Down Shift Magazine

In contrast to later M3 iterations, the E30 M3 was campaigned by BMW as well as other racing teams including Prodrive and AC Schnitzer competing in many forms of racing including rally as well as German, British, Italian, Belgian, French, and Australian touring. The production of the E30 road car was to homologate the M3 for Group A Touring Car racing.

400 Horsepower and 40 mpg? 200-mph Plug-in Electric Supercars? Automotive industry experts say yes!

The V8 Vantage was initially powered by a 4.3 L (4300 cc) quad-cam 32-valve V8 which produced 380 hp at 7,300 rpm and 302lb·ft at 5,000 rpm. However models produced after 2008 had a 4.7 liter 420 hp V8.

Dirk Müller, driver No. 56 M3 GT – “We wanted to fight back for another championship, but we had tough luck this year. A really a big thank you to everyone. Today could have ended badly, but we came back to finish fourth. Third and fourth is a great way to finish the season.”

BMW has not released any performance numbers, but since we know the car is based on the Z4 drivetrain with a turbocharged 3.0-liter in-line six cylinder powerplant, it should produce at least 369 horsepower with the overboost feature. The Z4 sDrive35is has a 0-60 time of 4.7 seconds and an electronically limited top speed of 155 mph.

The E60 M5 was introduced in 2005 and features a 4,999 cc (305.1 cu in) BMW V10 S85 engine which redlinines at 8250 rpms, and develops a peak output of 500 bhp with 380 lb·ft of torque. Unlike some other BMW engines which utilise Valvetronic to infinitely vary valve lift to eliminate the throttle plate, this engine has individual throttle bodies per cylinder. The E60 M5 was the world’s first production sedan to feature a V10 petrol engine. | Click to Enlarge – 1920×1200