Quote:
Originally Posted by ASAP
While I like every M3... I think the E46 m3 was the car that was faaaaar ahead of its time and competition...
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I think the e36m3 was most far ahead of its competition and time, and then I mean the 1995 facelift.
In 1995, 321HP was immense, certainly for a 1.460 kg car.
Looking at the competition at that time....
Audi had a S2 quattro coupe.... with 230hp (1.463 kg)
OF course audi also had the porsche build RS2 avant with 316HP (still less than the bmw) but it weighed 1600kg, was produced in very low numbers and had handling issues.
Mercedes had the C36AMG, but that had only 280HP (41hp less than the bmw)
In that time, competition had to come from porsche or ferrari (f355). But even the 993 carrera S had 285HP back in that era, so BMW was playing with some pretty high positioned cars back in the day. That is the Euro e36 M3 of course, the USA model was nothing special.
By the time the e46 M3 came along both Audi and Mercedes already caught up and had models in their range (RS4, C32AMG) with more power than the M3. The M3 was still the better handling car, but in the days of the e36M3, BMW had both a far better handling car but also with considerable more power than the competition. They were top dog back then.
Nowadays they're playing catch up, with C63AMGs and Alfa Guilia QV having way more power, even more (50HP more) than the special edition m4CS, and with the Guilia QV taking the nordschleife lap record in its class when it came out....
Lots has changed in the past 20 years.