If you’re a genuine car enthusiast, then regardless of your automotive preferences, you’ll agree that the new BMW M3 saloon and its sleeker two-door sister model, the M4 Coupe, are two of the most highly anticipated sports cars of the year. Even though their M3 predecessors were never the fastest or most hardcore models at this level, they always set the tone with their all-round performance.
According to the first reviews, the same seems to hold true for the new M3 and M4 that are the first models in the series to be powered by a turbocharged engine (all previous M3s wore high-revving, naturally aspirated units) that produces 425hp (431PS) from a displacement of 3.0-liters spread over six cylinders.
The general conscious appears to be that BMW has improved the M3/M4 duo over their respective E9X series M3 predecessors in all areas sans the character and sound of the force-fed straight six, even though it has more than enough power and torque, while also being far more efficient, retuning a claimed combined figure of 34mpg UK (equal to 25mpg US and 9.4 l/100km).
Justin Bell from Motortrend and Steve Sutcliffe from Autocar magazine spent some time behind the wheel of the M3 and shared their findings in the videos you will find below (an yes, we saw the typo on the V6), along with a bonus clip from Germany’s Autobild.
By John Halas
VIDEO