Back in 2008, I entered and won a livery design competition sponsored by Turner Motorsport through Eurotuner Magazine. Read more about it HERE. It was designed for their BMW E90 race car. Here was my winning design.

As far as the contest went, it was never guaranteed that TMS will use the design but I’ve always wondered if it ever will have its chance to grace one of TMS’s race cars.

Fast forward couple of years after that design competition and TMS did decide to use it for their BMW M3 GT that they’ll be racing in the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona!

Here is a slightly modified version of it applied to their E92 M3 GT by their own artist.


Love all the altered areas. I’m glad to see my livery design helped in creating the final design.

Now onto the exciting part – the build pics. Last year, TMS ran a BMW M6 for this series but as I mentioned earlier, they chose to go with an E92 M3 this year.

Will Turner and his crew built this one of a kind M3 GT with 100% carbon fiber bodywork to help lighten up the load while keeping it together for the 24 hour race.

Some of the parts will be available for sale eventually for club racers.

Here’s a shot of the complex tube frame which will keep the driver safe as well as keeping the whole race car rigid. It’s cool seeing it like this separated from the body.

Here is a shot of the tube frame (in blue) now mated with the body. Shot of the engine, radiator, headlight, splitter already in place.

Another angle showing the integration of the frame with the freshly painted body in TMS signature yellow.

The whole front clip was designed for ease of service so anytime they need to remove the whole front end assembly, it would be fast and easy. Very important for endurance race so less time in the pits, more time racing. Even the hoses all have quick disconnect ends.

The TMS M3 GT will be powered by a BMW Motorsport S62 engine – the same V8 engine found in the previous E39 M5 and Z8.

Custom airbox was fabricated with matching intake piping which will be much stronger to prevent from collapsing.

A pair of custom long pipe headers were also fabricated not just for torque but were also routed to the side of the car instead probably for ground clearance as this car will be very low and for side exit exhaust set up.

Notice also the heavy thermal shielding all around to prevent the cockpit from heating up like what they experienced in their M6 race car.

This spaghetti-like looking mess is the wiring for the electronics. They updated some of it with Motec power distribution modules for ease of tuning.

To stop the car, TMS chose to go with STOP TECH brakes just like in the past years.

Here are some shots of the car getting buttoned up over the holiday season.

Shot of the rear..

More carbon fiber parts like their dual intake fuel filler assembly.

The livery graphics being applied at the same time as more work gets done elsewhere inside the car.

To be sure that the car gets done in time, TMS actually doubled their work force working overtime through out the holidays.

And the final shot of the car all done ready for the Roar Before the 24 test day at the Daytona International Speedway.

Couple of videos from Veloz Media for TMS.

The Rolex 24hr at Daytona happens on January 27th – 30th. For more info, goto to Gran-Am Road Racing.

Pictures courtesy of Tuner Motorsport and Veloz Media.

Goodluck to Will and the rest of TMS crew!!