Not Kidding: BMW is racing an M3 Touring at 24 Hours of Nurburgring

BMW makes its April Fools’ joke come true

Last year, BMW made an April Fools day announcement that they are building a racing version of the BMW M3 Touring, which is basically a high-performance wagon.

While it wasn’t far from being impossible, wagons are normally not the most common vehicle body types used in racing. Volvo did it in the past with the 850 Estate, and Subaru with the Levorg in their separate British Touring Car Championship campaigns.

After an overwhelming response from fans, however, BMW is making its April Fools’ joke a reality. The German automaker will field a racing version of the BMW M3 Touring at the 24 Hours of Nurburgring.

The engineers at BMW M Motorsport basically took out all the components of the M4 GT3 EVO race car minus the body shell and the chassis, then put it in the platform of the M3 Touring. Within 8 months of R&D work, the M3 Touring 24H version was born, being 200mm longer, and 32mm taller than the M4 GT3 EVO.

It also runs the same P58 engine as the M4 GT3 EVO - a 3.0-liter, inline-six M TwinPower Turbo motor that puts out up to 590 horsepower and 700 Nm of torque, with a six-speed sequential gearbox sending power to the rear wheels.

BMW will run special liveries for the M3 Touring, with one featuring selected comments posted under the April Fools’ joke on the social media platforms. For the 24-hour race, the wagon race car will have another special livery in store. The M3 Touring 24H will be driven by four BMW M works drivers: Jens Klingmann, Ugo de Wilde, Connor De Phillippi, and Neil Verhagen.

As exciting as the project is, the car will compete in the SPX class and will therefore not be in direct competition with the three BMW M4 GT3 EVOs, which will be fighting for overall victory in the top SP9 category. It will, however, run the same Yokohama race tires like the M4 GT3 EVOs.

The car will make its racing debut next weekend at the second round of the Nürburgring Langstrecken Serie (NLS), before it finally enters the 2026 24H of Nurburgring on May 16-17.