2017 BMW M-Festival / 24H Nurburgring: BMW M Corso

For fans of BMW M cars, one of the biggest highlights of the M Festival is the M Corso, an event that allows owners of M cars to take to the Nordschleife in their very own cars in a parade lap just before the start of the 24 hour of Nurburgring race. With a limited number of cars allowed to participate, a raffle was held the night before to determine who would be the lucky ones to join in the festivities.

Unfortunately with no keys to an M car, we did not get to join in the parade lap, but that of course did not stop us from dropping by the holding area just before the cars headed out to gawk at a fine selection of Munich’s best assembled before us.

For fans of BMW M cars, prepare to geek out. I know i did.

M2 Empire.

How do you like your M2s?

Check out the sequenced number plates.

For a country with such a strong automotive culture, i was surprised plenty to see not that many tuned machines on the streets. Definitely not as many as Japan. Maybe German fast specials don’t need much fettling after leaving the factory.

I guess that is especially true if you are in the privileged position of being the owner of a limited edition E46 M3 CSL.

That does not stop some owners from trying!

This black M might have a CSL front bumper but the sunroof gives the game away. Silver one might be the real deal though.

Beauty.

I have never seen this rather unique colour on M4s. Almost Millennium Jade-ish. I’m guessing it’s a special order individual option. Very pretty.

Another fantastic colour, i know this one, Techno Violet, no wait, they changed the name. It’s now called Daytona Violet.

Unfortunately for today’s event, this E30 M3 was the only youngtimer present.

M2 and M3 mixing it up.

M6 Power. Pity production has ended for the current generation 6. Such a great design.

Subtle “i” blue surrounds on the kidney grills. Nice touch!

A couple of aftermarket tuned M6s arrived. The red M6 was fully Hamman-ed out! Makes me wonder if its one of the tuner’s own cars.

Aftermarket tune versus factory tune.

My mind was boggled at the number of GTS M4s present around the Nurburgring over the weekend.

How do you one-up the already ultra rare GTS? You show up in one of these. An ultra limited edition DTM Champion Edition. Built to celebrate Marco Wittmann’s victory in DTM, they only made 23 of these. One of which went to the DTM champion himself, leaving only 22 for very select customers.

This is number 20.

I know the colours might appear really wild in pictures, but in real life, it looks really really cool. A couple of M geeks were swarming over this car grabbing pictures at every angle, me included. This car is special.

With Wittman’s signature on the boot, i wonder if it will ever get washed. Better get it clear-coated.

Gotta catch ’em all!

BMW M also made use of this event to unveil their latest baby, the M8. Still in its infant prototype form.

Still a long ways from actual production, unveiling it on the Nurburgring also had a symbolic gesture. Born on the track, this car will be going racing.

With the M8 out, it was time to line up all the cars for the parade lap behind the stunning DTM/MotoGP pace cars.

As for me, it was time to make my way back to the paddock for the start of my 24H Nurburgring experience!