Need for Speed-inspired BMW M3 GTR finds a new home
After recreating the hero car from Need for Speed: Most Wanted in 2024, BMW has now put this rare M3 GTR on display in its museum.
There are few vehicles which became famous for starring in video games, rather than being in video games because they’re famous, but the BMW M3 GTR well and truly falls into the former category.
While the M3 GTR was exclusively to go racing – with less than 10 examples of the Straßenversion (Street Version) homologation cars still on the road – in the early 2000s, it was in 2005 that it took on a new life, featuring on the cover of the Need for Speed: Most Wanted video game.
Appearing as the first car in the game which the player almost immediately loses and has to win back by defeating the final ‘Blacklist’ racer, Razor.
The blue-and-silver finished M3 GTR then became a cult icon, which led to BMW paying tribute to it in late 2024 when it paid tribute to the Most Wanted car by giving one of the former racing editions its iconic livery.
Intended to briefly reside in the BMW Welt museum in Munich, it later departed the display. However, it’s now back on show there, allowing fans to recreate photos of the cover car and see what inspired a generation of petrolheads 20 years ago.
The car itself was raced by Jörg Müller and J.J. Lehto in the 2001 American Le Mans Series, where it was campaigned by BMW in the GT category as the #42 car, winning that year’s driver’s title in the hands of Müller.
It was powered by a bespoke ‘P60B40’ V8 engine, displacing 4.0-litres and capable of producing approximately 500kW without restrictions, mated to a six-speed sequential transmission.
BMW hasn’t said how long it’ll be at the museum, though given the positive reaction to its return, it’ll likely be a while until it leaves again.
