2008.08.18

Latest news on No.808 Hatsune Miku Studie GLAD BMW Z4 Brand new "BMW Z4" is charging into GT300 class. Production process is in acceleration for Rd.6 Suzuka.

A brand new "No.808 Hatsune Miku Studie GLAD BMW Z4" is making its debut in the GT300 class at SUPER GT Round 6 "Pokka 1000km" held from August 23rd to 24th at Suzuka circuit. Built based on Z4M Coupe, the machine breaks the silence after a long absence of a BMW from SUPER GT/JGTC.

Studie, an exclusive BMW shop that operates outlets in Yokohama, Sendai, etc, and GLAD, a component manufacturer for imported cars, forms the core part of the team fielding the BMW, and Asada Racing, who was involved in the production and maintenance of Ford Sierra in the Group A and many other foreign-car-based machines in JGTC, takes charge of machine tune-up and maintenance. The team seems to already have a competitive structure as well as popularity.

Looking over domestic races of this season, a BMW Z4M Coupe already exist in the Super Taikyu series, but this BMW coming into SUPER GT is a totally different one. It underwent a significant modification to comply with the SUPER GT regulations in the hands of Asada Racing. The engine has been replaced from a normal 3-liter in-line 6 cylinder engine to a naturally-aspirated 5-liter engine that is also mounted on M5 (E39), S62/B50.

Another element of the car that literally catches eyes is a large paint job on the body that depicts a young girl character, "Hatsune Miku." The name Hatsune Miku originally came from the product name of vocal synthesizing software that operates on personal computers, "Vocaloid" series. After its release last summer, it became a gigantic hit among the Internet and music industry. It is indeed a virtual idol.

The idea to have an idol on the car originates in a sort of boom that's taking place among anime and video game fans to decorate their cars with a large illustration of young girls, and, since the team has a tie-in with the distributor of Hatsune Miku, Crypton Future Media, the concept was adopted for their car. The story has already been introduced in IT news sites and Akihabara-related blogs and has become one of the hottest topics on the Internet. As matter of fact, color design, team logo, and team's theme song were all selected from ideas that fans posted through the Internet, staying true to team's principle of to challenge SUPER GT with the fans. You can see and feel the enthusiasm at their official fans' website (http://stgt.jp/).

Currently, the machine is undergoing the final stage of production at a fast track for the 6th round. You can see the machine under production in the following pictures taken last Friday (8/15) [Provided by the team]

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