The BMW M3 Touring 24H finished first in the Nürburgring’s SP-X class…

The BMW M3 Touring 24H has won its class in its very first outing at the Nürburgring! In a class of… two! Elsewhere, four-time Formula One champion Max Verstappen – you may have heard of that guy – won… but was later disqualified.

So, a busy weekend down in the Green Hell. About that M3 Touring. Officially 2026’s coolest racing car, it finished first in the experimental ‘SP-X’ class populated by itself and a KTM X-Bow, and finished 13th overall, right behind one of four M4 GT3s fielded by BMW.

Driver Jens Klingmann was rather pleased with how the mighty M3 estate performed, saying the team was happy with the car’s pace and balance. “There are no vibrations, no rattles, and even the little things that are important, especially for the 24-hour race, we have now started to sort out,” he said.

It’s longer and taller than those M4s, of course, so needed a bit of extra work to make sure it could race effectively. The rear wing’s swan neck mount, for example, is a new design with a slightly different angle. The entire car is shod in CFRP skin, while the rear doors are treated as “trim panels, not as functioning doors”.

And up front lies that familiar turbocharged 3.0-litre P58 sixer, developing up to 582bhp.

“Overall, we are very satisfied with the premiere of the BMW M3 Touring 24H,” said Schubert Motorsport boss Torsten Schubert. “We can match the pace, similar to the GT3 cars.

“Now we want to continue doing a clean job – from the qualifying race to the 24-hour race,” he added.

Speaking of clean jobs, Verstappen and his Mercedes-AMG team finished first overall, but were later disqualified because they used seven sets of tyres throughout the race instead of the permitted six. It meant the second-placed BMW M4 GT3 Evo was promoted into the top spot.