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Road Test

BMW M3

Test date 29 August 2007  Price as tested £51,330

It was motor racing that first persuaded BMW to prefix the name of its smallest model range with the letter ‘M’. The first ‘E30’ M3 was built in small numbers to legitimise its appearance at circuits around the globe, but such was the popularity of the concept – high power, low mass and a small footprint on the road – that the company was forced to consider a replacement.

One followed in 1993, then another in 2000, and this – model designation E92 – is the fourth-generation M3. Sales volumes have risen with each new variant and sure enough, BMW expects this car to outsell its predecessor.

It would be wrong to assume that the M3 is BMW’s automatic superstar, though. Those with long memories will recall that the 1993 3.0-litre M3, the successor to the great original, was lambasted for being too soft and in possession of poor steering. Initial reports suggest that type E92 might again be too anodyne to do justice to the most famous single-consonant, single-digit car name in the world. Has BMW sullied those two characters?

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