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BMW is showing off a more hardcore version of its 3.0 CSL Hommage concept that debuted earlier this year.

Dubbed the BMW 3.0 CSL Hommage R, the controversial concept car with love it or hate it styling helps celebrate the brand’s North American division’s 40th anniversary in style. The concept also pays respects to the success of the BMW 3.0 CSL in 1975, the year BMW Motorsport made its debut racing in the U.S. That particular race car, which the BMW 3.0 CSL Hommage R shares its livery with, went on to capture victories at the 12 Hours of Sebring and Laguna Seca, taking home the manufacturers’ championship that year.

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For the new concept, BMW wanted to hit a new level of focus for the interior, which led to designers looking first at a driver’s helmet, race suit and seat before moving onto the lines and surfaces of the interior. As a result, a head-up display was incorporated into a helmet’s visor, displaying the car’s speed, gear engaged and engine revs right into the driver’s direct field of view. The race suit was designed by Puma and visually expresses the connection between the driver and the car. If that sounds like sci-fi to you, it sort of is: the suit has illuminated piping integrated into the sleeves that shows the progress of information, like the shift impulse display for example, out of the steering column and over the driver’s arms and into his visor.

SEE ALSO: BMW 3.0 CSL Hommage Concept Pushes the Limits of Design

The overall exterior design of the concept resembles that of the original 3.0 CSL Hommage concept with the exception of the race-inspired livery. Inside there’s a carbon fiber roll cage integrated into the structure of the car’s roof. In fact, the interior is almost entirely made of carbon fiber. Finishing off the BMW 3.0 CSL Hommage R is a set of matte gold 21-inch wheels with black inlays.

“Motor racing is all about the ability of cars to mesmerise, about the unbridled joy of driving,” explains Adrian van Hooydonk, Senior Vice President BMW Group Design. “And as such it represents the heartbeat of BMW. Back in 1975, as today, winning races came down to how man and machine could work together. Technical innovations have taken the effectiveness of this partnership to ever great heights. And with the BMW 3.0 CSL Hommage R we’re aiming to show how much closer the driver and car can grow in the future.”

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