--- title: "Finally: NFS Most Wanted’s Legendary BMW M3 GTR Has Been Made Real" description: "I don't think it's hard to argue that the *Need For Speed: Most Wanted* BMW M3 GTR, with its distinctive blue-on-silver slashy stripe livery, is among the most iconic video game cars of all time. A few [real-life tributes]() and…" date: "2024-11-27" modified: "2024-11-27" authors: - name: "Andrew P. Collins" job_title: "Executive Editor" link: "https://www.thedrive.com/authors/andrew-p-collins" url: "https://www.thedrive.com/news/finally-nfs-most-wanteds-legendary-bmw-m3-gtr-has-been-made-real" categories: - "BMW News" - "Culture" - "News" - "News by Brand" - "Video Games" tags: - "BMW" - "Coupe" - "m3" - "sports car" --- # Finally: NFS Most Wanted’s Legendary BMW M3 GTR Has Been Made Real ![BMW M3 GTR from Need For Speed: Most Wanted in-game and in real life.]() *\BMW, EA\* I don't think it's hard to argue that the *Need For Speed: Most Wanted* BMW M3 GTR, with its distinctive blue-on-silver slashy stripe livery, is among the most iconic video game cars of all time. A few [real-life tributes]() and recreations have been made since that game's 2005 release, but now, BMW has done up an official *Most Wanted*-style E46 using a real V8-powered M3 GTR race car. If you know what that is, you already know that this is a big deal—for BMW to even just put some vinyl graphics on one of the few existing M3 GTRs is quite a commitment. But this car's got the whole look down; the cage, the exhaust, the widebody kit. It's glorious. The mid-'00s nostalgia in these images is so strong: ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() There's no need to sit through this whole clip, but, this upload of the cinematic and last race from *NFS: Most Wanted* connects the dots on why this car is cool to see brought to life: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IsbfxPdPXtU The BMW E46 3 Series cars, including the M3, all famously run inline six-cylinder engines as was BMW's signature architecture at the time. The E46 M3 GTR was an exception to that rule. See, BMW made a mighty V8 to compete in ALMS GT series racing. But to qualify for the class BMW wanted to race in, a street-legal variant needed to exist. Thus, the [BMW M3 GTR Strassenversion]() was born. I mean, while it was technically a production car, less than 10 were made, listing for €250,000 in 2001. Translating currency and compensating for inflation, that'd be almost half a million bucks in today's money. Honestly, I would imagine a mint M3 GTR would fetch more than that if one hit the market today, so it might not have been the worst investment. BMW does have one of the road cars storage, which you can take a closer look at in this video below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66n3ZtkWlyY The *Need For Speed* car, however, is closer in appearance to the widebodied racing car version, despite the game taking place on streets. *Need For Speed: Most Wanted* was an incredibly popular title that was ported to PC, Gamecube, Xbox 360, and of course PlayStation 2 which is what my copy's on. If you don't recognize this M3 from the game, you've probably at least seen it on the cover on a shelf somewhere. Here, I'll snap a picture of my copy just in case the hero images and game clip above somehow didn't jog your memory: ![]() **Andrew P. Collins** This year being the 30th anniversary of the *NFS* franchise might have been part of the motivation behind this particular build, but the main modern-day tie-in is that the car's being brought back into gaming via an update for the present-day NFS game: *[Unbound]().* In the just-announced *Need For Speed: Unbound Volume 9* update, "*Lockdown*," players will be able to drive the M3 GTR (as well as an S1000RR BMW motorcycle) in-game. Behold: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j\_BgX4dftKg&t=6s It's a very cool callback for *Need For Speed* fans. Looks like the car from the old game was in some kind of impound and needed to be broken out of car jail. I'm just now realizing *Unbound* is the only installment I've never personally played—this update is giving me the motivation I needed to change that. Gonna go ahead and give it a download as soon as work wraps up today. Meanwhile, if anybody's lucky enough to be able to get to [BMW Welt in Munich](), this very car will be on display there for a limited time. https://www.instagram.com/p/DC1r8nDoIWD/ *Got any great Need For Speed: Most Wanted memories to share? Hit up the author at andrew.collins@thedrive.com* ## Author As Executive Editor, Andrew touches everything on the site from daily news coverage to feature stories, sponsored content, product reviews, road testing vehicles, ecommerce, and more. He's held pretty much every role there is to have at an automotive news site and has been with The Drive's publisher Recurrent since 2020. Andrew's a lifetime gearhead and longtime writer with a particularly strong penchant for road trips, off-road adventures, and archaic vehicles. His passions outside of the automotive world include skiing, obsolete video games, and his dog Bramble who occationally helps review cars. ### Author social links [Instagram]() [LinkedIn]()