BMW M4 GT3 EVO Team WRT No. 31 Van der Linde Vanthoor Wittmann 24h Spa 2025 Minichamps 1:18

The 2025 CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps brought together three drivers whose primary season was contested in BMW's LMDh Hypercar programme — Sheldon van der Linde, Dries Vanthoor and Marco Wittmann — under the same Team WRT roof in a GT3 car for the first time that year. Minichamps has documented that uncommon line-up in a 1:18 scale model die-cast in metal, wearing the #31's predominantly black BMW M Motorsport livery.

The BMW M4 GT3 EVO: evolution at race pace

Introduced for the 2025 season as a refined update of the G82-based BMW M4 GT3 that had raced since 2022, the EVO specification targets every kilogram and aerodynamic compromise its predecessor carried. A lighter cathodic dip coating replaces conventional paint on the bodywork, the rear wing gains a wider adjustment range, front wheel arch air outlets are enlarged, and larger rear brake discs — 380 mm with 4-piston calipers — replace the earlier units. Up front, 390 mm rotors and 6-piston calipers remain. Power comes from the P58, a 2,993 cm³ straight-six derived from the road-going S58 but fitted with a dry-sump oiling system, revised mounting angle and dual throttle valves, producing up to 590 hp through an X-Trac 6-speed sequential gearbox. Customer list price: 578,000 euros net.

Spa 2025: a historic BMW entry and a difficult night for #31

BMW fielded 11 M4 GT3 EVO cars at the 2025 Spa 24 Hours — the largest GT3 fleet BMW had ever brought to the event — with five in the Pro class, three of them entered by Team WRT (#31, #32, #46) as part of BMW's bid for the Coupe du Roi, the centenary manufacturer trophy. Qualifying gave the #31 crew early reason for confidence: Dries Vanthoor set a time quick enough for third on the Superpole grid, only for a 1.012-second procedural penalty — the car had moved 1.002 seconds too early at the start of the session — to drop the entry to 14th overall on the grid. The race itself brought further adversity: a torn-off diffuser required an unscheduled repair stop that cost the crew a lap they were unable to recover across the remaining hours. The #31 was classified P8 overall at 24:01:03.648, 548 laps completed on Spa's 7,004-metre circuit, one lap down on the class leader.

The Minichamps 1:18 die-cast

Minichamps produced this model as part of their 2025 GT3 race car series in 1:18 scale, using die-cast metal construction. The piece reproduces the BMW M4 GT3 EVO bodywork in the #31's black Team WRT / BMW M Motorsport livery, with driver names — van der Linde, Vanthoor, Wittmann — and race number graphics consistent with the Spa 2025 specification. A companion release covering the same #31 car at Le Mans 2025 (with a different driver crew) confirms that Minichamps' 2025 GT3 programme in 1:18 extends across multiple rounds, giving context to the set-building potential of this release.

In the display cabinet

At 1:18, the BMW M4 GT3 EVO measures 28.0 cm in length — derived from the car's official length of 5,020 mm including splitter and rear wing. That footprint demands a shelf depth of at least 12 cm and ideally 30 cm of lateral clearance. The natural companions are the Minichamps 1:18 sister cars from the same Spa 2025 entry: the #32 (de Wilde / Weerts / Kelvin van der Linde) and the #46 (Magnussen / Rast / Rossi), both of which complete Team WRT's Pro-class trio and the Coupe du Roi manufacturer effort. Collectors building a cross-discipline BMW M Motorsport shelf will also find the Nürburgring 24 Hours 2025 winner (#98, ROWE Racing) a logical pairing, given that race took place just one week before Spa.