For 30 years, every new BMW M3 has lived in the shade
of the iconic original. We put munich’s 2015 turbo-monster against its world
beating. Forebear: one built the legend, the other reframes it and the
stopwatch doesn’t lie.
It was idling in the paddock when I noticed the contrast. A
1987 FIA Group A BMW M3 race car doesn’t so much idle as grumble to itself, a
weird disparity given the visual blood thirst of the car’s bodywork. If a
first-gen M3 were a person, you’d take it to bars just to start fights.
A 1987 FIA Group A
BMW M3 race car doesn’t so much idle as grumble to itself, a weird disparity
given the visual blood thirst of the car’s bodywork.
The sticker on the driver’s door read “Lieber Niirburgring
als Ehering!”—“rather the Niirburgring than a wedding ring.” You can’t look at
that car without seeing it body checking a Mercedes in Breids-cheid, but when
the M3 launched in 1986, an angry-looking street car built to legalize a race
version, the name meant bubkes. Now, gospel touts that machine as the
winningest touring car in history, and Internet hordes will tell you that the
rapidly appreciating street model is the only BMW worth having. Never mind that
the current M3 is a carbon-roofed, 425-hp titan. Much as Jaguar has spent 50
years in the shadow of its E-type, every new Emm Drei is released to the arched
eyebrows of those who love the original.
So our staff of arched eyebrows put a 2015 M3 and a
balls-to-the-wall Group A car on a track in the same day, in the hands of a
former pro driver and yours truly. If this were a boxing match, an announcer
would thunder it open: The legend and the upstart! The brute force of tomorrow
versus the poise of yesterday! You’ll pay for the whole seat, but you’ll only
need the edge!
And yes, one car was faster. When the Internet finds out
which, it will lose its collective mind.
MW Motorsport GmbH was formed in May of 1972, but it took 11
years before the division turned to the project that would make its reputation.
In February of 1983, M began development on a version of the BMW 3-series aimed
at Group A competition. Because FIA rules dictated that Group A cars be heavily
based on a street car of which at least 5000 examples had been built in the
previous 12 months, the first M3 was distilled from racing needs.
If that sounds run-of-the-mill, it’s only because sports
cars with Ring cred are currently in vogue. In the mid-Eighties, few production
machines were this single-minded. Based on the E30-chassis 3-series coupe
(1984-1991), the M3 got a purpose-built engine, recalibrated steering and
suspension, steel fender flares for wider wheels, a lift-reducing wing, a new
C-pillar and ranged rear glass to help the wing work, and hundreds of
mechanical tweaks. The only exterior panel untouched was the hood.
Based on the
E30-chassis 3-series coupe (1984-1991), the M3 got a purpose-built engine,
recalibrated steering and suspension, steel fender flares for wider wheels, a
lift-reducing wing, a new C-pillar and ranged rear glass to help the wing work,
and hundreds of mechanical tweaks.
The engine was a highlight. Although there was an internal
push to use one of BMW’s signature inline-sixes, M technical director Paul
Rosche, the mad genius behind BMW’s 1400-hp, four-cylinder Formula 1 engines,
wanted the balance and high-rpm stability of a twin-cam four. To make the first
prototype, he literally sawed two cylinders from the head of an M88—the
24-valve six from the Ml supercar— and paired it with a version of the iron
block used in the 2002tii. (Fun facts: The FI project started with that same
block, and Rosche was later responsible for the McLaren FI’s V-12.) Test
engines vibrated themselves to pieces but produced around 200 hp and more than
7,000 rpm.
To make the first
prototype, he literally sawed two cylinders from the head of an M88—the
24-valve six from the Ml supercar— and paired it with a version of the iron
block used in the 2002tii.
