**The Ultimate Showdown: BMW M3 vs Audi S4**

In this video, we'll be pitting two of the most iconic performance cars against each other - the BMW M3 and the Audi S4. Both of these cars have had their fair share of issues over the years, but which one comes out on top? We'll delve into the history of both models, their reliability, buildability, and even take a look at some crazy modifications that enthusiasts have made to them.

**A Brief History**

The BMW M3 has been around for 35 years, with six generations in that time. It took 50 years for the Mustang to reach its sixth generation, which gives you an idea of just how long these cars have been around. Both the first-gen M3 and the S4 are much more reliable than their later counterparts, thanks to their simplicity and racing roots.

**Reliability**

When it comes to reliability, both cars have their strengths and weaknesses. The S4 is generally more reliable due to its all-wheel drive system, which makes it less prone to issues. However, the M3 has been modified in countless ways over the years, making it a favorite among enthusiasts who want to push the limits of what's possible.

**Buildability**

The M3 is a capable car right out of the box, with many people considering it the ultimate driving machine. As such, it's a popular choice for modification enthusiasts. People do all kinds of things with their M3s, from drift builds and track builds to engine swaps - sometimes, all three in one car! In fact, there were four M3s entered into the Formula Drift Pro division in 2019.

The S4, on the other hand, is a bit more straightforward. Its all-wheel drive system makes it less popular for swaps, but it's still a great choice for those who want big power. Street S4s can be built to the 500-600 horsepower range while still being daily drivers. On the drag strip, the all-wheel drive and low-end torque of the S4 can absolutely smash it - USP Motorsports has a VR6-powered B5 that ran an 8.68 quarter mile at 166 miles per hour!

**Crazy Engine Swaps**

Both cars have had their fair share of crazy engine swaps over the years. The M3 is popular for swapping in LS engines and 2JZ, while the S4 has been known to get a Volkswagen VR6. The B7 S4 can even be fitted with a big V8, and the B8 gets that supercharger one. And then there's the B5, which can have muffled turbo noises.

**Records on Ice**

Buldre Racing has set two records at the annual Swedish SpeedWeek for top speed on ice - 202 miles per hour in a B5 Avant and 212 miles per hour in an E30 M3. The big difference? The S4 was running the factory V8 engine, while the M3 had been swapped with a 1,300-horsepower 2JZ.

**The Verdict**

So, which one is it - are you an S4 fan or an M3 man? Let us know in the comments! Show us and the community some of your cool S4s and M3s on Instagram and Twitter @DonutMedia. We'll be in the comments for the first hour this week and every week on Versus.

Remember, the real points that matter are the points in your heart.

WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: en- Do you want a carwith a respectable badgethat will make your in-laws thinkyou're moderately successful,while still being able to gapanything that happensto pull up next to you?Do you want a precision machinebuilt for some no-nonsense nonsense?Then you, my friend, havea choice in front of you.Do you go with the DTM hero,the icon of BMW, the M3?Or do you go with the all-wheel drive,all-action powerhouse, the Audi S4?This is the S4 versus the M3.They're pretty comparable,but choosing a winner is a tough decisionand a decision that only you can make.So we've put together a bunch of researchshowing the pros and cons of each.And hopefully, by the end of the video,you can decide which is the one for you.Once we've gone through all of that,jump into the comments sectionso we can see whateveryone's favorites are.We are gonna look at theirhistory in motorsport,their performance off the track,the technology that went into them,how much reliability they don't have,and just how crazy they canget when you build them out.Round one, motorsport.In this round, we are gonna take a lookat the achievements inmotorsport of these two carsand the motorsport heritagethat built them in the first place.One thing I know about motorsport is,you can't spell it without M.The M3 was literally born in motorsport.It was a homologation carfor the Group A DTM racing series in 1986.This meant that it was a road carthat was basically the sameas the race car BMW was using.Even though the original M3 was runninga naturally aspiratedfour-cylinder engine,it was still competing against and beatingturbocharged and largerdisplacement engines.Before the Audi S4 even hit show floors,the M3 had won 17different world championshipsin nine classes.The E30 M3 was a track monster.There's no denying,it's one of the mostsuccessful cars of its time.The original S4 wasn't directlyinvolved in motorsportsthe same way the E30 was.But it benefited from Audi'smotorsport experience.Every S4 since its launch in 1991has come with the Quattroall-wheel drive systemthat made Audi a two-timeConstructor's Championshipin World Rally Cross.- If I have some emotion,of course it's the noise of the Quattro.(car engine roaring)- The Quattro was alsoa three-time overall winnerof the Pike's Peak Hill Climb,and the Audi 200 had been sodominant in the IMSA GTO class,they were basically asked to leave becauseother teams were threatening to quit.- We don't have the advantageof the all-wheel drive Audis.- The S4 had the Quattroall-wheel drive systemand a version of that samefive-cylinder turbo enginefrom these race legends.Are these the S4's achievements?No.The S4 is a direct resultsof those race programs,and it was the inclusion ofthese race-winning elementsthat got people so hyped onthe announcement of the S4.The second gen brought about the E36 M3,which won the IMSA GTChampionship in 1997.After the success of the E30, though,race teams and enthusiasts alikewere clamoring for ahomologation version of the E36.Europe got the M3 GT.Australia got the M3R.Germany got the M3 GTR.And in the U.S., wegot the M3 Lightweight.Without a radio, A/C,or top speed limiter,it was a race car for the road.And it was 200 poundsless than the standard M3.It may not have sold wellwhen it was new, but today,the 100 or so-ish Lightweightsthat were producedcan sell for $100,000.The second gen S4, the B5,much like the first,didn't see much track time.Audi were using the morepowerful RS4 in most cases.But the little S4 startedto get some more support,and the B5 S4 won the GTWorld Challenge America title,or as it was known in 2001,the Speed Vision World Challenge.Once we were into the 2000s,the S4 and M3 were on a little moreof an even playing fieldin terms of motorsport.The Audi S4 won theSCCA World Challenge GTin 2001 and again in 2002.And about the same time, the E46 M3was competing in theAmerican Le Mans Series GT.The M3 GTR won in 2001, butthere's a big disagreementon whether it had methomologation standards.BMW needed to build 10 for sale,and they kind of only ever made sevenand sold them for 250 grand each.The M3 also hit the trackwith the fourth gen.The E92 won the GT2 Endurance categoryat the 24 Hours of Nurburgring in 2010,the 12 Hours of Sebring in 2011,and it marked BMW's returnto DTM racing in 2012.But even though the current M3isn't a homologation speciallike it started out as,it's had race wins andchampionship trophiesfor almost every generation.The Audi S4 isn't much of a racer,but it's got a few SCCA winsand the trickle-down engineeringof a much more successful race car.Has that helped you make your decision?Do you know which one you want more?Well, hold on because theseare not just race cars.Next round, we're gonna takea look at them on the road.Round two, road car performance.Race wins give us somegreat numbers to look at.But where the rivalry reallyhits with these two carsis on the road.In round two, we are good lookat the performance and specsof the consumer models of these two cars.The M3 was first made available in 1986with BMW's dominant race-bred S14 enginethat revved to the moon andback and made 197 horsepower.Even though it was a homologation special,people loved them so much,BMW ended up making over17 thousand of them.Five years later, the firstAudi S4 was released in the U.S.And it kicked the M3's buttwith a turbocharged I5 engine,making 227 horsepower and258 foot pounds of torque.From then on, these two carswould trade horsepowernumbers back and forth.1992, U.S. E36, 270 horsepower.V8 S4 Plus, 276 horsepower.M3, 1995 Facelift, 315 horsepower.BMW's approach wasconsistent and methodical.Each generation, they'd addmore cylinders or more displacement.By the time the E90 was released in 2007,the M3 was making over 400horsepower from a four-liter V8.The S4 started with a five-cylinder turbo,which already... What?But it's turbo-chargedengine was so well-engineeredthat when the first gen came out,it out-accelerated thelighter E30 M3 at a 60.Did I mention that the E30M3 was a homologation car?And it just got beat by a sedanthat was over 1,000 pounds heavier.After that five-cylinder,Audi took a more inconsistent approach.The S4 went to a twin turbo V6,then to a naturally aspirated V8,then to a super-charged V6,and finally the current turbo V6.Audi was always trying different things.And while that is cool,the power numbers don'tgrow as consistently.In 2003, the B6 S4 was the firstcompact executive car inthe U.S. to have a V8.Compact executive carsounds like a categorythat the Germans made up.But regardless, the B6's 4.2-liter40-valve dual overhead cam V8was making 339 horsepower.That was more than the E46M3 was making at the timewith its 3.2-liter I6.How much more?Um, one.One more, more horsepower.Since then, the stock S4has only gained about 10 horsepower,but the M3 has gained almost 100.The M3 is also stilllighter than similar S4s,especially since the S4 wasnever offered as a coupe.But the S4s are liketrained acapella singers.They can hold a tune.(car engine revving)Audi left a little on the table,especially with the B5, B8, and B9 S4s.With just a simple flash tune,you could pull 80horsepower out of thin air.With the B8 S4 versus the E90 M3,this was a big deal.The naturally aspiratedV8 of the BMW was great,but it didn't respond to tuning as wellas the Audi's supercharged V6.(engine revving)All this kind of goes out the windowwhen you add the newest M3,the F80 M3, into the conversation.With its three-liter twin-turbo I6,it's got more power stockthan an S4 does on a stage one tune.And it's like 300 pounds lighter.This is a departure fromthe normal M3 method.It's the first time theengine has gotten smaller,and it's the first time the M3has been boosted from factory.But you can build up aB8 S4 much, much higherthan just that basic tune.You swap a pulley outon that supercharger,and you could be tickling theunderside of 500 horsepower.But performance isn't allabout horsepower, is it?Even though moving from theV8s to the supercharge V6sthe S4 lost 10 horsepower,it actually had a faster zeroto 60 by over half a second.The S4 was always improvingand giving the M3 a fight.The M3 had stiffer, moreperformance-orientedsuspension for better grip.But the all-wheel drive system in the S4could launch it out of the corner,as long as you got it toturn in in the first place.The S4 gives the M3 a good challenge,but it has always kindof been the underdog.Throughout the years, it hasplayed catch-up with the M3,and that has made them both better cars.So now you've got a littlebit of a better ideaof the performance of these cars,both on-track and off-track.But that is not where thecomparison and rivalry ends.There's more going on in round three.Round three, technology.Raw power isn't all that makes a car.As cars advance, there'smore and more clever techthat goes into making them fast.In round three, we aregonna look at the techthat propels these cars forward.In the beginning, the M3was a very analog car:hydraulic steering, rear-wheeldrive, naturally aspirated.All of this is cool andmakes a great driver's car.But eventually, BMW made the switchto turbo-charging and electric steeringfor fuel economy and weight savings.One of the big complaints with the M3is that every generation,it got softer but faster.What?This is due to BMW's pushfor technological solutionsto costs and restrictions.The iDrive system in the M3 is designedto electronically tunesuspension dampening,differential response, and,in the current car, steering response.As the result, many purists saythe car doesn't feel as responsive.But apparently it'sresponsive when it needs to bebecause each generation of M3has been faster than the previouson-track and in a straight line.The big thing that makes theS4 stand out in any crowdis Audi's Quattro all-wheel drive system.This is more than youraverage all-wheel drive systemthat uses wheel speed sensors.The Quattro system usesa Torsen center diff,which means that it cansense when it's losing torqueand adjust power outputbefore there's any wheel slip.What I'm saying is that this systemcan basically predict the future.And that's not where Audi ended it.In 2008, they added thevectoring Quattro system.Basically, if you gotthe sport differential,the S4 can not only anticipatetorque needs of front and rear,but also of each individual rear wheel.With this tech, most carslook like wheelbarrows in comparison.But if that's true, thenmaybe the nicest wheelbarrowyou ever did see is the M3.In 1992, the E36 M3 was thefirst car to be sold in the U.S.with a sequential manual gear box.That means straight-up race car (beep).In 2006, the M3 got the thirdversion of BMW's SMG system,which, at the time, was thefastest-shifting gearboxin the world.With all of this quick shiftingand clever automatic adjusting,the M3 was still a slowercar to 60 than the S4for everything but the current gen.You might think thenaturally aspirated BMWswould have an advantage off the line,and the turbochargedcars like the B4 and B5would suffer from turbo lag.But Audi designed thoseengines for low-end torque.The B5 makes peak torqueat a diesel-like 1,800 RPM.This thing doesn't have a torque curve.It has a torque... One of those.Combine this with the traction you getfrom the Quattro all-wheel drive system,and this is the closest you can getto feeling the off-the-linegrunt of an electric carwhile still burning dinosaurs.Both cars have active dampening.Both cars have some versionof variable valve timingand a bunch of other clever thingsfrom different model years.But when you distill it down,these two cars are really evenly matched.It's hard to choose a favorite.If you haven't chosen afavorite yet, don't worry.We've still got two more rounds to go.Round four, reliability.We know that these carsare great when they work.But since they're Germansedans, eventually they won't.In this round, we are gonna lookat what can go wrong with these cars,how much of a pain it can be to fix them,and how likely you are to have an issue.With all the tech that hasgone into developing the M3,each year gets more andmore points of failure.Remember the SMG transmissionI mentioned earlier?While it is revolutionary tech,it is notorious for breaking,and it's an expensive fix.The pump alone can be over $3,000 new.For the V8s in the E90 M3,valve seal failure was not uncommon.And because of all the bits in the way,this is an engine out jobthat you could get charged morethan 30 hours of labor for.But the Audi S4 isn't exactlyan icon of reliability.The B8 S4 is known for oilissues due to rocker cover leaksor a bad PCV valve.And they're also known forcarbon buildup on the valvesthat can cause a rough idle.The E46 M3 is known fortiming chain issues,which can be a big deal,but the B5 and B6 S4s havea really similar issue.The E30 and E36 M3s and the C4 S4sare simpler, more robust cars in general.In later model years, though,neither of these cars aregreat for reliability.And on top of that,they're performance models,so they get driven hard.And on top of that, repairsaren't cheap in the first place.I'll give you an example.Both the S4s and the M3sare known to have water pumpfailures around 100,000 miles.That's not uncommon.I just replaced a100,000-mile-old water pumpon a Toyota not too long ago.The difference is inthe cost of the OEM partand the cost of the labor.We called our localAudi and BMW dealershipsto get quotes on replacing awater pump on a 2018 model.And here is what the costs were.Now, that's just one randompart on one random year.On average, though, M3s and S4shave about the same manual repair cost.Over the course of production,the S4 has had nine recalls.Most of those were electrical issuesand airbag-related stuff,which is not uncommon.But there's one little recallfor the 2011-2012 modelsthat had something to dowith the small issue of engine fires.Apparently, the fuel linefeeding the fuel railwas prone to leaking. (shudders)That is bad.But the M3 has had 21 recalls,including brake issues,driveshaft failures,and my personal favorite,rear subframe boltsthat would just liketo loosen on their own.It's an actual recall, you can look it up.I am blown away by thevariation in these cars.If you count the upcoming 2021 M3,these cars have had sixgenerations in 35 years.For the Mustang, it took50 years to get to gen six.I knew these cars had theirissues going into this,and I was kind of hoping our researchwould turn up a glimmer ofhope for one model or another.But it just didn't.Because of their relativesimplicity and roots in racing,both the first gen M3 and the first gen S4are much more reliable than the others.But it's still really even between them.But if you don't care about reliabilitybecause you are a mechanic,and you are gonna build something crazy,then the last round is all for you.Round five, buildability.The M3 is a capable carright out of the box,some might even say theultimate driving machine.But it hasn't stopped peoplefrom modifying the (beep) out of it.People do all kinds of things.But most common projects for the M3are drift builds and trackbuilds and engine swaps,and sometimes, all three in one car.In the Formula Drift Pro division,there were four M3s entered in 2019.The M3 is a capable car.And because of its suspensiondynamics and balance,it makes for a good startingpoint for a project.You'll see a lot of crazy engine swaps,especially LSs and 2JZ.But part of that comes from necessity.The BMW engines themselvesare comparatively moreexpensive to maintainand have so much tech interferingthat most people find iteasier to just pull it out.Also, if you're gonna do a big buildwhere you're gonna pull everything out,strip the chassis down,and drop in a new engine,you might wanna base your buildon a cheaper 3 Serieswith the same chassisrather than an actual M3.The S4 is a little different.Because of its all-wheel drive,it's not as popular as a swapped chassisapart from getting a Volkswagon VR6.The engines that Audi providedmean that there's probably already onethat you'll want anyway.With the B7, you can get a big V8.With the B8, you can getthat supercharger one.And with the B5, you canhave (muffled) turbo noises.S4s aren't drifters or track cars.They're usually built for one thing,and one thing only: big power.(engine revving)Street S4s can get built tothe 500, 600 horsepower rangewhile still being a daily-able car.On the drag strip, the all-wheeldrive and low-end torquecan absolutely smash.USP Motorsports from the east coasthas a VR6-powered B5 thatcan run an 8.68 quarter mileat 166 miles per hour.That's a whole secondfaster than a Dodge Demon.The fastest time we can find for an M3is this E30 than ran an 8.76 quarter mile.And even then, that's with a 2JZ up from.If you want some numbersfor non-swapped cars,well, what about this C4 S4?Still running the five-cylinder turbothat did a top-speed run at Bonneville,reaching 260 miles per hour.This thing makes over 1,000horsepower at the crankfrom an I5 turbo.I'm sure most of you haveyour final opinions in place by now.But I've got one more point of comparisonfrom a race team thatactually used both cars.Buldre Racing has set two recordsat the annual Swedish SpeedWeek for top speed on ice.That's the most awesomething I've ever heard.They set the record once with a B5 Avant,202 miles per hour.Then they broke that record with an E30 M3at 212 miles per hour.But the big difference,the S4 was running the 4.2-liter V8 enginethat had come with it from the factory,built and turbo-charged towithin an inch of its life,but still the factory engine.The M3 had been swappedwith a 1,300-horsepower 2JZ.You know, I personally have never reallybeen into German cars.But after this video, Itotally get the appeal.It's like having the bestof an American muscle carand Japanese chassis balance.As long as it's working, it'llput a smile on your face.But which one puts a smile on your face?Are you an S4 fan or an M3 man?Let us know in the comments.Show us and the communitysome of your cool S4s and M3son Instagram and Twitter, @DonutMedia.I'll be in the comments for the first hourthis week and every week on Versus.But remember, the real points that matterare the points in your heart.