The joke becomes reality: BMW presents the M3 Touring 24H that will compete at the Nürburgring

BMW never ceases to surprise us in the best possible way. What began as an April Fool’s joke in 2025, when they showed us an M3 Touring prepared for competition, has finally become reality, giving rise to the M3 Touring 24H, a spectacular competition version that will compete on May 16 and 17 at the 24 Hours of Nürburgring.

At BMW they say that shortly after the launch of the BMW M3 Touring in 2022, they were weighing the idea of building a version intended for competition. The idea did not bear fruit at the time, but it was somehow materialised when, on April 1, 2025, April Fool’s Day in English-speaking countries, or as they call it April Fool’s Day, they published on social media images of a supposed racing car, the BMW M3 Touring GT, in development.

As you can imagine, the stir caused was considerable even though it was known to be a joke. These posts on BMW’s social networks reached more than one million users and generated more than 1.6 million views. They even claim that engagement with the posts was often well above the usual figures for BMW M Motorsport’s social media channels. This, finally, was the spark that led BMW’s executives to pursue the idea of a competition M3 Touring.

The best part is that the idea and its development plans were already in place and were finalised in the summer of last year, so the engineers at BMW M Motorsport needed only a record time of eight months to build the BMW M3 Touring 24H. Broadly speaking, this competition vehicle derives its bodywork from the road-going BMW M3 Touring, but its technical base is the same as that of the M4 GT3 EVO. In fact, the technical data of both cars are identical, and they differ only in something obvious: a different bodywork that is also 200 mm longer, taking into account in this measurement the spectacular and enormous rear wing carried by the M3 Touring 24H.

For now, the BMW M3 Touring 24H is presented with a livery that includes selected comments posted on social media following the April Fool’s joke; on race day it will sport a special livery. Behind its wheel will be four official BMW M drivers: Jens Klingmann, Ugo de Wilde, Connor De Phillippi and Neil Verhagen, competing in the SPX category so as not to enter direct competition with the three BMW M4 GT3 EVOs that will also be present at this event, the latter competing in the SP9 category.