The BMW M6 GT3 will cost £260,000

BMW is gearing up for the mother of all dust ups next year, because confirmation has arrived that its upcoming M6 GT3 will cost €379,000 (£264k) and be available to order from 15 September 2015.

Good news then, if you are a customer racing outfit and want to field one of the most bombastically styled cars in BMW’s history. The low, wide and V8-engined Beemer takes over from the Z4 GT3 as BMW’s customer GT racer, and is set for a Frankfurt motor show worldwide debut.

What do you get for your 379,000 Euros, then? Well, that body, for a start. Wide, low, and built from a steel chassis, it gets a welded FIA-approved safety cell, and carbon fibre crash structures at the front and back. You don't need to squint too hard to spot that lovely rear wing.

It weighs less than 1,300kg, too. Consider this: the road-going M6 on which it’s based weighs exactly 1,925kg. That’s like shedding a Caterham R500 and a generously proportioned helmsman at the wheel.

Underneath, it gets the same 4.4-litre twin-turbo V8 as the road-car, here “only slightly modified”, and is able to generate up to 577bhp depending on classification.

BMW also tells us this powertrain will cost 30 per cent less to run than the 4.4-litre V8 in the Z4 GT3. That Z4 GT3 don’t forget, is still a race-winning car: just recently the BMW Sports Trophy Team Marc VDS scored a win at the Spa 24hrs. 24 hours at Spa in a rear-wheel-drive, 530bhp Z4 isn’t exactly a Saturday run to the supermarket.

So then, this new M6 GT3 has big (well, small) boots to fill. Touring car ace Andy Priaulx reckons it’s a good ‘un, too. Well, of course he would, he’s a BMW driver. But still. “I was really impressed with the driveability of the M6 GT3,” he said. “It’s really a big step forward compared to the BMW Z4 GT3.”

Roll on 2016 – and a nice fight with the AMG GT3...

Up close with Merc's AMG GT3 racer