Hi,
You can google up on the M3 GTR. It is a true Legend. It was a E46-based M3 M GmbH race-project for endurance races with a 4-liter V8 that had over 450hp+ (some say over 500hp.) They had two teams driving it at the American Le Mans series (ALMS) (car number 43 team including the former Finnish Formula 1 driver JJ Lehto) and it won 10 pole positions, 10 races, with 4 races with dual-victories (first and second place both.) So it basically decimated the ALMS in 2001 with winning everything there was to win, even though the competition was tough, with high-end Ferrari's etc.
Here are some very cool pictures from the race:
M3 GTR flying and breathing fire! It's cool not to have catalysators so you can burn over 100 octane race fuel even on the outside of the car on the tailpipes (which were located on the sides of the car on the race version)
http://www.gigapixel.com/albums/albu..._M3_Flying.jpg
Other spectacular M3 GTR pictures. They make for great desktop themes or screensavers:
http://www.gigapixel.com/albums/album14/m3gtr09.jpg
http://www.gigapixel.com/albums/album14/m3gtr38.jpg
It was a fire-breathing monster as you can see, with a 1250kg/2700lbs curb weight and a 100 liter gas tank. Because of the ALMS rules, the car had to be on sale on the civilian market (minimum of 10 cars), so M GmbH built 10 civilian versions of the M3 GTR to be sold for very special clients at 250.000 euros per car. A true rarity. The civilian version is way watered down due to legistlation, requiring catalysators etc. so it had "only" about 350 hp. You can read more about it at here:
http://www.rsportscars.com/eng/cars/bmw_m3gtr.asp
It's a true collectors rarity item these days, basically priceless.
Audi, fearing that the M3 GTR would be too superior, appealed to some rules details and did some dirty tricks to stop the M3 GTR from competing in the real Le Mans, and that's why BMW no longer takes part in the Le Mans after the sensational 1999 BMW victory on the Le Mans. They moved on to Formula 1 after that.
Best regards,
Jussi