Here's The Next BMW M3 Making Angry Straight-Six Noises At The 'Ring

An all-new BMW M3 will be landing later this year. The expectation is for the ‘G80’ M3 to make its first appearance at the Frankfurt Motor Show in September, although thanks to this Nurburgring spy video, we can have a cheeky preview of the car right now.

Under the bonnet will be the new ‘S58’ inline-six turbo engine which made its debut in the X3 M and X4 M. Despite complying with the current, extremely stringent emissions and noise regulations, it still sounds nicely angry, doesn’t it?

Going by the latest batch of rumours, the new M3 will be the first ever to be fitted with an ‘xDrive’ all-wheel drive system, although it’s been reported that there will be a rear-wheel drive, manual-gearbox ‘M3 Pure’ available. Almost sounds too good to be true, but we’re keeping our fingers firmly crossed.

Power and torque figures should rise relative to the outgoing F80 M3. If BMW opts to give the car the same output as the X3 M, we’d be looking at 471bhp in standard trim, and 503bhp in Competition guise.

Dynamically, we have high hopes. The G20 3-series is a good starting point for an M Division version, being both lighter and stiffer than the old F30 3er. It’s great to drive even in 320d form, so the full M experience should be something rather special.