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BMW unleashes new M4 racer on DTM

We may not get to enjoy the fruits of it all, but we're in the midst of a golden age in touring car racing around the world. In Northern Europe, rival local series have amalgamated into the Scandinavian Touring Car Championship. In the UK, the British Touring Car Championship is enjoying the largest and most diverse grid in its long history. In Australia, the V8 Supercars series has grown from a Holden vs. Ford battle to include challengers from Mercedes, Nissan and Volvo. And in Germany, the DTM championship has managed to lure BMW back onto the grid to open up the battle between Mercedes and Audi. All good things, in short.
Since returning to the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters in 2012, BMW has won the drivers' title once and the constructors' title twice, proving the Bavarian manufacturer to be not only a suitable challenger to the two-horse race between its star- and ring-emblazoned rivals, but the dominant force in German tin-top racing. Now BMW is set to enter its third season since returning to the DTM, and this is the car with which it intends to do so.
Replacing the M3 DTM that has impressively won half of the DTM races it has contested over the past two years, BMW's latest racing car is made in the mold of the new M4 coupe. Only it's even meaner. While the production version has switched to a turbo six, the DTM version still uses a V8: a 4.0-liter unit with four-valve cylinder heads, mandatory air restrictors and a Bosch ECU to channel 480 horsepower and 369 pound-feet of torque to the rear set of Hankook racing slicks through a six-speed sequential gearbox. The lightweight chassis is rounded out with competition-level aerodynamics and all the mandatory safety equipment.

Watch two championship-winning DTM cars from BMW go head-to-head

BMW recently had a little fun with two of the company's past DTM champions. Roberto Ravaglia and Bruno Spengler, winners of the 1989 and 2012 championships, respectively, both showed up at the world-famous Hockenheimring with their title-winning cars. The two swapped seats, with Ravaglia taking the helm of Spengler's BMW M3 DTM racer and Spengler sliding behind the wheel of Ravaglia's first-generation M3 racer in the classic BMW Bank livery, and headed for the track. Spengler got a 23 second head start in the first-gen M3 with Ravaglia chasing behind.
It didn't take long for the older hotshoe to sort out his new ride and close the gap. The short clip below follows the two as they make their way around the circuit, but the really interesting portion comes when the pair begin discussing what they like and don't like about each other's machines. You can check out the full video below for yourself.

This is the final BMW M3 Coupe

Pour some out for the BMW M3 Coupe, folks. Production of the two-door, fixed-roof M3 has officially ended, and the orange car you see here is the very last one.
But we don't just meant the last M3 Coupe of this generation - this is the last M3 Coupe ever, since the next-gen car will launch under the name M4, staying true to BMW's revised nomenclature where coupes and convertibles will use even numbers. (Don't forget, the new 3 Series coupe becomes the 4 Series for the 2014 model year.) There will, of course, be a new M3, but that badge will only be found on the four-door version.
BMW first launched the M3 Coupe in 1986, and since then, more than 40,000 examples have been built. Sedan and convertible versions were added later in the car's life, and BMW says that the current 2013 model year convertible will remain in production until September of this year.