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The sentence has become a legend: Mr. Rosche, said the BMW Chairman sometime around the beginning of the 1980s, almost as an aside to his engine designer, we need a sporty engine for the Three Series. Eberhard von Kuenheim knew exactly who he was motivating to take action. Paul Rosche was not only the engineering managing director of M GmbH, he was also the father of the turbo engine which had powered Nelson Piquet to victory in the 1983 World Championship, driving a Brabham BMW. And as far as Rosche was concerned, a sporty car had to do one thing: win.
That was when the M3 was born.
However, the designers of the sports engine werent exactly standing there empty-handed. The right ingredients for the projected engine were available, the mission was simply to put them together in the right way. The crankcase of the four-cylinder engine was available as a basis. This was being installed as a solid two-liter engine in volume production. Paul Rosche had long since found out about the potential really contained in the grey cast-iron housing.
<TABLE cellSpacing=2 cellPadding=0 width=600 align=bottom border=0><TBODY><TR><TD>
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
It was this block that was to form the foundation stone for the champion engine of Formula 1. Four cylinders didnt simply mean less weight and high torque for blue ribbon performance, but also offered ideal specifications for the projected sports engine. BMW had already introduced the six-cylinder era in the 3 Series. But no matter how smooth and powerful the running of the in-line engine was, it had one major disadvantage for racing given the technology available at the time. As the engine speed increased, the length of the crankshaft meant that it started to vibrate much earlier than the short four-cylinder shaft. The designers therefore designed the crankshaft drive of the M3 as stiff as possible so that it could achieve in excess of 10,000 revolutions per minute. By comparison, at that time the four-cylinder of the 318i delivered its maximum output at 5,500 rpm. The engineers were already aiming for a rated speed of 6,750 rpm for the road version of the M3, i.e. they left plenty of scope upwards.
However, any plans for a performance-enhancing supercharger had to be put to one side. A turbo was out of the question on homologation grounds. From the start, the fathers of the M3 were also thinking in terms of use as Group A racing cars, with at least 5,000 units having to be manufactured within the space of twelve consecutive months. This meant that the M3 also had to be capable of operating as an everyday road vehicle.
It was therefore ideal that the engineers had already enjoyed many years of outstanding success with four-valve technology, most recently with the M1 that had only just been discontinued. Paul Rosche recalls, We started work immediately. One advantage was that the big six-cylinder originally had the same cylinder gap as the four-cylinder engine. We therefore cut two combustion chambers off the four-cylinder head of the M88 and bolted a panel over the hole on the rear side.
<TABLE cellSpacing=2 cellPadding=0 width=600 align=bottom border=0><TBODY><TR><TD>
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
The engineers then increased the capacity even further to 2.3 liters and the first prototype was now ready. Paul Rosche: Whether you believe it or not we had created an outstanding four-cylinder engine for the 3 Series within the space of two weeks. Under the development name S14, this engine was to generate headlines in sport and in volume production over the years to come. One Sunday, I drove to von Kuenheims flat and gave him the car for a test drive. When he came back he said: Good, I like it. And thats how the M3 came into being.
However, the engineers werent only working on performance. The emissions of the M3 engine were also supposed to be geared to future requirements. Thats why the four-cylinder was, from the start, developed in such a way that it could easily be supplemented by a controlled catalytic converter. The function was by no means a simple task. In the mid-1980s, catalytic converters tended to reduce power and make engines less fuel-efficient. Another factor was that unleaded petrol didnt exactly have the reputation of being the ideal fuel for high-performance engines. The quality of the new fuel varied too much in Europe to meet this specification.
In order to err on the safe side, the team headed by Rosche adapted the engine and reduced the compression from 10.5:1 to 9.6:1. On one hand, this resulted in the engine not reacting to variations on the octane number with unpleasant knocking. On the other hand, the reduction in compression plus installation of the catalytic converter in the exhaust system only resulted in a loss of 5 of the standard 200 bhp.
Although the design engineers were pleased with the superior performance, they also spent some sleepless nights. The north loop of the Nrburgring was particularly hard on materials and what was blown into the manifold here by the four-cylinder wasnt digested so easily by the exhaust system the pipes were continually fracturing. It transpired that the cause was unplanned growth in the exhaust system. High temperatures at full load meant that the high-performance system became so hot that it expanded by up to 25 mm ( 1 inch) and became distorted within its mounting. A simple set of different washers solved the problem.
<TABLE cellSpacing=2 cellPadding=0 width=600 align=bottom border=0><TBODY><TR><TD>
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
The drivers from BMW Motorsport GmbH immediately proved the point. On the high-speed test track in Nardo, Italy, they drove an M3 three times at full throttle over a distance of 50,000 km. The exhaust system withstood the test just like the rest of the car.
On the BMW exhibition stand at the Frankfurt Motor Show in autumn 1985, the M3 was presented to a more broadly based public audience for the first time. Even without a special paint finish, it was not difficult to distinguish the car from the other 3 Series vehicles. The boot lid was crowned by a wing across the width of the car. Aprons all round indicated the refined aerodynamic work that had been carried out on the bodywork of the 3 Series. Anyone who spent long enough making comparisons discovered that the C-pillar was slightly wider and had a flatter taper in order not to interrupt the airflow over the edge of the roof and at the same time direct the airflow more effectively onto the rear spoiler.
Thick cheeks had sprouted over the wide wheels of the M3, the flared wheel arches came to an end in a striking edge below the edges of the fenders. There was no question about it the M3 looked fast even when it was perched on an exhibition stand.
Anyone who got that close was inclined to pat the new sports car on its chubby cheeks to see whether the bulging wheel housings had simply been attached, or whether they really had been pressed out of sheet metal. And they were impressed. The entire bodywork including the fenders and the hood were made of metal. A lightweight plastic had been used for front
and rear bumpers, and side sills and trunk lid including spoilers in order to keep weight down. The M3 weighed in at 1,165kg (2570 lb) without payload on the scales and hence remained a sporty lightweight with only 5.8 kg (12.8 lb) for every 1 bhp.
<TABLE cellSpacing=2 cellPadding=0 width=600 align=bottom border=0><TBODY><TR><TD>
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
In order to find out how the M3 performed in real life, test drivers and customers alike still had to be patient for at least another six months. It wasnt until spring 1986 that the first pilot-production cars were ready and the M3 was launched to the press appropriately on the racing track at Mugello. The test drivers established that the aerodynamic profile of the M3 was an understatement rather than an overstatement high-quality racing technology was housed under the beefy bodywork.
Axle kinematics, suspension and damping had changed. The braking system with ABS as standard comprised brake discs with ventilation at the front and a high-pressure pump operated by the engine. This servo pump delivered power to the steering at the same time so that both systems were able to operate independently of the negative pressure of the engine.
The refined aerodynamic work paid off with an outstanding cD value of 0.35. The lift at the front axle was around half that of the other two-door 3 Series car. The large rear wing reduced the lift on the rear axle by some two thirds. Bonded front and rear windscreens contributed to higher bodywork stiffness that in turn exerted a positive effect on driving performance. This was evident to the driver in the form of increased driving stability and more precise steering characteristics at very high speeds.
The standard M3 still reached a top speed of 143 mph with catalytic converter and 146 mph without catalytic converter. And yet it was relatively fuel efficient when running on super. Using the current Euromix formula, the M3 consumed significantly less than 9 liters for every 100 km/h driven (about 26 mpg). However, the power pack came at a price: an M3 cost 58,000 marks when it was launched in 1986. By comparison, the 325 Convertible at 43,300 marks was the next car down the 3 Series list.
However, finding customers for the specified volume of 5,000 vehicles wasnt a problem. In the summer of 1986 long before delivery started purchase contracts for the M3 at a premium price were being offered on the relevant advertisement pages. In fact, it wasnt until 1987 that all 5,000 units of the first M3 were gathered on the BMW parking lot in Munich-Freimann for a family photo before being shipped all over the world.
<TABLE cellSpacing=2 cellPadding=0 width=600 align=bottom border=0><TBODY><TR><TD>
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
However, one entire series disappeared again into garages and workshops to be given a new outfit. After all, the M3 had been designed as a racing car, and now was the time to prove that it really could race. A World Touring Car Championship was held for the first time in 1987. And that was exactly what the M3 had been built for. But not quite in the guise in which it was seen on the streets. Instead of 200 bhp, the 2.3 liter engine delivered up to 300 bhp at 8,200 rpm in the racing version. This put it on a par with the BMW 635 CSi.
The sentence has become a legend: Mr. Rosche, said the BMW Chairman sometime around the beginning of the 1980s, almost as an aside to his engine designer, we need a sporty engine for the Three Series. Eberhard von Kuenheim knew exactly who he was motivating to take action. Paul Rosche was not only the engineering managing director of M GmbH, he was also the father of the turbo engine which had powered Nelson Piquet to victory in the 1983 World Championship, driving a Brabham BMW. And as far as Rosche was concerned, a sporty car had to do one thing: win.
That was when the M3 was born.
However, the designers of the sports engine werent exactly standing there empty-handed. The right ingredients for the projected engine were available, the mission was simply to put them together in the right way. The crankcase of the four-cylinder engine was available as a basis. This was being installed as a solid two-liter engine in volume production. Paul Rosche had long since found out about the potential really contained in the grey cast-iron housing.
<TABLE cellSpacing=2 cellPadding=0 width=600 align=bottom border=0><TBODY><TR><TD>
It was this block that was to form the foundation stone for the champion engine of Formula 1. Four cylinders didnt simply mean less weight and high torque for blue ribbon performance, but also offered ideal specifications for the projected sports engine. BMW had already introduced the six-cylinder era in the 3 Series. But no matter how smooth and powerful the running of the in-line engine was, it had one major disadvantage for racing given the technology available at the time. As the engine speed increased, the length of the crankshaft meant that it started to vibrate much earlier than the short four-cylinder shaft. The designers therefore designed the crankshaft drive of the M3 as stiff as possible so that it could achieve in excess of 10,000 revolutions per minute. By comparison, at that time the four-cylinder of the 318i delivered its maximum output at 5,500 rpm. The engineers were already aiming for a rated speed of 6,750 rpm for the road version of the M3, i.e. they left plenty of scope upwards.
However, any plans for a performance-enhancing supercharger had to be put to one side. A turbo was out of the question on homologation grounds. From the start, the fathers of the M3 were also thinking in terms of use as Group A racing cars, with at least 5,000 units having to be manufactured within the space of twelve consecutive months. This meant that the M3 also had to be capable of operating as an everyday road vehicle.
It was therefore ideal that the engineers had already enjoyed many years of outstanding success with four-valve technology, most recently with the M1 that had only just been discontinued. Paul Rosche recalls, We started work immediately. One advantage was that the big six-cylinder originally had the same cylinder gap as the four-cylinder engine. We therefore cut two combustion chambers off the four-cylinder head of the M88 and bolted a panel over the hole on the rear side.
<TABLE cellSpacing=2 cellPadding=0 width=600 align=bottom border=0><TBODY><TR><TD>
The engineers then increased the capacity even further to 2.3 liters and the first prototype was now ready. Paul Rosche: Whether you believe it or not we had created an outstanding four-cylinder engine for the 3 Series within the space of two weeks. Under the development name S14, this engine was to generate headlines in sport and in volume production over the years to come. One Sunday, I drove to von Kuenheims flat and gave him the car for a test drive. When he came back he said: Good, I like it. And thats how the M3 came into being.
However, the engineers werent only working on performance. The emissions of the M3 engine were also supposed to be geared to future requirements. Thats why the four-cylinder was, from the start, developed in such a way that it could easily be supplemented by a controlled catalytic converter. The function was by no means a simple task. In the mid-1980s, catalytic converters tended to reduce power and make engines less fuel-efficient. Another factor was that unleaded petrol didnt exactly have the reputation of being the ideal fuel for high-performance engines. The quality of the new fuel varied too much in Europe to meet this specification.
In order to err on the safe side, the team headed by Rosche adapted the engine and reduced the compression from 10.5:1 to 9.6:1. On one hand, this resulted in the engine not reacting to variations on the octane number with unpleasant knocking. On the other hand, the reduction in compression plus installation of the catalytic converter in the exhaust system only resulted in a loss of 5 of the standard 200 bhp.
Although the design engineers were pleased with the superior performance, they also spent some sleepless nights. The north loop of the Nrburgring was particularly hard on materials and what was blown into the manifold here by the four-cylinder wasnt digested so easily by the exhaust system the pipes were continually fracturing. It transpired that the cause was unplanned growth in the exhaust system. High temperatures at full load meant that the high-performance system became so hot that it expanded by up to 25 mm ( 1 inch) and became distorted within its mounting. A simple set of different washers solved the problem.
<TABLE cellSpacing=2 cellPadding=0 width=600 align=bottom border=0><TBODY><TR><TD>
The drivers from BMW Motorsport GmbH immediately proved the point. On the high-speed test track in Nardo, Italy, they drove an M3 three times at full throttle over a distance of 50,000 km. The exhaust system withstood the test just like the rest of the car.
On the BMW exhibition stand at the Frankfurt Motor Show in autumn 1985, the M3 was presented to a more broadly based public audience for the first time. Even without a special paint finish, it was not difficult to distinguish the car from the other 3 Series vehicles. The boot lid was crowned by a wing across the width of the car. Aprons all round indicated the refined aerodynamic work that had been carried out on the bodywork of the 3 Series. Anyone who spent long enough making comparisons discovered that the C-pillar was slightly wider and had a flatter taper in order not to interrupt the airflow over the edge of the roof and at the same time direct the airflow more effectively onto the rear spoiler.
Thick cheeks had sprouted over the wide wheels of the M3, the flared wheel arches came to an end in a striking edge below the edges of the fenders. There was no question about it the M3 looked fast even when it was perched on an exhibition stand.
Anyone who got that close was inclined to pat the new sports car on its chubby cheeks to see whether the bulging wheel housings had simply been attached, or whether they really had been pressed out of sheet metal. And they were impressed. The entire bodywork including the fenders and the hood were made of metal. A lightweight plastic had been used for front
and rear bumpers, and side sills and trunk lid including spoilers in order to keep weight down. The M3 weighed in at 1,165kg (2570 lb) without payload on the scales and hence remained a sporty lightweight with only 5.8 kg (12.8 lb) for every 1 bhp.
<TABLE cellSpacing=2 cellPadding=0 width=600 align=bottom border=0><TBODY><TR><TD>
In order to find out how the M3 performed in real life, test drivers and customers alike still had to be patient for at least another six months. It wasnt until spring 1986 that the first pilot-production cars were ready and the M3 was launched to the press appropriately on the racing track at Mugello. The test drivers established that the aerodynamic profile of the M3 was an understatement rather than an overstatement high-quality racing technology was housed under the beefy bodywork.
Axle kinematics, suspension and damping had changed. The braking system with ABS as standard comprised brake discs with ventilation at the front and a high-pressure pump operated by the engine. This servo pump delivered power to the steering at the same time so that both systems were able to operate independently of the negative pressure of the engine.
The refined aerodynamic work paid off with an outstanding cD value of 0.35. The lift at the front axle was around half that of the other two-door 3 Series car. The large rear wing reduced the lift on the rear axle by some two thirds. Bonded front and rear windscreens contributed to higher bodywork stiffness that in turn exerted a positive effect on driving performance. This was evident to the driver in the form of increased driving stability and more precise steering characteristics at very high speeds.
The standard M3 still reached a top speed of 143 mph with catalytic converter and 146 mph without catalytic converter. And yet it was relatively fuel efficient when running on super. Using the current Euromix formula, the M3 consumed significantly less than 9 liters for every 100 km/h driven (about 26 mpg). However, the power pack came at a price: an M3 cost 58,000 marks when it was launched in 1986. By comparison, the 325 Convertible at 43,300 marks was the next car down the 3 Series list.
However, finding customers for the specified volume of 5,000 vehicles wasnt a problem. In the summer of 1986 long before delivery started purchase contracts for the M3 at a premium price were being offered on the relevant advertisement pages. In fact, it wasnt until 1987 that all 5,000 units of the first M3 were gathered on the BMW parking lot in Munich-Freimann for a family photo before being shipped all over the world.
<TABLE cellSpacing=2 cellPadding=0 width=600 align=bottom border=0><TBODY><TR><TD>
However, one entire series disappeared again into garages and workshops to be given a new outfit. After all, the M3 had been designed as a racing car, and now was the time to prove that it really could race. A World Touring Car Championship was held for the first time in 1987. And that was exactly what the M3 had been built for. But not quite in the guise in which it was seen on the streets. Instead of 200 bhp, the 2.3 liter engine delivered up to 300 bhp at 8,200 rpm in the racing version. This put it on a par with the BMW 635 CSi.
