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BMW M3 Touring had its public appearance at the Goodwood Festival of Speed a few weeks ago. Aside from missing out on an opportunity to ride in the top-of-the-line M3 Touring, Joe Achilles enjoyed a ride in the longer-roofed M3.
The BMW M3 Competition xDrive gives a decent understanding of the M3 Touring’s handling characteristics. An M3 Touring is an M3 Competition xDrive with a slightly longer roofline. As a result, it shares its sedan sibling’s 3.0-litre twin-turbo inline-six engine, eight-speed automatic transmission, and all-wheel drive system. It has the same 503 horsepower and 479 lb-ft of torque as the previous generation. Because of the additional weight, the M3 Touring should accelerate to 60 mph, a fraction slower. Still, that modest performance hit is more than offset by the benefits of greater versatility.
Frank Weishar, a BMW factory driver and member of the development team for the M3 Touring, was kind enough to give Achilles a spin in the M3 Touring. Even though he’s an experienced driver, he’s also a genuine adrenaline junkie who went full-send in the M3 Touring with traction control turned all the way off in the rear-wheel drive mode.
Weishar pushed the M3 Touring as hard as he could with Achilles in the car, even got it sideways, into the grass, and clipped one of the hills climbs protecting hay bales with the back end, which was really amusing. What an incredible experience it must have been for Achilles. I envy him greatly.
