Toss the “What is a supercar?” grenade into
a beer-fueled gearhead conversation, and you can guarantee that at least one of
you is going to end up in the ER. Must it be mid-engine? Made in Italy? Have a
motorsport pedigree? Fight, fight, fight! One fact everyone can agree on: Most
proper supercars are out of reach of the average car guy.
Which makes the new M3 sedan—and its
mechanically identical M4 coupe sibling—two of our most anticipated cars in
ages. Given that this issue’s prep weeks held tests of the Ferrari LaFerrari,
the Lamborghini Huracán, and the Porsche 918 (the latter our first outing in
the car on American soil), that’s saying something.
The
M3 has adopted a lightweight carbon-fibre-reinforced plastic propshaft
Okay, so you’d struggle to describe a
$62,925 BMW as blue-collar. But in a market that’s seen even the Nissan GT-R
head north of $100,000, the M3 and M4 offer serious go for the dough. And if
you can’t afford one now, you know in three years, you’ll be able to pick one
up for half the money and run it without selling an organ every time the car
needs service.
The M3 was always a supercar for the
people. What it has never been, until now, is turbocharged. While this isn’t
the first M car to go forced induction—BMW’s performance sub-brand stepped away
from its high-revving, naturally aspirated roots several years ago—it’s
certainly the most important. The M3 is the volume model that everyone loves,
but it’s also the car the rest of the industry uses as a benchmark, and a badge
that built the brand.
The
M4 really is a car for all occasions
Gone is the previous M3’s glorious, 8400
rpm, 4.0-liter V-8. In its place comes the model’s first straight-six since
2006. Loosely based on the single-turbo N55 engine fitted to BMW’s “35i” cars,
this 3.0-liter, dubbed S55, gets a second turbocharger, with each mono-scroll
blower working on its own trio of cylinders. Predictably, the new mill doesn’t
wind as high as the old V-8, but 7,600 rpm is heady stuff for a production
engine with a couple of hamster wheels strapped to its manifolds.
Power creeps from 414 hp to 425 hp, but
it’s the torque that matters. The V-8 sounded like it could win a tractor pull
but made just 295 lb-ft at a relatively high 3900 rpm. The new six makes 406
lb-ft, smeared from 1,850 to 5,500. That makes for effortless performance,
whether you’re passing in top gear or being launched to 60 mph in as little as
a claimed 3.9 seconds (with the automatic, down 0.6 second from the V-8 car,
BMW says). Fourth gear now pulls hard through curves that previously required
third, and stomping the gas in second rewards with a couple of neat black lines
as the electronically controlled M differential apportions power. Want more
hooliganism? Try the dual-clutch automatic’s Smokey Burnout mode (its real
name), a lead-footed alternative to launch control that bangs its clutches home
and sends you slewing up the road.
The
M3’s interior is driver-focused and as comfortable as you'd expect from an M
car
It gets better. There’s a manual gearbox.
Lifted from the old 1-series M Coupe, this six-speed transmission saves you
$2900 over the (admittedly excellent) two-pedal ’box and trims 55 pounds. The
automatic has one more ratio, but its seventh gear is a long freeway cog, and
not missed. Besides, with a torque curve flatter than Kansas, who needs seven
gears?
