iRacing Works With BMW Driver Bruno Spengler to Hone M4 GT3 Sim Vehicle

Since its release onto the iRacing platform earlier this year, the Beta version of the BMW M4 GT3 has been seen running round on virtual tracks. However, everyone knew that in the background, the number-crunching wasn’t finished; further development was needed to please the iRacing gods. Six months later, the moment to finally unleash a tuned version of the M4 GT3 has arrived, and the gods are smiling.

Bruno Spengler, driver of BMW works, and Chris Lerch, head Vehicle Dynamics Engineer and test driver at iRacing, have been collaborating and focusing their time on bringing the sim vehicle to real-world standards.

If you don’t know much about iRacing, here’s a quick one. This racing sim platform is so good that even real-world professional drivers compete on it for titles and prizes. The reason being that the dynamics of the game are spot-on to what is reflected in real life. Why else would iRacing use real-world driver input?

The main factors the teams worked on while tuning the new version have been driving physics, chassis, and optimization of select aerodynamic areas. As Spengler explains, “The aim was to make the handling as similar to that of the real car as possible.”

In order to achieve this, BMW Motorsports forwarded last year's vehicle data, based on Bruno’s runs and detailed feedback from the real vehicle drives, so that those numbers can converted into a sim version. In doing so, version after version was tested, each one progressing closer and closer to the real deal.

Funny enough, spending time in iRacing is nothing new for Bruno, as he’s a veteran iRacer that has countless sim wins and titles under his belt. What, I told you earlier, professional drivers compete in this sim community; this is how professional. Oh, if you’re a NASCAR fan, you might be surprised to know that Jeff Gordon and others also take part in the iRacing community. Because of his previous knowledge of the iRacing sim, Bruno’s feedback proved to be “invaluable” to this project.

Now, all this sounds perfect and may have even gotten your attention about this sim community, but most of all, you want to drive the BMW M4 GT3. Well, all you’ve got to do is go to iRacing, click the “Sign Up” button, choose the package you want, and get in the game.

However, things aren’t so simple in this sim. In order to get to the M4, you’ll have to buy it. This can be done with cash or game credits, and once acquired, can only be used in certain races. Not to mention that iRacing has a licensing system that’s based on your skills, previous races and qualification runs, and even sportsmanship.

If you’re a true BMW fan, get yourself the iRacing M4 GT3 car steering wheel made by BMW Motorsport and hardware producer Fanatec, you know, the one you can even use in the real M4... Yeah, about that one, it's a first.

You know, all this sounds a bit weird. What is BMW up to? Honestly, to me it looks as if their widening the field and possibly prospecting for potential would-be BMW drivers. Or it’s all just about cash, as the more people with a BMW branded product, sim car, steering wheel, shirt, helmet, you name it, means more money for the company.

Whatever it means, there’s no way to deny that BMW has always been an innovator of the automotive world no matter what branch of the industry they’re applying themselves in, be it on road, track or sim.