“A year later, it was time to reinvent the car,” Saran says, “and implement a U.S. Air Force paint and graphics scheme.”
At the same time, VF fitted a body kit that gives the GT3RS over a foot of extra width. Designed and built by Southern California’s Vorsteiner in lightweight carbon fiber, the kit includes a custom front bumper whose splitter is replaceable should the low-riding GT3RS make contact with the road. It further swaps the stock M3 front fenders for entirely new fenders with integrated flares and grafts wheel arch extensions onto the existing rear quarter panels. Deep side skirts are bolted on along with a new rear bumper designed to match the curves and width of the rear flares while adding an integrated diffuser. A vented hood and lightweight rear trunk lid complete the aesthetic transformation.
While Vorsteiner designs and fabricates the parts, they were installed and painted by C&C Collision in Pasadena, California, the GT3RS body kit’s official installer. Only 100 examples will be produced, and the limited production run as well as the price—$25,000 or so—will give a certain level of exclusivity to owners of M3s so equipped.
Obviously, the increased width of the BMW necessitated the fitment of equally wide alloys, so Vorsteiner designed a new wheel to be used exclusively with the GT3RS kit. The V-308 wheels, available in 19-inch and 20-inch diameters as well as two- or three-piece designs, measure 10.5 inches wide up front and 12.5 inches wide at the rear. On the GT3RS I drove, the 20-inch versions were wrapped with Michelin Pilot Sport PS2 tires that measure 285/25-20 front and 325/25-20 rear.
To further the military theme, the M3’s flat green bodywork was also liberally adorned with the appropriate graphics. You know, the kind that all cars should have, like “No Step” (on the ginormous sideskirts) and “Danger, Turbine, Intake” in bright red on the left front corner of the car.
The mother of all manifolds
Of course, the most relevant and important graphic is the one that reads “VF 620,” referring to the claimed horsepower that the M3’s S65 V8 makes thanks to the supercharger lurking under the green hood.
