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Evolving The Art of Attack BMW M4 Competition – Speedhunters

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There’s something immensely enjoyable about seeing a performance car evolve from street to full race trim, particularly when the stages of evolution are so clearly defined.

If you’re thinking that this car looks familiar, it just might do. The Art of Attack G82 BMW M4 Competition made a brief appearance in our overall SEMA coverage last year as a lightly modified street car which had been built to become the fastest time attack G80/82 in North America. That’s a feat it achieved earlier this year in Street class trim at Global Time Attack (GTA) as a pretty much full weight, relatively stock-powered S58 vehicle.

While the aesthetics of the new G-series BMWs continue to be up for debate (for no-one that asked, I’m all about it), their out-of-the-box performance has been pretty much universally praised, despite the cars tipping the scales at around 1,700kgs (approximately 3,750lbs). Even at that full weight, this particular car set a G-series course record on Buttonwillow’s 13CW layout of 1:49.7 with just simple aero, suspension and tyre upgrades.

With that record and early successes now in the past, Art of Attack have moved onto the next stage of the M4’s life in GTA’s Limited class.

Naturally, the first area of significant performance to be unlocked was the vehicle’s weight, the majority of which has now been gutted from the interior. At this point, the only BMW parts that remain inside the car are the dashboard, pedals and OE gear selector and surround.

The next part of this round of upgrades was the fabrication and installation of a full custom 8-point roll cage by Riley Stair of RS Motorsport. This is constructed in high-strength Docol steel. Once completed, a Recaro Pro Racer RMS 2600 seat, SCHROTH Racing harness belt and KMP Drivetrain Solutions 3-spoke quick release wheel, controls and shift paddles were added.

With the weight reduction and driver safety aspects ticked off, focus moved to adding more urgency to the M4’s powertrain. Pure Turbo Stage 2+ turbochargers with Injector Dynamics 1050x injectors, a Radium surge tank, Visconti port injection kit and an Eventuri air intake have all been added to the mix. Finally, RSR downpipes and a custom exhaust should see a power figure of around 700hp when it’s tuned via EcuTek engine management using E85 fuel.

Inevitably, cooling is a huge part of maintaining reliability and is no different in this case. With the help of the car’s main sponsor, CSF, a full 4-piece cooling package has been installed. This includes CSF’s high performance front-mount heat exchanger and their new halo product for the M3/M4 G8X platform, the “Level-Up” Charge-Air-Cooler Manifold, developed in conjunction with PWR and RSR Studio.

This billet intake manifold was designed to not only match the factory item’s performance, but take it to a new level with its ultra high performance features and durability. The liquid-to-air core has been pressure tested to 120psi (the OE unit has been known to fail at pressures as low as 27psi) and the manifold also features a top-feed port injection system.

Beneath the car you’ll find KW Variant 4 coilovers with a full SPL suspension arm kit. The 19×11-inch Titan TS5 wheels have been retained from last year, and are wrapped in Goodyear Eagle F1 SuperCar 3R tyres, 305-section at the front and 325 at the rear. The factory brakes have been deemed sufficient for the time being, but will no doubt be appreciative of now having less weight to pull up.

As an homage to Jenny Holzer’s 1999 BMW V12 LMR Art Car, the M4 carries messages of ‘Protect Me From What I Want’ and ‘Lack of Charisma Can Be Fatal’ on the exterior and the roll cage’s main hoop.

The RS Future aero kit from last year has been evolved and now features a prototype swan-neck carbon fibre wing and carbon fibre rear diffuser in addition to the carbon front and side splitters. The rear trunk is a custom carbon item with the inner lights deleted, but their shape retained. The bonnet is an Alpha N product modified with RS Future carbon vents.

That’s a distinct and clear list of upgrades and modifications for the BMW, which will unlock more potential as it sets forth into its new GTA Limited class competition. There’s not much time to waste either, as once the car is rolled out of the Las Vegas Convention Center it’s heading straight for tuning before attending the Global Time Attack Finals at Buttonwillow on November 12th and 13th.

These clearly defined stages of evolution will make for a fascinating retrospective in the future, as each round of upgrades will demonstrate the performance benefits achieved. From street to Limited and maybe Unlimited in the future? Consider me subscribed to the Art of Attack M4’s story.