BMW M3 Competition

Before we get stuck in, I want to make you a promise: I won’t let the appearance of the new BMW M3 colour my assessment of it. I don’t particularly like the way it looks, but I understand some other people do. Quite who these people are and what other aesthetic choices they make in life I can only begin to imagine, but each to their own.

What’s indisputable is that this sixth-generation M3 is a very different sort of car to the little two-door, box-arched coupe that arrived in 1986. From 1200kg, 200bhp, a naturally aspirated four-pot and a manual gearbox 35 years ago we find ourselves here, more than 500kg heavier, 310bhp more power, two additional cylinders and a pair of turbos, plus a choice to make when it comes to transmissions – make do with the slushy eight-speed automatic or buy something else altogether.