The legendary BMW M3 GTR from NFS Most Wanted has become real

I don’t think it’s hard to argue that Need For Speed: Most Wanted The BMW M3 GTR, with its signature sharp blue and silver stripe, is one of the most iconic video game cars of all time. Several real honors and recreations have been made since the release of this game in 2005, but now BMW has made it official Most Wantedin E46 style using a real M3 GTR race car with a V8 engine.

If you know what it is, you already know it’s a big deal – for BMW to even just put vinyl graphics on one of the few existing M3 GTRs is a major undertaking. But this car has all the looks; cage, exhaust, wide body kit. It is glorious. The mid-zero nostalgia in these pictures is so strong:

There’s no need to watch this entire clip, but this download of the cinematic and final race from NFS: Most Wanted connects the dots why this car is cool to see alive:

The BMW E46 3 Series, including the M3, all famously featured inline-six engines, which was BMW’s signature architecture of the time. The E46 M3 GTR was an exception to this rule. You see, BMW made a powerful V8 to race in the ALMS GT series. But to qualify for the class BMW wanted to be in, there had to be a street version. Therefore, BMW M3 GTR Straßenversion was born I mean, while it was technically a production car, less than 10 were produced at a cost of €250,000 in 2001. Adjusted for currency and inflation, that would be nearly half a million bucks in today’s money. Honestly, I think the new M3 GTR would fetch more than that if it hit the market today, so it might not be the worst investment.

BMW does have one of its road car vaults, which you can take a closer look at in this video below:

The Need For Speed the car, however, is closer in appearance to the wide-body version of the racing car, despite the fact that the game takes place on the streets.

Need For Speed: Most Wanted was an incredibly popular title that was ported to PC, Gamecube, Xbox 360, and of course the PlayStation 2, which is where my copy resides. If you don’t recognize this M3 from the game, you’ve probably seen it at least on a cover somewhere on a shelf. Here, I’ll take a picture of my copy just in case the character images and gameplay clip above jog your memory:

This year marks 30 years NFS franchise may have been part of the motivation for this particular build, but the main modern tie-in is that the car is coming back to the game via an update for the modern NFS game: Without a garter. In the just announced Need For Speed: Unbound Volume 9 update, “Quarantine”, players will be able to drive the M3 GTR (as well as the S1000RR BMW motorcycle) in the game. Here it is:

This is a very cool callback for Need For Speed ventilators. It looks like the car from the old game was in some sort of seizure and needed to be jailbroken. I only now understand Without a garter it’s the only part I’ve personally never played – this update gives me the motivation I need to change that. I’m going to download it as soon as I finish work today.

Meanwhile, if anyone is lucky enough to get there BMW World in Munichthis very car will be on display there for a limited time.

Have a great Need For Speed: Most Wanted memory to share? Contact the author at andrew.collins@thedrive.com