Is this the greatest BMW ever made?
The E30 M3 is nothing short of an icon, a true homologation special. But have the past few decades diluted its appeal? Or does it still hold up today?
The M3 exists to go racing. to compete BMW had to make road legal versions available for sale to the public and we’re glad they did. The E30 to this day remains the most successful touring car in history being particularly dominant in the German DTM series so, lets dive into some of those details.
While it may look similar the only body panel the M3 shares with the original 3 series is the bonnet, every other panel is bespoke to this everything from the box arches to that unmistakable rear spoiler.
Under the bonnet you won’t find a straight six- typical of a BMW from that era- but a 2.3 litre naturally aspirated inline 4 which doesn’t sound like much but it makes over 200hp which was a lot for the time especially as it tips the scale not at not much more than 1,200kg.
It has all the classic features that BMW nerds miss like the Warning light panel, oil temperature gauge, the manual sunroof and we cannot forget the toolkit in the boot. I really thing BMW started to go downhill when they stopped offering this in their cars.
The interior of the M3 is beautifully simplistic with the curved dashboard, cloth interior and even a dogleg gearbox it’s just a shame that all e30 M3's have the steering wheel on the wrong side.
Its no wonder that these have become modern classics, and its not uncommon for E30 M3’s to now be into six figures. Crazy? Yes. Justified? Absolutely.
