In early 2001 BMW decided to enter the American Le Mans Series. But the six-cylinder M3 E46 was not fast enough, so the company decided to equip the car with a 4 liter V8 engine that produces 500 hp, but to participate with the M3 GTR in the ALMS, they had to get it homologated.
BMW built only 10 M3 GTR for the street and sold each of them for €250.000. Of course, the homologation rules changed for next year and BMW had to present 100 cars and 1,000 engines. Something that certainly did not happen and so they abandoned the race.
