#BMW100 Review: 10 Hours With The BMW M3 Sport Evolution

Courtesy of my friend at Niello BMW, yesterday, I get the chance to spend 10 hours with a BMW M3 Sport Evo. It was the best 10 hours that I’ve ever spent in my sub-30 years of living.

The BMW E30 M3 is one of most enjoyable best handling road cars I have ever driven, offering astonishing balance due to its 48/52-weight distribution, telepathic in choosing the correct line, with a chassis that is alive and gives the car a personality, which is missing from many of today’s mundane cars. A very high revving 4-cylinder engine, a 5-speed dog-leg manual, NO driver assists, what else do you want? This car has it all.

Until the mid 80’s, BMW Motorsport had produced just four road-legal models, the M1 supercar, the E9 CSL, the E12 M535i saloon and the sublime M635 CSi. But with the E30 M3, BMW were aiming for a much wider audience. The production of that one was dictated by FIA’s Group A homologation requirements that stipulated 5000 road cars had to be produced. Exceeding by far the Garching Motorsport department’s capability, M3 production consequently took place at BMW’s Munich factory.

...BMW were aiming for a much wider audience

Unlike the newer M3, the E30 were never made to appeal regular 3-Series customers. It was a race car for the streets due to homologation rules just like something like, say, the 911 GT1. It made absolutely no sense to regular 911 customers who were most likely just a middle aged bloke in his crisis. The E30 was made for pure enthusiasts. The car was also a beginning of a fierce rivalry against the one and only Mercedes-Benz with their 190E Cosworth the DTM (Deutsche Touren Meisterschaft). This was a true battle against two direct competitors only separated by a stretch of Autobahn between Swabia and Bavaria. BMW sold easily all the 5,000 production M3’s required to enter DTM. The M3 completely kicked not only Mercedes-Benz’s ass, but also the Ford guys with their Sierra. The M3 won many races and spread the fame of BMW’s Motorsports Division worldwide. That would be the same department that developed the M1, M5, and the V10 F1 engine, which has shown that they can beat their competitors like Mercedes , Ferrari , and Ford (Jaguar) on a regular basis. But, what does all of this mean to its road going competitors of the day, like the Lancia Delta, Ford Cosworth, and the previously mentioned Mercedes 190E 2.3/2.5-16V? It meant that from a driving standpoint this car was superior. It really was. Not only the DTM, the M3 was also dominating in other touring car race series such as the World Touring Car Championship, British Touring Car Championship, Italian Touring Car Championship, French Touring Car Championship and the Australian Touring Car Championship.

Under the hood, there’s a 2.5-liter 16V DOHC I4 in the Sport Evolution model. The EU spec model (the one that I drove) has 235 hp. It’ll do 0-60 in around 6 seconds and it’ll keep going until around 150.

Driving the E30 around a twisty roads, you can definitely feel the race car-ness in this. It has Recaro seats up front which looks really nice, and it is supportive. It was never made to be on the road but the M3 is surprisingly very comfortable. The near perfect 50/50 weight distribution helps the car’s handling a lot. The suspension of the M3 was suitably enhanced over a regular E30 using up-rated springs,all-new gas-pressurised dual Boge dampers and thicker anti-roll bars for front and rear.

One interesting option that was made available for the Evo 3 was Boge’s variable Electronic Damper Control (EDC) that provided three settings for the shocks (Sport, Normal and Comfort), all adjustable via a toggle switch located alongside the handbrake recess.

...it was never made to be on the road but the M3 is surprisingly very comfortable...

By the first corner you’ve worked out that although the first-to-second change is a little slow, the dog-leg pattern ’box with first down and to the left is a breeze. By the second corner you’re convinced that the steering is almost everything everyone says about it. Light, full of feel and razor sharp, its only slight failing is longish gearing (3.7 between the stops) which means that it never turns in quite as quickly as you’d expect. By the third corner your mind is focused on the incredible combination of ride comfort and body control, how light and alert the car feels, how great the visibility is thanks to those slim pillars, and you begin to fully understand why millionaires with garages full of exotica are beating a path to E30 M3 ownership in the hope of fulfilment. I’ve driven a 320is, a 325i, a 325e (all E30), they’re all very fun. But the E30 M3, sure, the exterior might look like a 318i coupe with boxy fender flares and big deep front bumper and a rear wing and same with the interior. But the way it drives is just on another segment. It is a ton of fun, this thing. The way the E30 M3 feeds the power is phenomenal. There’s a bit of oversteer exiting the corner but it is so predictable. Cornering is mega fun, just turn in, the steering gives a nice feedback, and just a wiggle when you exit the corners.

VS E46 M3?

The E30 is a tad more fun in my opinion but because the E46 is a larger car, it is a better all rounder. So, if I had the chance to take one home, which one will that be? Both. I need both. They’re just two fun cars that I can’t even explain.

The E30 M3 is something that BMW should look back at. Not just make an M car to appeal regular customers (a.k.a sub-humans), but something that belongs to the track, where driving skills matter. Not MPG or cabin space or any of that. Thank you for the M2, it is a serious contender and I hope BMW will make more cars like the coming M2. Happy birthday, BMW. Here’s for another 100 years of Ultimate Driving Machines.