The countdown is on: BMW Motorsport completes its final test before the DTM season-opener in Hockenheim. Watch the first extensive footage of the BMW M3 DTM race cars inside, together with interviews with the BMW DTM drivers prior to the first DTM race in 3 weeks.

Munich, 5th April 2012. With three weeks to go until the first race of the 2012 DTM season, BMW Motorsport has officially completed its test programme. From Monday to Thursday the three teams and their six drivers were hard at work at the Hockenheimring (DE), traditionally the venue of the opening round, which this year will get underway on 29th April 2012. This will be BMW’s first DTM race since 11th October 1992.

Over the last few days, all the BMW … CONTINUED

BMW will return to the DTM race series beginning this year with six DTM M3 race cars. We’ve already seen the DTM M3s, and now we get a peek at the BMW M3 DTM Safety Car for the first time, albeit in not yet final form.

The M3 DTM Safety Car’s exterior shows a new hood design with extra venting and host of BMW M Performance parts - carbon fiber splitters, black grilles, carbon fiber mirror covers, carbon fiber trunk spoiler lip, and black competition wheels.

The interior gets a full roll cage, Recaro race seats, flat bottom alcantara Performance steering wheel with blue tab

The engine looks to be from the M3 GTS, which is a 450hp 4.4L V8 and the shifter reveals that this car has a … CONTINUED

Here’s the very first look at the new BMW M3 DTM race car spied during its first trials on the German track Oschersleben. The M3 DTM car will see its first official action when BMW returns to the DTM in 2012.

The M3 DTM will be introduced next week and BMW motorsport enthusiasts will have the chance to see the car in person — during DTM weekend in Munich’s Olympic Stadium on the 16th and 17th of July. It will be presented to the media for the first time during a presentation at the BMW Welt on July 15th.

Director of BMW Motorsports, Dr. Mario Thiessen, answers some questions and provides some further insight on BMWs return to DTM racing in 2012. Q&A inside.

BMW announces and celebrates its return to DTM racing with a short nostalgic look into its DTM past. We can’t wait for 2012!

The German DTM touring car race series, to which BMW has just announced a return in 2012, will be coming to the US in 2013! The plan is to stage 12 races of this high-performance four door sedan racing series in the US beginning in 2013, races which will be staged with NASCAR and Grand American road racing events. Traditionally, DTM races take place on European tracks such as the Nurburgring and Hockenheim.

The return of BMW to the DTM starting in 2012 is official! This was confirmed by the company during the DTM race weekend at the Hockenheimring. BMW last competed in the DTM in 1994. The BMW M3 will be used as the basic DTM vehicle, a car that has enjoyed unique successes in the field of touring and sports car racing in the past. Eric van de Poele (BE) and Roberto Ravaglia (IT) celebrated two DTM titles with the racing version of BMW’s most sporty representative back in 1987 and 1989, while before that Volker Strycek (DE) won the DTM premiere in 1984 in the BMW 635 CSi. This season the current BMW M3 GT2 caused a sensation in the world of international endurance racing, … CONTINUED