Although we are not that far away from the official debut of the all-new M3 sedan and the M4 coupe, BMW is more than excited to share with the world the details of these highly anticipated sports cars. In case you are wondering, these two cars will be sharing the same platform, mechanical hardware and many other components.
So for cars like these, we will go straight to where it matters the most; the engine. Instead of finding a naturally aspirated 4.0-liter V8 engine under the hood, a new 3.0-liter twin-turbocharged inline-six producing around 424-horsepower and 369 lb-ft of torque is preferred. And how good can this new power plant perform? We will soon find out as BMW has yet to release any acceleration figures for the moment.
This is the smallest engine to be used on an M3 since the first-gen E30 2.3-liter naturally aspirated inline-four. And since this is their first ever turbocharged unit, it is also the most powerful overall base production unit. According to BMW, it can spin up to 7,500 rpm and offers “an improvement of more than 25-percent over the previous model’s figures, while emissions are already EU6-compliant”.
And for those who think manual gearboxes are a dying breed, then here is a piece of good news as both the new M3 and M4 will be available with a six-speed manual as standard, while the seven-speed M Double Clutch Transmission will be available as an option.
With a smaller engine and a number of new parts like the revised gearbox, these Bimmers are now lighter than ever. They managed to reduce the kerb weight of the M4 all the way to less than 1,500kg, making it 80kg lighter than the E92 M3 coupe.
BMW also included a couple more details of the cars’ features such as an aluminium suspension, electric power steering with three settings, optional Adaptive M suspension and carbon ceramic brakes.
“The BMW M3 and BMW M4 take motor sport technology from the track to the road, and thousands of laps of the legendary Nürburgring Nordschleife – the world’s most demanding race track – have readied the new models for that transition. Meticulous and passion-fuelled development work has underpinned the creation of two high-performance sports cars that set new standards in terms of overall concept, precision and agility,” said the President of BMW M GmbH, Freidrich Nitschke.
