We’ve pitted against each other all the M3 generations that we could get our hands-on. E30 vs E46 vs E92 vs F80 – there can only be one winner. Join Mat as he takes you through a drag race, a rolling race and a brief journey through BMW M Car history. But before that… Let’s race!
I’m in a bmw e92 m3 gts next to me is an e30 m3 roberto ravu glia next to that is in the e46 m3 csl and next to that is an f atm three cs we can have a drag race now before we do make sure you subscribe to this channel and click the bell icon to turn your notifications on so you’re alerted when we make a new uploads and also check us out on instagram at car wave cars
Okay you don’t that right let’s do this oh god the man you call huh good lord i’ll admit sideways that cs is gone oh my gosh it’s gone and it’s increasing its lead and i zoo that is a massive difference between all the four cars anyone who complains about going to turbo power for the m3 just saw the results of doing so so then what exactly happened well the
F-80c s with its 463 litre straight-six twin-turbo to the standing quarter mile in twelve point two seconds next was the e92 gts with its 450 horsepower 4.4 liter naturally aspirated v8 it struggled a bit with wheel spin which resulted in a standing quarter mile time of thirteen point five seconds the 365 horsepower 3.2 liter straight six and a thirty six csl had an
Even worse start it took 14 point eight seconds to do the quarter-mile which is more than a second slower than it should have been mind you it still managed to destroy the 215 horsepower 2.3 liter four-cylinder e30 which despite having an awesome start took 17 seconds now we’re gonna have a rolling race from 50 miles an hour so i’m gonna get up to speed and gonna
Count the guys in all the later cars are in drive mode in their automatic gearbox so the e30 is just holding it in third gear cuz it’s a manual so here we go three two one go come on kick down oh my gosh well please kick down better than the e46 not faz just talk off i think that’s the end of it that’s the end of it that was interesting the e30 gave that a 46 and
Run for its money obviously the smg gearbox in e46 is very slow to respond the time so if you throw the throttle it has to change down and it’s gone just a single clutch the e30 was in gear ready to go so it had an advantage in that respect but the distance between them wasn’t that big this thing changed out very quickly and it was off it was pretty tight actually
With the f80 i mean the f80 has 600 newton meters of torque this has 440 so it’s quite a big difference and this is only about a hundred kilos lighter so did well this engine did really well as fun and fun is the one thing that all these cars have in common bmw has been making em threes for more than 30 years and they use a variety of engines and transmissions
But everyone has been a great drive so now i’m gonna look back at how these cars have evolved and naturally i’m gonna start at the beginning of the story the original m3 appeared in 1986 however the car i have here is a slightly more recent model from 1989 it’s a special edition named after the famous racing driver roberto ravu glia and is one of just 25 cars to
Be sold in the uk in the e30 m3 i mean this car has always been a bit of a hero for me and the question is this is a case of never meet your heroes cuz i’ll disappoint you or i’m in all of this thing at first it feels very much like an old car but then he’s very it’s very hot for this steering look it’s very loose not much happening it’s a bit weird having the
Dogleg gearbox so first gear is down here second gears up there thirds there so you can go easily between second and third but it’s a bit unusual at first you just have to figure way around the gearbox the 4-cylinder engine doesn’t feel that powerful to 215 horsepower what’s the handling like though bmw put their motorsport knowledge into this car actually it’s
Not bad at all you can definitely tell what’s going on it builds you loose it feels old it feels like it’s done 82,000 miles which is exactly what it has done but i like it i like it more than i thought i would this is a bit tricky this bit how does it cope with this trail braking oh my god that’s good trail braking and it gets it turning there we go this is
Where he started this hit the tone and they certainly carried it on after the e30 the next entry was the e36 it was the first to feature a 6-cylinder engine and was built from 1992 to 1999 unfortunately i didn’t have one available for this test so let’s move on to the e46 which arrived in 2000 the car i have here is actually a limited edition csl from 2003 it’s one
Of just 500 sold in the uk and is lighter and more powerful than the standard m3 okay so i know we’ve skipped a generation the e36 and we’re straight to the e46 but work hard to go into the m3 csl now back in the day i actually went on the original unveil of this car gave the journalist a gift he was a scale replica of the carbon fiber roof and that is one of the
Things there’s help reduce the weight of this car by a hundred and ten kilos over the normal m3 they’ve also done stuff to the engine change the valves the camshafts that’s increased the power out of the 3.2 straight-6 to a rather healthy 365 horsepower also it sounds better as well kind of free-flowing exhaust and this thing is an absolute delight perfect 50/50
Weight distribution so much feel through this alcantara steering wheel this is just an unbelievable car absolutely glorious the achilles heel is the smg semi-automatic gearbox single clutch it just chuck’s the cogs home and they’re just like jolty around its brutal on launch it works on launch but for the rest of the driving not so much however that is my only
Complaint because really this has to be one of my favorite cars ever made in the entire world ever i am loving the hell of it it can absolutely be really good the suspension is firm but it’s fair in that kind of brilliant bmw way when they sometimes just get it right in this car they have i would love to own this yeah i want one i so want one the 46 stayed in
Production until 2006 and was replaced by the e92 this one on sale the following year and this time featured an 8 cylinder engine ok then so now in the m3 gts this is a 2011 card it’s a very rare thing only 15 came to the uk out of 150 it’s more of a race car for the road even more so than the csl list i’ve got a v8 engine it’s a reworked version of the normal v8
Out of the m3 e92 and it’s got more power so 450 and it loves its revs and it sounds awesome what an ancient the floor response is just to die for i mean it just stays so flat completely flat at the corners it’s 75 kilos lighter than the standard e92 got a roll cage in the back help stiffen things up even more you can adjust the spoiler if you want to on the back
For more downforce or less so play a top speed probably too extreme really message 24 track days or just to collect i mean it’s very expensive and super desirable it’s worth about two hundred thousand pounds an hour so it’ll be very careful with it and what an improvement this dual clutch automatic is over that single clutch smg in the– 46 it’s just worlds apart
It’s a brilliant brilliant gearbox super responsive very quick just let it drive the pants off this thing just no hesitation in change up things definitely do get better with age and that’s one thing the gearbox for sure but would the m3 carry on getting better well we found out in 2014 with the arrival of the current model so here we are then in the present day
With the f80 m3 and it’s quick so we’ve gone from the va now she aspirated to a straight 6-3 liter twin-turbo it’s a bull i’m in brutal engine totally brutal doesn’t sound as good as that v8 doesn’t have the throttle response but it’s got more torque quite a lot more 600 newton meters in this because this is a limited edition cs it’s quite expensive a 6,000 pound
20,000 pounds more than the competition pack and you didn’t get some extra bits and pieces so you’ve got cotton fiber bonnet and boot lid saves in total about 10 kilos this over the competition pack bit more horsepower fortune 60 same dual clutch gearbox very good and it’s got rated suspension over the normal m3 so it just feels sharp it’s actually better balanced
And a little less skittish actually it’s very easy to control doesn’t like to go sideways as well of course if i was buying this car and m3 i wouldn’t have this one this es even though it’s more collectible i just have the competition pack thank you very much but if you were going to happen in three which one you pick leave us a comment in the box below to tell
Us which is your favorite version of bmws classic performance car they enjoyed this video please like it comment on it and share it also click on our logo to subscribe to this channel if you click on the bottom right hand corner you can actually watch more of our content meanwhile click over to the right to go to our deals page to see how much money you can save a new car a car wow
Transcribed from video
BMW M3 generations DRAG RACE, ROLLING RACE & review By carwow
