3/7 BMW V12 LM98 Presensation

// This is a direct reupload of the post I made for Instagram and Facebook

BMW V12 LM98 Presentation 3/7

Following Le Mans and an appearance at @fosgoodwood, BMW turned to testing to diagnose the V12 LM98's issues. It became clear that entrusting initial design to the marketing team wasn't ideal, the limited development time led to cooling and aerodynamic problems, confining the car to a narrow temperature window. The cooling was aspirated from underneath the car which was not ideal when the track was hot. During this phase, BMW also used the V12 LM98 to test parts for the upcoming V12 LMR, "killing two birds with one stone" by troubleshooting the old car and preparing the new one. Lessons learned, the V12 LMR was routed directly to the engineering team

The V12LM98 returned to competition at the 12 Hours of Sebring, entered by Price & Bscher, with very different look, most visibly, the "mustache" was gone. One thing I find particularly interesting about this car and part of the reason I made the free practice configuration is that, unlike the familiar LM99 version, this one uses the same headlight block as the V12 LMR but with a different paint pattern. This difference gives it a somewhat unusual look. It makes me wonder: would the V12 LMR been as popular with this headlight paint style?
The front splitter was the same as previous year, and the livery was ... minimalist

Qualifying went well, with 8th position. A strong start pushed it to 6th, and by the end of the first hour, it was in the top five. A bit later a contact between the #43 V12 LMR and #3 Corvette send the former into a spin, which send our car into what the comm described as a "sympathy spin" when braking to avoid the LMR, causing a time loss

At the five-hour mark, BMW’s race looked great, with the two LMRs leading and the LM98 strongly in 3rd. Unfortunately, this would not hold. After a yellow flag, @steve_soperracing had a wide exit in the final corner, grazing the tire wall, which triggered a violent spin that shredded the car’s

The LM98's next appearance would be at Le Mans, this time with a notable aerodynamic updates.

🎨 Both livery done by Sylphide