For a manufacturer as storied and diverse as the BMW, it is perhaps surprising it took until 2008 for it to have a proper crack at the sportsbike segment with the launch of the critically lauded BMW S 1000 RR.
However, beyond that and the homologation evolution, the M 1000 RR, BMW has neglected to grow its faired offerings beyond the flagship ‘S’ despite many feeling it has a perfectly good base in the G 310 range to offer a sportier, affordable entry into BMW sportsbike ownership.
Indeed, talk of a BMW G 310 RR has been rife for some time but there hasn’t been a peep from the German marque over whether it will ever amp up the single-cylinder to go up against the Yamaha R3 and KTM RC 390.
Which is frustrating given there is a sportsbike out there based on the G 310 - the TVS Apache RR 310 (pictured) - which is built on the same running gear and out of the same factory.
Well, as it turns out, a G 310 RR does exist, except it doesn’t… I’ll explain.
What you see in the photos is a G 310 R mocked up in garb that from a distance does look a bit like the current S 1000 RR, down to the rakish front-end arrangement and the gills, while draped in an unmistakable BMW Motorrad colours.
It’s not entirely clear how much involvement BMW, or at least its Chinese arm, has in this model but it is a one-off for track training purposes as the Zhuhai circuit.
At the very least someone has gone to a lot of trouble, marginally more than this mongrel of BMW proportions that also arose from less ‘official’ sources in China...
