The M3 is dead. No, really.

How do you write about the BMW M3 without gushing at the mouth? For much of the later part of the last three decades, this was, nay, is the car that has epitomised affordable (relatively) supercar-baiting performance for the common man.

Light, athletic, powerful (towards the end) were the keywords on its CV. As were hooligan, juvenile, and rebellious. This was the car for the kid in all of us, the kind of car that makes you take a corner hard, turn around, and do it all over again.


Today, it's still light (alu-this, carbon-that); it's definitely athletic (EDC, M-Diff, MDM); and no one doubts that it's powerful (420bhp Bi-VANOS, 4000cc V8). That's the letter of the law obeyed, but what about the spirit?

Hints of it still exist. You can still go silly quick or stupid fast in this, if you're feeling frisky. In fact, with the new electronic safety net, more people will finally get a chance of pretending to be Sultans of Slide than ever before.

But once you're done melting rubber, the sense of drama goes back down with the tyre temperature. You feel no different than if you were in just another E92 coupe, or any other BMW, for that matter. Sure there's all the M-branding, but you find just as much, if not more, in any 325i Sport, so what's the big deal?

If anything, the upcoming 135i Coupe looks like being the true heir to the throne. As with all the growing up that BMW have been doing recently, the M3 as we know it is no more. Instead, they've given us the M5-Lite. For something so special to become so... sane really breaks my heart, but that's the way the cookie crumbles. ~ Ray Singh