BMW.SG | BMW Singapore Owners Community The Ultimate BMW Community – Established Since 2001
There’s a new flagship in the BMW M Customer Racing range of race cars from 2022 – the BMW M4 GT3. Over the weekend, the new racing car debuted as a prototype ahead of its first real race outing on the iRacing sim racing platform. Developed in partnership with Fanatec, the new race car’s steering wheel will work in both a race car and a race simulator for the first time.
BMW confidently confirmed that no modifications are necessary for it to be utilized in the race car. Its steering wheel comes in a motorsport design blended with illuminated buttons and magnetic, dual-action paddles – both made of carbon. On the same day event in Munich, Philipp Eng, a BMW works driver, entered the stage in the real BMW M4 GT3. He merged holding the steering wheel, connected into the simulator, and deliberately completed several laps in the car’s virtual counterpart.
iRacing programmed and designed the virtual BMW M4 GT3 solely based on the CAD data and photos provided by the BMW Motorsport themselves. At the same time, they also received additional package data on the BMW M4 GT3’s driving dynamic information.
Similarly, BMW Motorsport engineers utilized the same set of data in operating the BMW Motorsport simulator. Overall, there are over 70 GB of data that has already been exchanged. And the main objective is to imitate the actual driving dynamics as realistically as possible.
BMW Motorsport engineers were incessantly running tests on the steering wheel to monitor its durability in real racing situations. According to Fanatec, it will be out in the market in the first half of 2021.
