BMW M3 - E30, E36 and E46 driven CAR review

The ultimate BMW M3 test: E30 Sport Evo v E36 Evo v E46 CSL

M3. No confusion, just instant comprehension. The badge, the name, is universally understood. One letter and one number that combined are as globally recognisable as Schuey’s chin. BMW is launching a new one and can’t afford to get it wrong. Here are three reasons why: the three greatest M3s of their generation, an E30 Sport Evo, an E36 Evo saloon and an E46 CSL, made-in-metal reminders of everything the M3 stands for. Yet the moniker has come to stand for something quite different to the original E30 that BMW first revealed at the ’85 Frankfurt Motor Show. Like so many of the greatest road cars, the M3 started off on the circuit, only finding its way onto autobahns because 5000 road cars were required to satisfy homologation requirements. That first M3, based on the E30 saloon, was an unqualified success in every respect. It dominated touring car championships here and abroad, fending off the attack of Sierra and Merc 190 Cosworths and was a commercial success too, developing a strong following worldwide, and particularly in Britain; this despite coming in left-hand drive only and carrying a lofty £23k price tag that made it appear, on paper at least, dubious value in the face of Ford’s faster, cheaper and lairier Cossie.

£23k for an M3? Makes the new one seem cheap...

A close look at the E30 M3 reveals just where that money went - and a drive confirms that it was worth it. Much more than a tarted-up 325i Sport, the original E30 shares only the bonnet with its humbler siblings. Those fabulous arches are all steel and flared to allow the racing version to run big rubber, the rear windscreen is uniquely raked to help direct air towards the rear spoiler and both screens are bonded to the body rather than housed in old fashioned rubbers to improve aerodynamics which was probably like urinating on a bonfire given the cliff-face grille’s ability to scythe through the air. If, like me, you remember Saturday afternoons glued to the TV while Steve Soper doorhandled his E30 around Brands, you will not fail to get goose bumps standing in the company of what, to most people, is just another square old BMW. Then if, like me, you’re very lucky, you get given the keys and lose the plot altogether. Maths was never my strongest suit but you don’t need a degree in hard sums to realise that the original M3 is so much more than the total of those parts. It’s not particularly quick, it doesn’t sound that special, you have to sit on the left and from inside it looks and feels no better than the mouldy 318i that some thoughtless sod has abandoned in the layby down the road.