The 2008 BMW M3 will appear any day now. It'll have a 414-horsepower V8 engine, a carbon-fiber roof and more high-tech electronics than your nearest Circuit City. It's the start of something big.
It's also the end of something. We're saying good-bye to the E46 M3, the tightly shaped coupe with the inline-6. No other car has meant so much to guys who really care about cars and fast driving.
Our favorite E46 is the BMW M3 Competition Package. It's the ultimate M3 all-mechanical, pre-Bangle, and as completely German as the historic Augustiner Biergarten in Munich. More than just a fast car, this last, best edition of the E46 still is the purest taste of BMW we've ever had.
It's the car the 2008 BMW M3 has to live up to.
Fear Factor at the Nrburgring
Thanks to a heavy sprinkling of hardware from the competition-ready 2003 BMW M3 CSL that the fine folks from Bavaria rounded up into the $4,000 Competition Package, this is the best M3 ever sold in America.
For the slightly confused who think a BMW is just a really cool appliance into which to plug an iPod, the CSL (Coupe, Sport, Lightweight) was a very special, very fast and very expensive M3 sold only overseas. At its unveiling at the 2003 Geneva Motor Show, BMW announced that the car was fast enough to break the 8-minute barrier on the Nordschleife, the legendary northern circuit of the Nrburgring.
The CSL's carbon-fiber roof (BMW's first use of this technology in production) and the cost of certifying the emissions of its 360-hp engine meant the car never came to America, but BMW eventually put together all the really useful stuff into the Competition Package.
It produced the best-handling BMW M3 ever.
Almost a CSL
For your extra $4 grand you got a bunch of hardware that made the M3 ready for track day: 19-inch forged alloy wheels; stiffer shocks and springs; a quicker steering ratio (15.4:1 to 14.5:1); larger, cross-drilled front brake rotors (12.8 inches to 13.6 inches); cross-drilled rear rotors; and brake pads with a more aggressive bite. Most of all, you got big Michelin Pilot tires, 225/40ZR19s in front and ultra-wide 255/35ZR19s in the rear.
The CSL's less intrusive M Track mode for the M3's electronic stability control also proved to be a key part of the package. Actuated by a button on the steering wheel, it backed off the threshold of the stability control's intervention. Although the system didn't shut down completely, it gave you the sense of command you need in a real high-performance car.
Inside the cabin, you held a steering wheel wrapped in soft, racing-style suede, and it felt like it was worth $4 grand all by itself. The interior was also notable for what had been left out, as cruise control and audio controls mounted on the steering wheel don't have any place in a track car.
The Competition Package was available with a six-speed manual or the early, rough-shifting version of BMW's Sequential Manual Gearbox (SMG). Once all the usual options were factored into the price, you could be looking at $55,840.
Even Better Than Expected
When we drive this car today, its cost means nothing. Compared to the extravagant price the 2008 BMW M3 will command, this car even seems affordable. And the first time you rip through the first four gears in this M3, you forget all about money.
Think regular M3, only with the knob cranked to 10-and-a-half. The suspension is a bit tighter, the steering a bit quicker and the car's responses a bit sharper. It begs to be driven hard and usually gets its way. It's one of those cars that makes you redline every gear and storm into every corner.
Back when the car first came to us, it made all of us act stupid. "Oh, the M3," said one of our editors after a night spent driving it. "Unlock the door, buckle up, and boom instant jackass. I can't help it."
But the M3's brilliance really shows when you back it down a notch. Driving it around town at half speed while you're mired in stop-and-go traffic lets it show the impressive range of its talents.
We loved this car best with its six-speed manual transmission, and its clutch easily digests drag-strip launches as if it were a race-ready, twin-disc carbon unit, yet the pedal effort is light enough for commute traffic. Its seats are bolstered perfectly for the corners, yet also are wide enough for the freeway.
And the engine man oh man, what an engine. The 3.2-liter inline-6 is as smooth as molasses, with that special personality that physics gives six cylinders all lined up in a row. It's got the bottom-end torque of a V8 and then rushes smoothly to its power peak at 7,900 rpm like a V12. Its official power ratings are 333 hp at 7,900 rpm and 262 lb-ft of torque at 4,900 rpm, pretty impressive numbers for 2005.
A Supercar for All Seasons
Despite all its comfort and drivability, this M3 performs like a supercar. At the track our six-speed test car ran to 60 mph in 5.5 seconds, and once it stopped the clock in the quarter-mile at 13.7 seconds, it had 105.4 mph behind it. It also blasts through the slalom at 68 mph and will stop from 60 mph in a neck-stretching 112 feet.
In other words, this is one of the quickest, fastest, best-handling and best-stopping cars ever, let alone one that you can drive every day with a bunch of people inside.
Its ride might be a bit stiff for some, but only for those who never should shop for anything labeled "Competition Package." Anyone with a feel for cars would be willing to sacrifice a little ride quality for such awesome grip. Flick this car into any kind of pavement challenge you like and you can choose whatever cornering attitude you want.
But we'll warn you now, if it's tire-smoking oversteer you're after, these big rear Michelin Pilots are sticky suckers and demand a healthy shot of throttle if they're going to cooperate.
A Last Hurrah
As it turned out, the Competition Package proved to be the last hurrah for the E46 M3. After the 2006 version came to the U.S, soon information and spy videos of the 2008 BMW M3 with its high-revving V8 engine were making the rounds.
Yet for us, the E46 M3 really represents what BMW means. Its tight three-box shape captures the classic BMW look that began with the BMW 2002. Its normally aspirated engine has real personality, and it invites you to experience its power. Everything about the car is keenly mechanical, and there's almost no hint of any electronic frippery to distort the driving experience. For all its purity, this M3 can be driven comfortably every day.
The E46 M3 has been part of a unique time at BMW, an era when the company's vehicles set the standard in every category. From the 740i to the X5, every BMW has proved incredibly memorable the crisp power, the rigorously engineered suspension, the comprehensive instrumentation and even the carefully tailored interior. Even today, these vehicles define the way we think about everything on wheels. Now we are all BMW enthusiasts.
All we have to say is, the 2008 BMW M3 has a lot to live up to.
