Driving Impressions

The soundbite: It doesn't get any better than this. The catch: But you gotta be going 90 miles an hour. The post script: In a curve. But before you get there, you'll go from zero to 60 mph in 4.8 seconds, and after you get around that curve, if there's a real long straightaway, you might reach 155 mph. You and the engine might want to do more, but the engine management software won't let you go beyond that. The most legal fun might be in accelerating to 70 mph on freeway onramps. The M3 loves to go through the gears, and you can actually hit redline at 8000 rpm in second gear before you have to back off to stay within the law. Second gear. So maybe you can't actually "go through" the gears. You can always short shift, of course. But jeez it's hard, when the car is accelerating so sweetly, and it sounds so wonderful, and it really really really wants you to stretch its legs all the way up to eight grand. It shouts, sings to you, "Please! Use me! That's what I'm here for! Don't let me down!" You're gonna deny it? The exhaust note is what you might expect from a 3.2-liter, 333-hp inline-6. Inline-6s are known for their sweet sound. On a racing car, sometimes the sound can be spine-tingling (Jaguar), and sometimes it can be ear-blasting (Chevy TrailBlazer Baja truck). Inline-6s are not throaty nor beefy like a V8 (BMW M5). The M3 has a muted exhaust note, almost raspy. Like the rest of the car, it doesn't attract attention (not even your own) unless you're accelerating to 8000 rpm. Seventy miles per hour in sixth gear is a mere 2650 rpm, but there's enough torque that if you floor it without downshifting (not that you would, this is just a test), you'll take off. If you're on a two-lane in a series of third-gear turns, with no gear changing, the engine responds like the world's most exotic and satisfying rheostat. And then there's the Sport mode. Not to be confused with a transmission sport mode, it's described as Engine Dynamics Control by the manual, which adds that Sport mode will cause the engine to "respond more spontaneously to the motion of accelerator pedal." Oh really? We think maybe "spontaneous" is not the word BMW was searching for, here. Sport mode does indeed gas the car on its own, however. Not a lot, but if you're driving along at a steady speed and click the button on the instrument panel, the car will shoot ahead a bit as if a tiny afterburner had been lit. After that, the throttle response will be more aggressive. We like it. It's very practical, very functional. Simply, there are times when you don't want aggressive throttle response, times when you do. The shifting linkage doesn't offer as short a throw as it might, but shifting is quite positive; the clutch action is especially and admirably smooth. It's easy to accidentally slip the gearbox into reverse if you're going from third gear to first, like when you come up to a red light that changes to green just after you stop. If you want racier shifting, go for the optional sequential manual gearbox. It's the future. Like the M5, the ride is amazing. No other carmaker that we can think of can design suspensions that corner like a racecar yet ride so comfortably, and the M sport suspension is specific to the M3. Definitely, it's firm; but we suspect it's a lot firmer than your butt thinks it is. If you know why you bought an M3, that firmness will be well worth the price of an occasional jab to the butt. Considering the handling you get for it, it's a steal. At higher speeds you can feel the jabs, but not much, and they never move the car off its track. The M3 erases the bigger bumps at higher speeds better than it does the sharp ones at low speeds, however. There's one particular manhole cover near our house that we learned to brace ourselves for, when that left front wheel hit it at 25 mph. If ride quality is important to you, then you may find plenty of performance from the BMW 330i models (see separate NewCarTestDrive.com

Final Word

Own an M3, and you can claim to own the best high-performance car on the market that isn't a total exotic. It's faster and grippier than a Porsche 911. But the best part may be that you won't have to make any significant compromises in civility.