Rare Concepts to mark BMW M3’s 30th Anniversary

The E30-generation BMW M3 was initially designed for racing but fate had its own way. When BMW tried to enter the Group A German Touring Car Championship (DTM), one of the requirements was for the car to have at least 5,000 street ready units to be sold within 12 months. BMW had to comply, and the rest was history. It was the beginning of some rare concepts that now make up the history of the BM2 M3.

The M3 originally had two doors, a naturally-aspirated engine and a manual transmission. Now, it is made as a sedan with two turbochargers, mostly sold with a dual-clutch automatic transmission. However, it still maintained the ability to easily switch from the road to the track.

In celebration of the M3’s 30th anniversary, a special edition car was launched. Throughout the years, there were also other variants of the M3 that were never released. These consists of strange and quirky BMW M3 rare concepts that were actually made but never received the green light.

One example is a proper E30 M3 Convertible that was made but just never released. There was also a pick-up truck E30 M3 made to haul parts and equipment very quickly for engineers for 26 years. They used a regular E30 convertible and converted it into a pick-up with the M3’s powertrain and suspension.

There was also an E36 BMW M3 Compact made to attract younger buyers with a slightly cheaper variant. It didn’t make it to production but it was 150 kilograms lighter, more agile, firmer and even more uncompromising than the standard E36 M3 then. That would have sold like pancakes!

The most surprising of all is the magnificent M3 concept: an E46 M3 Touring. It is a perfect blend of speed, performance, handling and practicality. It could easily been the greatest car BMW has ever made. “This prototype allowed us to show that, from a purely technical standpoint at least, it was possible to integrate an M3 Touring into the ongoing production of the standard BMW 3 Series Touring with very little difficulty,” explains Jakob Polschak. “One important thing we needed to demonstrate was that the rear doors of the standard production model could be reworked to adapt them to the rear wheel arches without the need for new and expensive tools.” And check out that Motorola flip-phone holder. Why, BMW, why did you not bring this to the world?

We also saw the E92 M3 Pickup that was also built as a transportation vehicle for parts and was developed after the original E30 M3 Pickup finally retired.

Most of these are rare concepts that could have or could not have been a hit in the market. Now, we’ll never know.