One of BMW’s most important products is celebrating the big 4-0 this year, and the automaker took the opportunity at Monterey Car Week to commemorate the success of the M3 sport sedan on both road and racetrack. Luckily for your author, BMW invited us to a few anniversary parties for the sportiest 3 Series variant, and they gave us our own personal xDrive Competition model to play with while we were on the peninsula. Armed with plenty of context for the car’s past, we were ready to learn about the M3’s future.
The M3 Goes Racing
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One of the headline events for BMW’s week was the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion, which took place on Saturday at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca. There, the automaker collected four previous generations of motorsport M3s, including the high-strung 1992 M3 DTM, the 1997 M3 GT2, the 2004 M3 GTR, and two versions of the 2011 M3 GT that ran in FIA GT3. BMW also lined up some heavy-hitting drivers to take the cars out on the track, including M CEO Frank van Meel behind the wheel of the E92 coupe.
BMW M3 40th Anniversary Celebration at Monterey Car WeekBMW
Choosing to show off the cars’ motorsport provenance is very deliberate, as the original E30 M3 was born of a need to homologate a racing car for the Deutsche Tourenwagen Meisterschaft (DTM) racing series. Although BMW needed to produce 5,000 units to satisfy Group A rules, the automaker’s first-generation compact sport coupe proved more than three times that popular by the time it was discontinued.
BMW Looks To The Future
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Monterey Car Week served as the official North American debut for two of BMW’s forward-looking concepts, including the Alpina concept and the M Concept Neue Klasse; our focus was on the latter, a four-motor EV that should offer more power than any other M3 in history. Four individual bucket seats inside should give the lucky occupants plenty of support, a good thing since the impressive torque-vectoring system should send at least 700, or as much as 1,100 horsepower, to the road.
A sophisticated paddle-shift system isn’t merely there for kicks and giggles. BMW says that it will provide genuinely useful driver feedback, especially when the car is operating in rear-drive mode for tail-out antics; think the Hyundai Ioniq 5 N’s “clutch-kick” and you’ll be close. An 800-volt battery pack – as on the recently revealed Neue Klasse i3 – should give the production version of the M Concept a range of at least 350 miles, which should be good for at least one full track day before fast-charging on the way home.
Stylistically, the M Concept Neue Klasse is a very impressive machine, although it does break some controversial ground for a car that’s nominally related to the M3s of old. The bottom-feeder bumper design, with a single lower opening bookended by driving lights and/or brake ducts, is gone. Instead, the concept gets a new “trimaran” design scheme for the front and rear bumpers that we’re not totally sold on, although we do like the LED track lights on the front corners that recall the M Hybrid V8 endurance racer. And the i3’s somewhat cab-forward stance looks even more aggressive with the M Concept’s widened fenders, bold hood vents, and staggered-width 21-inch wheels. We desperately hope BMW will consider making a wagon version to go along with the long-roof i3.
Our Chariot Awaits
The current-generation BMW M3 is also no stranger to controversy. The,ahem, distinctive front bumper design continues to draw ire from onlookers, who see more pig snout than kidney grille in its 4 Series–inspired design. We can’t say we disagree with the peanut gallery’s assessment when viewed from the front, but behind the wheel, the G80 M3 is a knockout sports sedan. The car we drove in Monterey was a Competition xDrive model, meaning we had 523 hp and 479 pound-feet of torque at our disposal, as well as four-wheel traction that was a boon when it came time to pip away from a green light to beat Car Week’s legendarily clogged traffic.
BMW claims the M3 Comp xD will hit 60 miles per hour in just 3.4 seconds, a number we believe with our whole hearts. Bizarrely, that swift acceleration is courtesy of a conventional eight-speed automatic, rather than previous M3 generations’ dual-clutch transmissions. Somehow, M has tuned the torque-converter auto to shift smoothly in traffic, with three selectable settings ratcheting up the speed and sharpness when it’s time to get down to business.
2027 BMW M3 Competition xDrive Front Three QuarterGabrielle Schmauderer/Valnet
Handling likewise boasts a split personality. The smooth tarmac around Laguna Seca Raceway is the perfect place to ratchet down the adaptive dampers and eliminate nearly all body motions, while more comfortable settings help tame the broken coastal pavement of downtown Carmel and Monterey. Throttle response for the twin-turbocharged, 3.0-liter inline-six (codenamed S58B30) is perpetually sharp, perhaps too much so for around-town driving, but otherwise, the sportiest non-CS M3 is a docile pussycat in slow-going traffic and a ferocious leopard in the canyons.
It was also perfectly specced for a weekend among some true automotive greats. It’s not common that a 523-hp sedan with a 180-mph top speed gets mogged in everyday traffic, but when you’re sharing the road withKoenigsegg Jeskosand coachbuilt Delahaye roadsters, you’re okay with the attention going elsewhere. That’s why we loved the color BMW chose for our tester, a subtle and complex Individual Aurora Diamond Green, which features unusual blue and tan undertones in different lighting conditions.
The interior had optional M Carbon bucket seats, and their thick side bolsters and supports made for a surprisingly comfortable, slouchy napping place after the pre-sunrise Dawn Patrol at Sunday’s Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance. The sedan was also equipped with a surround-view camera, which made easing the M3 into the tight parking lot of our host hotel much less stressful (though we never dared test the automatic parking assistance considering our neighbors included two Ferrari F40 supercars and one R32 Skyline GT-R).
2025 BMW M3 bucket seats interiorBMW
The only option we missed was the Driving Assistant Professional package, whose adaptive cruise control with stop-and-go assistance would’ve made the clogged freeways and roads a little more relaxed. For more than $100,000 as tested, we’d expect more from other automakers, but this is BMW – buyers are lucky the company doesn’t charge you to deliver the tires inflated to their proper pressure.
Still, the latest M3 deserves a branch in its illustrious family tree, with supercar-rivaling performance and everyday comfort – a level of versatility never seen before in a compact Bimmer sports sedan.
BMW M3 History For Dummies
The M3’s family lineage debuted initially with the E30, whose high-strung, 6,750-rpm 2.3-liter four-cylinder made 192 hp in the US and 200 hp elsewhere. The hardcore performance machine offered few of the standard 3 Series’ creature comforts, with less torque but more power than the standard E30’s torquey 2.5-liter inline-six. But it was a true DTM monster, becoming the winningest single model in the series’ history.
BMW M3 40th Anniversary Celebration at Monterey Car WeekBMW
Still, BMW revised the formula with the arrival of the E36 M3 in Europe in 1992 and America in 1995. A 3.0-liter six-cylinder engine made 286 hp on the Continent but just 240 hp in the US; the cabin was much more comfortable over long distances without sacrificing much of the car’s nimbleness. Newly available were sedan and convertible variants, and an optional automatic transmission showed that BMW hoped for its compact sports car to attain wider popularity.
The third-gen E46 M3 showed up for the 2001 model year and was something of a return to the E30’s values, offered only as a two-door coupe or a convertible. American and European cars nearly achieved power parity once again, with 333 hp on deck for us and 338 for them. An automatic was no longer offered, replaced by an optional auto-shifting system called the sequential manual gearbox (SMG) built from the standard six-speed stick. Weight was up, but power and chassis stiffness compensated and gave the E46 better performance than any of its predecessors.
BMW M3 40th Anniversary Celebration at Monterey Car WeekBMW
Then came the E90 sedan, E92 coupe, and E93 convertible in 2008, with a new, Formula 1–derived 4.0-liter V8 making 414 horses and revving to an 8,400-rpm redline. The optional gearbox was now a seven-speed dual-clutch transmission; the instantaneous shifts and closer ratios shortened the sprint to 60 to around 4 seconds flat. As usual, the M3 convertible was less overtly performance-oriented, with a new retractable hardtop adding weight but also improving comfort and noise insulation.
The F80 M3 – sedan only for the first time now that the coupe and convertible were called the M4 – showed up for the 2015 model year, and gone was the V8 in favor of a high-strung, twin-turbocharged 3.0-liter inline-six. Power jumped to 425 hp, while torque saw an even more impressive increase from 295 lb-ft to 406. The so-called S55 engine has become one of BMW’s most famous, with ready tuning ability that allowed the company (and its owners) to build their cars with even more power if desired.
BMW M3 40th Anniversary Celebration at Monterey Car WeekBMW
Finally, the current M3 showed up on the scene for the 2021 model year. Like its predecessor, a twin-turbo six-cylinder is the only engine available, with a six-speed manual offered in the lower-output 473-horse tune and an eight-speed automatic found in the 503-hp Competition or the 523-hp Comp xDrive. By the way, that all-wheel-drive system is an M3 first, as is a station wagon body style for overseas markets.
Celebrating 40 Years With Some Special Models
Front quarter shot of a 1990 BMW M3 Sport Evolution
BMW
There have also been a handful of special M3 models in each generation. The E30’s Evo, Evo II, and Sport Evo models all had more power and better handling than their 192-hp sibling. The E36 offered the M3 GT model in Europe and the M3 Lightweight in the US with aluminum body panels and reduced creature comforts. The E46 M3 CSL – the first 3er to wear that badge – had a carbon fiber roof and interior panels, establishing a trend that other Ms would follow.
The American E92 M3 coupe received an aggressive Lime Rock Park coupe with carbon fiber aerodynamic accents and a super-light Inconel/titanium exhaust. The 2017 M3 30 Jahre Edition sedan boasted 450 hp and the lightweight 20-inch alloy wheels from the M4 GTS, giving the four-door some exotic performance for the F80 gen. And finally, the G80 has received a long list of CS and CSL variants, culminating in the 2027 model’s M3 CS Handschalter – German for stick-shift.
It’s that last version that will likely see the G80 generation ride off into the sunset. We expect a new M3 for the 2028 model year – be it either an all-electric production version of the M Concept Neue Klasse or a combustion-powered sport sedan that’s still to be revealed. Whatever the case may be, our brief time in the current M3 sedan (and some keen observation of the automaker’s historic products) has us convinced that the legendary nameplate’s reputation for performance is very well deserved.
Base Trim Engine
3L I6 ICE
Base Trim Transmission
6-speed manual
Base Trim Drivetrain
Rear-Wheel Drive
Base Trim Horsepower
473 HP @6250 RPM
Base Trim Torque
406 lb.-ft. @ 2650 RPM
Base Trim Fuel Economy (city/highway/combined)
16/23/19 MPG
Segment
Compact Luxury Performance Sedan
