BMW heads to Le Mans

This is the first works road race bike to emerge from BMW in 50 years – a prototype racer which will appear at the Le Mans 24 hours next month.

Based on an R1200S, the prototype will race in the open category at Le Mans, followed by appearances at the Barcelona and Oschersleben 24 hour races and the Bol d’Or. It will be ridden by Stephan Mertens, Thomas Hinterreiter and Rico Penskofer, with Marcus Barth as a back-up rider.

The bike, which the firm refers to as the Sportboxer, will be used to develop new components and technologies which could appear on future road-going models.
For the full story see MCN next Wednesday.