturer announced that its works program with the BMW M8 GTE would not be continued after the 2018-19 WEC ‘Super Season’, while its IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship project with Team RLL would carry on.
As such the 87th edition of the 24hrs, where BMW celebrated the 20th anniversary of its 1999 overall (BMW V12 LMR) and the 80th anniversary of its first class win (BMW 328) would also be the last time for the Grande Coupe at La Sarthe.
As both the V12 LMR and the 328 were given a celebration parade lap before the start of the race it was pretty pretty obvious to BMW that there would be little chance of such celebration after the race.
Many fingers pointed at the B.o.P (Balance of Performance) as the main party pooper, and yes BMW had been complaining about the B.o.P (or lack off) ever since the car's debut in the Daytona 24hrs. But was that truly justified?
Balance of Polictics?
Love it or hate it, a B.o.P has been used by most race organizers for GT classes for some time now. Its main purpose is to create a level playing field amongst the very differently configured road based cars the race GT's are derived from. Front engined, mid engined, rear engined, atmospheric or turbo charged, you name it, the GT class has it. And in most cases (like in GT3) it works. But for the classes the M8 was intended to compete..it was a bit of a different story.
Both the IMSA GT LM and the FIA WEC GTE class can be considered as the top tier classes in GT racing. Although they're still based on road going models, there are greater liberties for a manufacturer to exploit to tune that original model into a near purpose build race car. And that's where politics enter the game.
Because long before a racing GT has turned a wheel, major manufacturers will have been in "constructive talks" with the sanctioning organizations, trying to optimize the specs under which their car will be allowed to compete. Reduce the negatives and improve on the positive sides of the road based model so to speak
One of the negatives BMW wanted to reduce..literally... was the size of their car.
There are provisions in the rules for deviations to the base model (allowing Porsche to build its mid engined 911 GTE) and BMW did request to shorten the M8 by 10cm. However such requests must to be approved by all other manufactures in the Class. Guess what their answer was....
As apparent by the meme's hitting social media for the 2018 LM 24hrs... the BMW M8GTE was always going to be a big car.
to be continued
With kind regards
Tamar
As Anthony mentioned: On May 22nd 2019 The German manufacturer announced that its works program with the BMW M8 GTE would not be continued after the 2018-19 WEC ‘Super Season’, while its IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship project with Team RLL would carry on.
As such the 87th edition of the 24hrs, where BMW celebrated the 20th anniversary of its 1999 overall (BMW V12 LMR) and the 80th anniversary of its first class win (BMW 328) would also be the last time for the Grande Coupe at La Sarthe.
As both the V12 LMR and the 328 were given a celebration parade lap before the start of the race it was pretty pretty obvious to BMW that there would be little chance of such celebration after the race.
Many fingers pointed at the B.o.P (Balance of Performance) as the main party pooper, and yes BMW had been complaining about the B.o.P (or lack off) ever since the car's debut in the Daytona 24hrs. But was that truly justified?
Balance of Polictics?
Love it or hate it, a B.o.P has been used by most race organizers for GT classes for some time now. Its main purpose is to create a level playing field amongst the very differently configured road based cars the race GT's are derived from. Front engined, mid engined, rear engined, atmospheric or turbo charged, you name it, the GT class has it. And in most cases (like in GT3) it works. But for the classes the M8 was intended to compete..it was a bit of a different story.
Both the IMSA GT LM and the FIA WEC GTE class can be considered as the top tier classes in GT racing. Although they're still based on road going models, there are greater liberties for a manufacturer to exploit to tune that original model into a near purpose build race car. And that's where politics enter the game.
Because long before a racing GT has turned a wheel, major manufacturers will have been in "constructive talks" with the sanctioning organizations, trying to optimize the specs under which their car will be allowed to compete. Reduce the negatives and improve on the positive sides of the road based model so to speak
One of the negatives BMW wanted to reduce..literally... was the size of their car.
There are provisions in the rules for deviations to the base model (allowing Porsche to build its mid engined 911 GTE) and BMW did request to shorten the M8 by 10cm. However such requests must to be approved by all other manufactures in the Class. Guess what their answer was....
As apparent by the meme's hitting social media for the 2018 LM 24hrs... the BMW M8GTE was always going to be a big car.
to be continued
With kind regards
Tamar
![[+]](https://slotracer.online/community/images/bootbb/collapse_collapsed.png)