What's this?
It's the new BMW M3, based on the
seventh-generation 3 Series and usurping the
374hp M340i to take its rightful place as the performance flagship of the current Three's family. Now, it's only the sixth M3 so far, as we never gained an M derivative of the original E21 3 Series of the 1970s and early '80s, but it's still following in the footsteps (tyre treads?) of some pretty damned astonishing cars.
It launches alongside the
M4 Competition, so if you want a full technical rundown on these cars, then have a look at that review for the details. Beyond the slightly altered alphanumeric badge, then despite the M3 having a few extra doors and more practicality, the other main point of differentiation is that it's a tiny touch cheaper than the two-door variant at £74,755, a saving of £1,300 on the M4.
There's also no doubt it's the nicer-looking of the pair. Yes, of course it has
those front grilles and the recessed bonnet to go with it, an item that seems as if it's going to have a couple of vents in it but then it transpires that no, it doesn't. However, from the front wheels backwards, it's simply finer to gaze upon than the M4. The M3 doesn't have the weighty rear flanks, because it has doors and tauter cohesion to the way the roofline segues into the boot; also, its flat lower window line, rather than the M4's rising item which only accentuates the amount of metal between the glasshouse and rear-mounted 20-inch wheel. Furthermore, the M3's rear end is less visually weighty, too, so the overall appearance is one we heartily approve of. Inside, it has much the same cabin as the M4, except there's more space for adults in the back, more room in the boot (an additional 40 litres for 480 litres total) and the £6,750 M Carbon Pack as seen on the M4 which equips those magnificent, magnificent front seats.
One final nice touch: BMW personalises the graphics on the centre screen to whatever car you're driving, right down to a tee. So we drove a dark blue M4 and then a red M3 on the same day, and on the M4's central display the car shown when you deactivated the traction control was dark blue; in the M3, it was bright red. Typical attention to detail from the Germans, there.
How does it drive?
Everything that holds true about the way the M4 Competition drives carries over to the M3. The difference in weight between the two of them is a mere 5kg in favour of the coupe, but in reality on the roads they are identical from behind the wheel. Which means the M3 Competition is an absolute dream to steer.
It has the same busy, detailed ride quality at low speeds and the same unnecessary Comfort setting to its three-stage dampers, yet in general unless you're deliberately banging it through every savage pothole you can see then you'll get on perfectly well with the M3's comfort levels. Once rolling at anything in excess of 30mph, it might never quite let you fully forget the size of the alloys nor the seriousness of its overall set-up but it's more than bearable for long-distance duties. If anything, it feels the slightly more refined car of the pair, maybe due to its subtly different weight distribution to the M4.
Similarly, the M3 Competition is indecently rabid. It hammers round the dial to the 7,200rpm rev limiter with an unrelenting eagerness that is quite breathtaking. There are those who say the twin-turbo S58 doesn't feel special enough for a BMW M car, but we're not quite sure what they're getting at. It certainly sounds more exciting than the S55 in the old
F80, which could be prone to boosty hissings and flat exhaust blare. And we'd also say its got more charisma than either the E30's S14 unit or the S50 found in the E36-generation M3s. Admittedly, from the outside the G80 M3 is subdued by emissions regs in terms of the noise coming out of its quad tailpipes, while the S58 can sound a trifle rattly at idle, but when you're in the cabin and the engine is working hard, we think it has a great voice - even if there is some augmentation of its natural symphony going on.
However, even if you don't accept it's an all-time-great S-coded M drivetrain, you won't be disappointed with the way the BMW handles. The M3 Competition has majestic steering, one of the crispest and most invigorating front axles on any production car we can recall, an Active M Diff-equipped rear axle that's playful and forgiving and astonishingly tractive in equal measure, and body/wheel control from the highest echelons of engineering know-how. Hooked altogether, there's nothing in the M3's make-up that makes it even one iota less scintillating or devastatingly talented than the M4 Competition.
That there could be any more dynamic ability to extract from this set-up, in something possibly wearing a
CS badge, is an almost-impossible-to-fathom idea at the moment, because supersaloons are rarely as superb as this BMW. Aside from the
Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio, you're not going to get a much better driving experience from any other extant four-door right now. In fact, there are plenty of dedicated coupes and sports cars that don't drive anything like half as well as the BMW M3 Competition.
Verdict
Astounded once more by what BMW M has served up here, the M3 Competition fills us with equal joy and hope. Yes, yes, the manufacturer has metaphorically slapped us all in the face with that crazy front-end styling, which kind of means we'd be buying one and immediately looking for an aftermarket company to graft on the nose of an M340i instead, but you cannot argue at all with the chassis that sits beneath the bodywork. As supersaloons go, it's one of the finest to wear the M3 badge and one of the finest in the wider canon of fast four-doors. When the long-awaited M3 Touring arrives, it could very well be as close to five-door performance car perfection as we've seen yet. The grilles notwithstanding, of course...
