This could be seen as a kind of return to its roots for the BMW M3 and M4; it’s by no means official, but it is plausible for the next-gen incarnation of the iconic M cars to get a four-cylinder engine.
The hint was dropped by BMW M’s boss of Product Management, Carsten Priese, who told Motoring that the possibility of a four-pot M3 was distinctly foreseeable, though, he did admit that “We do not start our design process with a power output in mind. We have a set of characteristics that a new model must meet. For sure, you could see a future [M3] powered by a four-cylinder engine.”
If this turns out to materialize in six to eight years’ time, then the now defunct E90/E92 M3, with its brilliant V8, will stand out as a very unique model; the most muscle car-like of them all. A four-cylinder engine, however, will be heralded as a return to the model’s roots, even if it will definitely have at least two turbochargers to help it along.
In order to use a small-displacement four-banger, BMW also needs to look at ways to keep mass as low as possible, and by the time the new M3 arrives, the kind of construction techniques they used on their i-cars will have become even more mainstream and accessible.
We’d also really like to see what a bespoke M-fettled engine of this configuration would be like, with all the know-how they’ve gathered over the decades since they last made one; we hope it’s not a rehashed MINI engine with a different badge on the top cover…
By Andrei Nedelea
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