Behold: it's the 2018 BMW M4 GT4

We love a good racing car here on TopGear.com, and this, well, this looks like a properly good racing car. It's called the BMW M4 GT4, and as of this moment, doesn't actually exist.

As you'll probably be able to ascertain from the single rendered teaser image above. It's an artist's impression of what we'll see on the grid in 2018; next year marks the last season for BMW's M3 GT4 competition car.

The bewinged M4 will undergo its first baby tests at the end of this year, so that come 2018, "customers will have a technically perfected car available". And what of that 'technical perfection'?

Naturally, it uses the production M4 Coupe as a base. Which means the biturbo 3.0-litre straight-six and all of its electronics will be carried over wholesale into the GT4. It'll get the carbon bonnet from the loony new M4 GTS, and sport carbon fibre doors, a motorsport front splitter and rear wing, and a racing exhaust system.

The upcoming M4 GT4 will also steal bits from its big brother, the M6 GT3: the seats, brakes and pedal box will use 'solutions' from that car.

Ah yes, the M6. This GT4 slots in between that GT top dog, and the entry-level M235i Racing, allowing privateer teams to close the gap between the two. Over that, BMW itself will use the M4 GT4 to bring young drivers closer to the GT3 class as part of the company's Motorsport Junior Programme.

"The GT4 category is currently experiencing a boom," explains BMW motorsport director Jens Marquardt. "It offers affordable motorsport with cars of technical high-quality and, therefore, attracts a wide target audience. We see enormous potential around the world for privateer BMW teams for whom the BMW M4 GT4 is an option. Developing a classic customer racing car such as this and offering it to privateer teams has always been one of BMW Motorsport's core competencies."

We'll have more information later on when further technical details and actual, real pictures are issued. But applying that age-old racing adage, if it looks fast, it probably will be...