First Drive Review
Maybe you've been following the trickle of information flowing out of Munich ever since BMW showed the concept of the fourth-gen M3 at the Geneva auto show in March. We certainly have, and lately we've been getting downright fidgety waiting for a turn behind the wheel of the new version of the most popular M, now sporting a first-ever V-8: a 414-hp, 4.0-liter, 8400-rpm screamer.
Now it's time to hear it, see it in action; to feel it. On that front, be sure to check out our video on the roads of southern Spain and on the beautiful 26-turn, 3.4-mile Ascari racetrack, where you'll see a spectacular high-speed slide for life that we were sure was going to end badly (but somehow didn't) and hear plenty of delicious engine noises.
What's the Verdict?
When we're talking about new 3-series BMWs, expectations run high, particularly so for M versions, and we arrived hoping for full-on fabulous, which the M3 mostly delivered. The surprising exception was in the steering department. The M3's hydraulic rack has a much quicker, 12.5:1 ratio than that of regular 3-series and features two settings, normal and sport. In its normal setting, the steering is feather light, far lighter than in a regular 3-series and, according to BMW, "enables the driver to park the car much more easily." Come on, is this what we really need on the M3? At 100-plus-mph speeds on the highway, the steering borders on scary light in its regular setting. It's certainly accurate, however, and the sport setting clears up much of the lightness problem, but it still has a larger-than-we'd-like dead spot on-center and could use even more heft, in our opinion. Worse is that the level of tingly, tactile feedback coming through that thick-rimmed wheel seems to be dialed back a bit compared with the last M3 or even a current-gen 328i or 335i.
