Legendary German motorsports squad, BMW Team Schnitzer, is ready to return to Macau later this month, to participate in the FIA GT World Cup where the team will oversee the BMW (Art Car) M6 GT3 number 18. Their car will be driven by the Brazilian racer Augusto Farfus.
Schnitzer’s team boss Charly Lamm said to motorsports website Sportscar365 “returning to Macau will be a very emotional experience for our team.” He added that, “this street race is unique in motorsport and is unlike any other event.”
BMW Team Schnitzer is making its FIA GT World Cup debut. It holds the record as the most successful team in the Macau Grand Prix event history with a total of 13 victories overall.
This will be the first time that the historical team returns to the Guia Circuit since its last win back in 2009, when (with Farfus as the driver) they claimed victory in the World Touring Car Championship race.
“We have already celebrated many memorable wins at the Guia Circuit which is why we are really looking forward to being back in Macau, and being allowed to race in the BMW Art Car is a great honor for us,” Lamm told Sportscar365.
He continued, saying “there are an awful lot of highlights. Victory in Le Mans with the BMW V12 LMR, the wins at the 24-hour classics at the Nürburgring and in Spa-Francorchamps with BMW and, of course, our DTM titles in 1989 and 2012.” He then noted “however, my first trip to the touring car race in Macau was certainly particularly special. I flew to Hong Kong in a cargo plane with the racing cars in 1980. Then we won the race with Hans-Joachim Stuck and the BMW 320 Group 5. That was simply incredible. Afterwards, my now wife and I travelled from Macau to the Philippines to explore the country.”
The 1980 victory mentioned by Lamm was in fact the first of nine wins achieved by the Bavarian manufacturer between 1980 and 1998.
As mentioned, Schnitzer will be in charge of the BMW (Art Car) M6 GT3 number 18, which gets its number from being the 18th installment in the unique BMW Art Car series. In this case the car, although perhaps looking unfinished to the naked eye sporting only its “natural black carbon skin,” features a unique digital design, created in cooperation with the Chinese artist Cao Fei.
The design can only be seen in full with an augmented reality filter through a mobile app. RM
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