No April Fool! - The BMW M3 Touring will compete in the 2026 Nürburgring 24H

The April Fool has Become a Reality

It’s funny how some things that are originally intended as a joke can end up being taken extremely seriously.

Well, that is what has happened to BMW. Back in 2025, on April 1st, the German marque showcased images on its social media of a supposedly in-development M3 Touring GT — a racing version of its 2022-launched road car.

What was intended to be a harmless April Fools’ joke soon spiralled out of control and led to a wave of response from fans and media. The post generated over 1.6 million views and reached one million users, a lot more than usually expected for BMW M Motorsport’s social media channels.

BMW M3 Touring Racecar

While it was something of a pipe dream in 2022, the response to the April Fools’ joke turned it into a concrete plan, and within eight months, BMW's M Motorsport engineers had created the BMW M3 Touring 24H using the body and shell of an M3 Touring with the technical bits of an M4 GT3 EVO underneath.

BMW has embraced the April Fools’ origin of the 24H with selected comments plastered on the car as part of its livery, along with the phrase: “You dreamed it. We built it.” The BMW M3 Touring 24H will be dressed in a different special livery for the 24-hour race itself.

Team Schubert Motorsport will oversee proceedings, with a line-up of four BMW M works drivers: Connor De Phillippi, Ugo de Wilde, Jens Klingmann and Neil Verhagen. To prepare for its exploits on the Nordschleife in May, where it will compete in the SPX class, the Touring 24H will make its racing debut next week at the second round of the Nürburgring Langstrecken Serie (NLS). After that, there will be another NLS race followed by 24h Nürburgring Qualifiers.

Nürburgring 24H News

The 24 Hours of Nürburgring 2026 was also in the news last week after it was confirmed that Max Verstappen would race behind the wheel of a Red Bull-branded Mercedes AMG GT3 car.

words: Mike Booth
pictures: BMW Group