Thirty years ago BMW gave the world the BMW M3. Originally designed for World, European, and German Touring Championship racing, the road-legal versions sold to homologate the car became a benchmark high-performance sports coupe just as the racing M3 became one of the most successful touring race cars of all time.
Between 1987 and 1991, the BMW M3 won the World Touring Car Championship, the European Touring Car Championship twice; the British Touring Car Championship twice; the Italia Superturismo Championship four times; the Deutsche Tourenwagen Meisterschaft (DTM) twice; the Australian Touring Car Championship; the Australian 2.0-Liter Touring Car Championship; the Australian Manufacturers' Championship twice; the AMSCAR Series twice; and the Irish Tarmac Rally Championship. On the way to those championships, the E30 M3 also won the Nürburgring 24 Hours five times and the Spa 24 Hours four times.
By starting the M3 dynasty with a car that good, that successful, and for the street version owners, that much fun, it’s only right that BMW commemorates the car by bringing forth a special “30 Jahre M3” Limited Edition.”
Unfortunately, this edition is, in our opinion, severely limited—not in performance, but in availability. Only 500 “30 Jahre M3” cars will be built, and of those, only 150 will come to the U.S.
Unlike some of the limited edition BMWs of the past couple of years, the “30 Jahre M3” will be borderline affordable for many more U.S. BMW enthusiasts, since the price tag is $84,245 for the manual transmission version and $87,145 for the dual-clutch transmission car. Both prices include destination and handling fees. That is a lot of cash considering the base price of a 2016 M3 is $65,445, but a fully decked out F80 M3 already is well over $70,000.
The extra dough for the “30 Jahre M3” is worth it, considering you get an exclusive BMW Individual Macao Blue paint job to commemorate the Macao Blue that was optional on the first-generation Sport Evo BMW M3. Add in BMW Individual Full Merino Leather in bi-color black and Fjord Blue;the Competition package; the Sports exhaust system with black chrome tailpipes; special “30 Jahre M3” logos on the M gills, doorsills, and front seat headrests; M Sports seats with woven in M stripes; and now the “30 Jahre M3” price starts to look almost reasonable.
But wait, there’s more—and this is the really good stuff. BMW has bumped the “30 Jahre M3’s” power up 19 horsepower to 444 and the torque pulls 406 pound-feet.
The Competition package also brings in the Adaptive M suspension, new springs, dampers, and stabilizers, modified driving mode parameters, a modified standard Active M differential, and new Dynamic Stability Control (DSC) settings. The package also features 20-inch forged Light Alloy 666 M Star spoke wheels and 265/30R20 tires in the front and 285/30R20 in the rear.
All of this means that should you acquire a “30 Jahre M3,” you will be able to take it from zero to 60 miles per hour in 3.8 seconds with the DCT and 4.0 seconds with the stick.
Even though it pays tribute to an M3 from three decades ago, the “30 Jahre M3” has all of the technology that comes with a normal F80 M3, including the Driver Assistance Plus Package that features Active Blind Spot Detection, Active Driving Assistance, Side and Top View Cameras, and Speed Limit Information. The Executive Package provides a Head-up Display, Heated Steering Wheel, Rear View Camera, Heated Rear Seats, Park Distance Control, and Wireless Charging. Headlights are Adaptive Full LED with Automatic High beams.
The BMW “30 Jahre M3” Limited Special Edition will be available at a relatively small percentage of BMW dealers starting this month. If you want one and haven’t yet spoken with your dealer, it may already be too late. That’s why we have a problem with this special edition BMW. The original E30 M3 made available a superb handling and very fast car with racing DNA available to thousands of enthusiasts. The E30 M3 begat the E36 and then the E46 and so on. In doing so, it gave many tens of thousands of drivers the chance to own a car that made them better drivers and probably did more to establish BMW as the “Ultimate Driving Machine” than any other model.
In that spirit, if any BMW should have a larger special edition release rather than a tiny one, it should be the “30 Jahre M3.”—Scott Blazey
[Photos courtesy of BMW AG.]
