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The BMW M3 has just clocked up 40 years, and the badge still casts a longer shadow than almost anything else wearing four doors. It started at the 1985 Frankfurt IAA show with the E30. That first car used a 2.3-litre four-cylinder with four-valve technology, good for 200hp. It weighed just 1,200kg, reached 100km/h in 6.7 seconds and ran on to 235km/h. A soft-top followed. So did silverware, with wins in the DTM, the World Touring Car Championship and the Nürburgring 24 Hours.
The second generation landed in 1992 with calmer styling and the first six-cylinder M3 engine. Buyers could pick a coupe, a convertible or, shortly after launch, a four-door saloon. From 1996 the Sequential M Gearbox joined the options list. The third car, from 2000, looked far meaner. Power dome, swollen arches, twin-branch exhaust. Its 3.2-litre straight six made 343hp. The stripped-back CSL pushed that to 360hp and cracked 100km/h in 4.9 seconds, while the M3 GTR racer piled up ALMS wins and took the Nürburgring 24 Hours twice.
In 2007 BMW did something it has never repeated. It dropped a naturally aspirated 4.0-litre V8 into the M3. The high-revving unit made 420hp and fired the coupe to 100km/h in 4.8 seconds. That engine remains a cult favourite among M fans. The same era carried BMW back into the DTM in 2012 after a 20-year absence, and the M3 DTM swept the board. Bruno Spengler took the drivers’ crown, BMW Team Schnitzer the teams’ title and BMW the manufacturers’ honours.
Turbocharging arrived in 2014. The fifth-generation car wore the M3 badge on the four-door saloon alone. Out went the V8, in came a high-revving straight six running M TwinPower Turbo. Purists grumbled. The numbers did not. The Competition Package version served up 450hp, dipped under 100km/h in 4.0 seconds and burned a quarter less fuel than the V8 it replaced.
Which brings us to the current car, launched in 2020 and still built around a straight six. M xDrive joined the range in 2021, and the long-awaited M3 Touring followed in 2022 to finally give the badge a proper boot. The limited-run M3 CS now sits at the summit as the quickest series-production M3 yet, hitting 100km/h in 3.4 seconds and running to a limited 302km/h. With an electric M3 already teased, the recipe is about to change completely.
