Although BMW hasn't confirmed anything yet, it's not a secret that the German manufacturer is currently developing a GTLM variant of their M6 GT3, planned to compete in the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship for 2016.
GTLM program being finished, ACO & IMSA being helping hands
BMW's Motorsport Boss Jens Marquardt thinks that BMW intends on continuing it's TUDOR Championship efforts in the GTLM class for next year, however he isn't to keen to make a final decision on the M6 GTLM yet. Marquardt is still in talks with IMSA and the ACO about the homoligation for the next-generation car.
However, according to Sportscar365, multiple sources confirmed that a European-based partner is responsible for the construction of the IMSA specification M6 GTE and that the building process is well underway.
By request of other manufacturers which enter cars in GTE, the IMSA-only M6 GTE will still have to take part at the FIA Balance of Performance test in France next month, a mandatory task manufacturers have to fulfil to enable their 2016 GTE cars to be legal for ACO/IMSA competition.
Le Mans effort unlikely
With the M6 GTE being IMSA-only, BMW's intentions to run at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in the future seem slim to none, with 2012 being the last year they raced at the twice-around-the-clock classic.
The reason for BMW's hesitation to fully commit to a M6 GTLM program for next year is due to the need of building another new GT sports car alongside their new-for-2016 GT3 machine, which BMW isn't very happy about.
For now, BMW is developing their M6 GT3, which should debut at the Rolex 24 at Daytona next January to kick off the 2016 TUDOR Championship season.
They desire to have an IMSA-only homoligation of the car.
“As long as we can have something [in GTLM] that is reasonably close enough that you don’t have to develop a new car, [we’ll do it],” said Marquardt.
BMW currently competes with two BMW Z4 GTEs in the TUDOR Championship in collaborative effort with BMW Team RLL.
The Z4 is in it's third and final year of GTLM competition.
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David van den Boom is a writer for the VAVEL USA Racing section. Follow him on Twitter at @David__VDB.