If you ever get the chance to visit the Nürburgring–and for real, make it happen–a couple bits of the local vibe hit you after you spend a few hours there.
First, the area feels very much like a surf town–just like when you walk around Santa Cruz or San Clemente, you get the …
What’s an M3 Like Now?
So of course it’s no surprise that we have one in the fleet. And like the ones seen at the Nürburgring, this 2004 model sits lower thanks to Bilstein coil-overs, with the fronts topped with Vorshlag camber plates. Some Powerflex bushings have been fitted, along with 17x9.5-inch Apex wheels and Falken Azenis tires. Then add in some bits and setup advice from BimmerWorld.
Nothing on the car has been prepped overly aggressively, as it still sees the overwhelming amount of its use on the road. The result is a car that nicely emulates those Nürburgring haulers with a purposeful stance and fractionally upgraded performance but sacrifices little to none of its original comfort and drivability.
So of course, we wanted to see how this legendary machine held up on track after two decades. Off to our official test track, the Florida International Rally & Motorsport Park.
The M3’s interior blends function with form: well-bolstered seats, meaty steering wheel and, on our car, some cool checker mats from CocoMats.com.
It should be noted that as our official test driver, I have basically three approaches to running laps there: the one I take in my own car, the one I take with press loaners, and the one I take with another staff member’s car. The M3 is owned by our editor, and its value has been appreciating steadily. We won’t mention what an engine rebuild would cost.
The aggressiveness of each of my approaches is slightly less based on the awkwardness of having an “I killed the car” conversation with my own insurance company, a manufacturer PR rep, or someone I have to work with every single day, respectively. Still, as we’ve detailed in the past, the difference between these approaches is usually measured in tenths of a second rather than entire clicks on the watch.
All those disclaimers aside, the bottom line is that the E46 M3 not only drives like a sophisticated machine, but performs on track like a thoroughly modern sports sedan.
The E46 M3 just drips with that corporate DNA. Maybe it doesn’t have the super-sharpest steering feel, but it makes up for it with high-resolution chassis dynamics unmatched in a car with such practical uses. The M3 puts your entire body to work–hips, shoulders, inner ear–in telegraphing exactly what it’s doing on the road or between the apexes.
The M3 rewards revs. Even in stock form, once the engine is warmed up, it’ll take 8000 rpm.
Our test car was equipped with a set of 255mm-wide Falken RT615K+ tires, which are probably a little narrow by modern standards on a car of this size and performance. Still, the handling balance felt nearly dead neutral, with excellent characteristics past the turn-in point.
That turn-in can feel a little vague due to the slightly soft steering, but as soon as all four tires start to develop lateral loads, the whole car shifts into high def and just comes alive. Mid-corner and corner exit, where you can use that high-winding engine and factory limited-slip to perfectly set the tail where you want it, are particularly gratifying.
The street-focused StopTech brake pads don’t feel up to the rest of the car’s capabilities, but the data traces looked surprisingly good. Later, we found an issue with the car’s ABS unit, but again, just looking at the data, we might not have caught it.
The car’s inherently communicative manner telegraphs any imperfections so clearly that you can make any necessary driving adjustments in real time. When faced with less than ideal ABS intervention, the rest of the feedback was so good that I could just manage without.
Enough Talk, How Fast Is the M3?
For a comparison, we dropped the M3’s data over an actual thoroughly modern performance sedan, the 276-horsepower Hyundai Elantra N. It’s another car that fairly oozes passion and makes for an exceptional track companion for drivers of any skill level. The Hyundai retails for about $35,000, while M3 coupes currently dither somewhere around that figure.
While the Hyundai slightly outpaced the BMW–the modern sedan’s 1:22.08 just barely beat out the M3’s 1:22.48–remember that these tests were performed more than a year apart. Had the M3’s owner not been watching, I bet I could have gotten a few more tenths out of it.
The BMW has to be balanced with hands, feet, eyes and brain, while the Hyundai can simply be flung with abandon. The Hyundai is highly satisfying, and getting to 100% feels like it takes less effort. Still, once you push the M3 toward the edge of its envelope, the experience is well worth the slight additional exertion.
The BMW’s revvier 3.2-liter inline-six needs to be aggressively wound up, while the Hyundai simply delivers turbocharged torque everywhere: 289 lb.-ft. between 2100 and 4700 rpm, while the BMW peaks out with 262 lb.-ft. at 4900 rpm.
1. The BMW M3 (red trace) needed to slow a little earlier than the Hyundai (blue trace) for Turn 4, but the classic late apex and excellent mid-corner and exit performance gave the M3 an advantage down the next straight. 2. From behind the wheel, our M3’s street pads didn’t feel particularly aggressive, but the data shows that the BMW slows for the turns as well as the more modern Elantra N. 3. Acceleration in most cases is almost identical, with the 276-horsepower Elantra–with its eight-speed DCT–keeping pace with the more powerful, six-speed BMW. The BMW does fall off a bit in fourth, however.
The speed traces for both cars look nearly identical except for one spot: the fast right-hand kink of Turn 4. The BMW slows down early, gets back to throttle early, and is rewarded with a classic late-apex speed advantage down the next straight. The Hyundai pounds into the corner faster, but the natural understeer tendency of the front-drive chassis scrubs a bit of speed mid-corner and robs top end down the next straight.
It’s the classic comparison of old versus new. The new stuff has been polished to the point that it’s hard to make a mistake, but it can also make it tough to see incremental improvement past a certain point. The older stuff may be less sophisticated and demand more precise execution to succeed, but when it does, it’s so, so satisfying.
And that’s what the E46 M3 gives you: objectively and subjectively modern performance, with a passionate link to the old-school ways.
