Simply put, BMW’s latest M3 sedan and M4 coupé are machines made for fanatic drivers. We recently went for a spin in these two beauties to experience the sheer driving pleasure.
Story: Ravi Chandnani
Images: BMW
BMW M Division engineers have spent four years working hard to develop this blue-coloured car you are looking at now. Four gruelling years for the fifth-generation M3! But if you talk to true-blue M aficionados, I am sure many of them would say that this is not really an M3 because it doesn’t follow the evolutionary pattern. If you rip through the fabric of time, you will find a naturally aspirated motor, ready to spit fire, underneath the hood of every M3 before the fifth-gen. You’ll also notice that with each generation the power and torque increased, so did the number of cylinders. Plus there was always a coupé and convertible version too.
So if you consider the fact that the M3 story started off with four-pot motors moving up to inline-sixes in the 1990s and finally to V8s in the 2000s, what would be the obvious choice for the newest M3? If you heard 10 bells ring in your head and are thinking about a brawny V10, you’d be wrong. Even though the latest M3 continues the tradition of more power and torque it ditches the evolutionary equation of more cylinders = greater grunt.
The inline-six has made a comeback in the M3, 22 years after it first appeared on the grid and M Division has spent some good amount of time to develop this new motor, which is truly a slice of heaven. 431 PS is just 11 PS more than the V8. However, thanks to the turbo-power, the torque now stands at a very strong 550 Nm, a full 150 more than the V8. There is a lot of trickery that the engineers at M Division have performed to achieve these figures. Downsizing the engine and slapping a couple of turbochargers were a few of those tricks. But the decrease in capacity and cylinders was not just to impress the emission commission. It was done to make the engine more efficient, lighter and greener. It is now 20 per cent more fuel-efficient than the V8 and also emits less CO2.
