/Drive channel’s Matt Farah takes a 585hp Turner Motorsports BMW M6 GT3 for a few hot laps around Palmer Motorsport Park. And yes, there’s a challenge involved
Just over a week after ‘the most fun driving experience’ he’d ever had with a 1981 Porsche Safari 911 SC, Matt Farah returns with a new instalment on /Drive, this time with the new BMW M6 GT3 (full details HERE).
Making its competition debut this year, the new M6 GT3 brought the six-year career of the Z4 GT3 to bed, though brought with it some serious hardware in the shape of an M TwinPower Turbocharged 4.4-litre V8 from the road-going M6, which kicks out 585hp. Hardly shabby in a race car that weighs only 1300kg -680kg less than the road car – despite, for regulation purposes, being 30hp less powerful.
This particular model runs under the Turner Motorsport banner, and while this also marks the first time Matt has driven BMW’s elite motorsport challenger in semi-anger, it’s also the first time he’s driven the test circuit they’ve chosen for the occasion, Palmer Motorsport Park.
“There’s over 190 feet of elevation change, 10 more than Laguna Seca,” Matt explains in his pre-drive round-up (the full story of which you can check out HERE). “At almost no point during a lap are you driving on level ground: everything is either up, down, or over. About half the track is lined with FIA-level safety barriers with catch fences to keep you from literally flying off a cliff if things go wrong, but the other half of the track simply uses a row of tires against bare rock faces; a big off means not just a crash, but more likely cheese-grating Turner’s half-million dollar GT3 racecar into bits.”
No pressure then, particularly since said M6 GT3 would be racing just five days after /Drive’s shoot (“I don’t have the balls to push it in someone else’s half-million dollar car”). And even though the /Tuned host has experience in both Turner Motorsports’ previous E92 M3 and Z3 GT3, BMW’s fastest and first twin-turbocharged GT3 is eight seconds – EIGHT seconds – per lap faster than the Z4. The fun begins at the 6m mark with a surprise challenge.
Enjoy this BMW M6 GT3 video?
You can check out more /Drive videos HERE, and more BMW features HERE
- Featured image courtesy of BMW Blog
