**Driving the BMW M3: A Comprehensive Review**

As I sit in the driver's seat of the BMW M3, I'm immediately struck by the intuitive design of the instrument cluster. The iDrive controller, which is probably very familiar to fans of BMW's, brings up a wealth of information at my fingertips. I can quickly access navigation, media, and radio options with ease, thanks to its responsive layout. I also appreciate the customizable settings for the car's various modes, including Comfort, Sport, and Sport Plus, as well as the Traction Control and M Drive features.

One of the standout features of the M3 is its performance capabilities. With a powerful engine at its core, this car is capable of laying down some serious speed from 0-60mph in under 4 seconds. I had the opportunity to test the car on both the road and track, where it truly shines. The Sport mode allows for a more aggressive driving experience, while the M Drive feature provides a seamless transition between different modes.

**Interior Space and Comfort**

When I step back into the rear seat of the BMW M3, I'm pleasantly surprised by the amount of space available. The rear wheel is positioned far back in the body, creating an easy aperture for entry and exit. The backrest is designed to provide ample headroom, even at taller statures. I found myself comfortable with ease, even at around 1 meter 78 tall.

In addition to the spacious rear compartment, the interior of the M3 is also notable for its attention to detail. The dashboard design is sleek and modern, with a focus on premium materials and craftsmanship. The storage options are plentiful, including a generous glovebox and ample space in the trunk. A USB port can be found lurking just behind the handbrake, adding convenience to daily use.

**Boot Space and Practicality**

When it comes to boot space, the BMW M3 delivers in spades. With 60/40 folding rear seats, there's a generous amount of room for luggage or other items. I had the opportunity to test this feature by loading up the trunk with various "junk" items – cameras, speakers, and more. The result is a spacious interior that can accommodate a surprising amount of gear.

**Comparison to Other BMW Models**

One question on everyone's mind when considering the M3 is how it compares to its larger M5 counterpart. While both cars share some similarities, there are key differences in terms of size and weight distribution. The M5 seats are indeed bulkier than those found in the M3, which may affect rear legroom and comfort levels.

**The Verdict**

In conclusion, the BMW M3 is an exceptional driving machine that offers a unique blend of performance, handling, and everyday practicality. With its intuitive iDrive controller and customizable settings, this car is designed to cater to a wide range of drivers. Whether you're cruising on the highway or tearing up the track, the M3 delivers a thrilling experience that's hard to match.

For those who prefer a more luxurious driving experience, the BMW M5 may be a better fit. However, for those seeking a sporty, pure driving experience without the added luxury of the M5, the M3 is an excellent choice. With its rich heritage and reputation for exceptional performance, this car is sure to delight enthusiasts and new owners alike.

**Technical Specifications**

(Insert technical specifications and details about the BMW M3's features and capabilities)

**Conclusion**

As I bring my time with the BMW M3 to a close, I'm left with a lasting impression of its exceptional driving experience. With its intuitive controls, customizable settings, and impressive performance capabilities, this car is a true gem in the world of sports cars. Whether you're an experienced driver or just starting your journey behind the wheel, the BMW M3 is sure to deliver an unforgettable experience.

**Thanks**

Big thanks to BMW and BMW M for having me along on this review and sharing their exceptional car with me. I hope you've enjoyed this in-depth look at the BMW M3 – from its design and features to its performance capabilities and everyday practicality.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhi guys i'm shmee hello to you welcome back to the channel where today you join me to take a complete look at the brand new bmw m3 cs we'll go for a walk around talk about the changes from the regular m3 and the m3 with the competition package then we'll go out onto the roads to drive it and see what it's like go through the different driving modes before coming back to where we are right now at the bmw driving academy in mysac near to munich in germany to explore it a little bit further out on the track and handling circuits so let's get started and take a look around the m3 cs as we get started then with our walk around of the new cs you're no doubt familiar with bmw's heritage and in particular bmw m's heritage in building lightweight sporty saloon cars well the m3 cs is their latest iteration based on the f-80 m3 that was launched back in 2014 but also incorporating some of the aspects that we saw in the launch of the m4 cs around this time last year so the ethos basically is increased power and lower weight through the use of carbon fiber components more aerodynamics as you can see but also like i mentioned a little bit more power coming from the three liter six-cylinder engine up front we'll have a look at that and talk about it in more detail but on the outset this particular car is very very nice in this frozen dark blue paintwork it's a lovely color frozen being bmw's terminology for the satin-esque finish that you can see on it but it's certainly looking incredibly aggressive they're only going to be building around 1 200 of these due to production reasons and in europe at least most of those are already spoken for so if you want one you're going to have to head down to your dealer very very soon to get your hands on the latest product from bmw m other upgrades also on the car it has a more sporty suspension system new m brakes and then carbon fiber reinforced plastic components used around the car for example the bonnet up on the roof which is left in the visible carbon fiber finish also if we come back down to the front you'll notice the extended splitter that runs the full length of that front leading edge and then to the rear of the car we also have the bootlip mounted spoiler for aero purposes back there as well as coming around to the very back the diffuser down here housing those quad exhaust tailpipes the traditional bmw m tail pipes that you have down there at the back so the car is about 10 kilos lighter than the standard machine it also has the high gloss shadow line trim that you can see around it interestingly it's wearing sport cup 2 tyres the stickier rubber from michelin on their 20-inch wheels at the rear 19s at the front the paintwork actually when you catch a bit of the light on it looks incredibly nice but let's have a glimpse of interior 2 which also we'll come back to in more detail later on but you can see in here sportiness all the way the use of materials i love that little m stripe that it wears up there if you hadn't noticed before the seats actually have holes going through them lightweight savings right there near center console um with the finish that you can see here the cs badging up on the passenger side of the dashboard new steering wheel finish as well in alcantara all prepared for track purposes so this is a car designed to be driven out in a dynamic environment but let's jump in it first and go find out what it's like on the roads the sun's just poked through the clouds so you can see the frozen paint work glistening away but i've also got the bmw key the familiar older style key actually for this car but the traditional lock unlock and boot opening buttons it's not keyless in terms of locking and unlocking it does have a keyless starter button which is very nice let me just climb into the car to switch this on and bring it into life so down here the bright red start stop engine button and much has been discussed about this engine but let's just hear it that engine sound is a particular talking point some people love it some people hate it what i can tell you about it is that it's very distinct you know that it's the engine from an m3 and m4 and now also going into the m2 competition however we're sat in here we've got the seven-speed mdct we also have m-adaptive suspension we've got m cervitronic steering we have a number of different upgrades and up front we have a horsepower 3 liter straight 6. so let's put it into gear and break off and head out onto the roads to discover what this car is like we're starting off actually in the configuration that it has in front of me so automatic on the gearbox but in the softer of its three individual modes we have efficient for the powertrain engine response side of things sport for the suspension sport for the steering and you can customize this to your heart's content you can change just about everything in this car to individually set it up and even when you have set it up you have the hot m1 and 2 buttons mounted on the steering wheel to save your pre-configured preferences they're ready straight away for the push so you can also have them doing the traction control through its various stages the steering the suspension the exhaust literally everything which is what i like quite so much and i think it still carries some of that traditional bmw m driving enjoyment you know these cars were built to be drivers cars and you do still get that you obviously mix it in this with stop start for example amongst other technologies various different safety systems it's not five series level you know not completely loaded up to the absolute max as i've experienced in the m5 that i'm currently driving from bmw um some notable differences as well to talk about but when you drive along you definitely feel there is more of a sports car character to it it feels more boisterous which is the segment that it's in right it's their small saloon car in its top sporty version you have the regular m3 the m3 competition package and then way up top you have the m3 cs they're produced in limited numbers as i mentioned it's going to be limited by the capacity they can build not a strict number but roughly 1 200 of them in total the european cars for which just about sold out as they told us so clearly there's high demand for the car um driving in it right now though you feel like you're in a small nimble car the mirrors the traditional m-style mirrors i love the massive wide arches looking in the door mirrors you just see this gigantic arch on the rear axle which i guess emphasizes that it's a rear-wheel drive car that it is that traditional bmw really so not cheating along like this not doing anything particularly dramatic but we can play with individual preferences put it up into support plus where it gets a touch noisier i'll keep the suspension in sport we're going to support plus for the steering where i can feel instantly actually even at slow speeds that it weights itself up a little bit you can feel that it's a little bit heavier and more i guess pushing back against you which is the feedback you get from the car right that's what makes it a pleasurable driving experience as we're going to experience on the track sections later on here though just to hear some of that engine noise it's not quiet and as you lift off you get that quite raspy sound out of it as well so one more push to the right and it goes into manual and the quickest setting that it has drop some gears burbles galore now that's quite cool it revs up to 7600 rpm which for a twin turbocharged six-cylinder engine is actually quite a lot it definitely is a character full engine it makes some interesting sounds out of it the thing that i'm struggling with though is you have to think what this price tag what territory that puts you into that's almost baby supercar money and this is their small saloon car the smallest of the lineup now that definitely twists me slightly oh i'm gonna have to wait for this truck unfortunately oh hopefully we'll get a clear run i'm gonna head out onto the autobahn for a moment that's definitely a pretty busy day today pulls away with a bit of a jump a bit of a let's get up and go let's go out and drive but that's what this thing is for right you're not going to buy this unless you're a driving enthusiast unless you want a car that is there and ready for you to take it and i'm actually quite intrigued to see what it's going to be like when we do get to stretch the legs more even just doing this it's fun i've got something sliding around in the door pocket though so please excuse me for that so let's get away from the trucks go find somewhere we can stretch it further here we go then so the settings are all as they were it does look quite busy with trucks today so you got to watch out but we should get an opportunity to put the foot down a little bit and see what this car has to offer so out we go then and away we go do you know what the nice kick on up shifts definitely gives you a proper sensation almost an inertia kind of push forwards a propulsion ahead of you so don't get to go too fast have to think a little bit about the power because really at this price point do you want the car to be a little bit faster i know this is at the top end of what this engine is actually capable with and i believe it's the fastest main stream or the most powerful mainstream production three series that bmw have made there was the m3 gts of the e92 generation but that wasn't a main production car that was a special series a limited edition version so to suspect say although maybe that's what you can call this as well i'm not sure where 1200 cars really puts it in that end of the spectrum if we just back off a little bit though just to experience the pull of the power and touch more on a slightly more open stretch nobody behind me just a line of cars on front unfortunately into third gear just to go up towards the red line where the shift lights come alive on the dashboard giving you a wonderful actually graphic it's quite old-school but perfect up towards 200 so 100 to 200 kilometers an hour or so decent pole rear wheel drive sport cup two tires if the weather was bad you definitely want to be aware of that aware of what's going on it feels quite firm not uncomfortably so but exactly i suppose exactly where they're trying to position it i tell you when you have your foot flat to the floor it's definitely very noisy inside the cabin yes it's slightly artificial you can hear that some of the soundtrack is coming from down almost towards the footwells from the speakers but that's due to legislation due to the laws bmw trying to make the cars still have some character while not be too loud from the outside now this car has a sporty exhaust system as you would expect from a cs cs being derived from the traditional name the csl of the e46 m3 we're sitting almost at the as the sportiest top-of-the-line models i mean for autobahn cruising it's plenty of power that's for sure i think on the track would be interesting to see how the aero capabilities work it seems like we've got a busy section right now but just cruising along let's see what it's like going around these corners actually holding on to a nice tight chunky steering wheel feels pretty good but here we go again back out onto the autobahn third gear foot flat not bad this is what i love about germany i was 200 kilometers an hour straight away to 10 to 20 to 30. we're gonna have to back off the moment yeah we've gone up to 245 and back onto the brakes with some cars in front of us for the general traffic's cruising at 200 also so it gets up to that speed fairly effortlessly the sound is nice the gear shift well set up like this is certainly quite a push you could actually um toggle it down with the button just beneath the gear lever down into the softer setting and just to uh experience actually that what that's like shifting up drop back a little bit just to open up some space but here i expect it will be slightly less aggressive yeah completely smooth that's the thing with these gearboxes they can be configured to be exactly how you want so the third mode is very sporty perhaps too much so for driving on the road like this the bottom mode is maybe a bit soft presumably the one in the middle is exactly where you'd want to have it let's see if we get another stretch top speed by the way is 280 kilometers per hour electronically limited that's miles per hour so standard in these cars is to normally have a top speed of 250 k's 155 miles per hour but in this case it has what would have been the optional driver's package on the regular m3 which raises that up to the fault 280 so that's limited electronically that's not the top speed of the car there aren't too many scenarios really where you want to drive faster than 280 other than if you were doing a bmx run so it is a little bit too busy but nonetheless we can have plenty of sound inside this cabin up and away it's very sure of itself at speed 260 odd kilometers an hour right now 265 and i'm going to back off yes there's a fair amount of wind noise at that speed of course brakes are good we've got the carbon ceramic brakes in here the optional ceramic brake i'm on the standard car adrenaline rush there's a lot of noise inside obviously when you're doing that people do that up to 280. it's crazy when you think about it isn't it that's a three series yes it's a very top of the line 3 series but a bit w3 series comfortable at 260 plus kilometers per hour back at the driving academy and we're going to be going out on track any moment now but let me quickly run around and show you inside the engine bay of this car so we've got a nice m foot rest we pop open the engine bay we can come and have a quick look at this just very quickly here before we head out and you'll see the carbon fiber reinforced plastic of this a very light bonnet that lifts up for the raw materials that you have right under there so this the three liter straight six twin scroll turbo chargers twin power as they call it's a bi-turbo engine making 460 horsepower and it's 600 newton meters of torque in the cs it's 550 newton meters in the regular m3 and the m3 competition 450 horsepower in the competition 400 i think 25 horsepower 420 horsepower or so in the regular m3 so a little improvements on that side also more torque and mounted underneath the very nice carbon fiber strut brace that it wears as well but let's jump in it's time to go straight out onto this drive surrounded here by plenty of the cars enjoy it on the track we've had a few little exercises just speeding up braking pressing the brakes firm and i have to say this car is very very stable under heavy braking but now we've got a few laps of the track first in m1 mode so some sporty settings but not the full on then we'll go into m2 with mdm and dynamic mode as well and experience that afterwards so let's get around in a little parade of m3 css on their test track here away we go this is a fun little track with a few chicanes set out as we can experience here but the amazing thing is how stable this car is under heavy braking the carbon ceramics are wonderful and this is pretty much what i expected through these tight twisty bits the car is super nimble a very fun car to drive we've been instructed to keep it in m1 just for the moment so automatic gearbox mode and a few traction aids which you definitely notice slightly uh interfering on occasion but it feels good it feels really really very very good just on a small cool down i've noticed that the gearbox sometimes doesn't go quite as low as you want it to so a push to the right goes into manual mode if we press m2 though press it twice just to confirm because we're lowering the state of traction now we get to explore a little bit further stretch the car and see what it's capable of concentration here in absolute overload as we fly around this track the sport cup two tires doing their sticky work m2 with the mdm mode really bringing out the playful character of this car plenty quick enough for a small tight twisty handling circuit like this firm on the brakes feeling that second dab here just to balance the car before we turn into the corner feel a little bit of the back playing around and away we go up towards the red line this is exactly my kind of fun that was hilarious fun to be honest concentration in overdrive but it's a very welcoming car you jump in and just feel like you can really push that without too much work and that's very rewarding when you're at the wheel it's quite interesting to hear the cars blasting around from the outside because they're not actually all that loud it makes you realize that a good chunk of the sound is being funneled in through the speakers because as they fly by yes there's a nice frosty six-cylinder engine note a traditional kind of sound but there's not that much of it even though it sounded so loud when we were inside the cars earlier quite intriguing to watch though looks awesome as they come past the blue cars here the downshifts are always good as well and those bubbles those bubbles on the overrun those are definitely very nice now that's more like it that sounds very good when you rev it up towards the red line now it's time for a few little drag races between the two cars clearly there is a little learning curve to get it right the m3 cs has two different modes the launch control and also the slightly burnout mode that we've also witnessed awesome to see and hear with the cars the way that it shifts between gears and still leaves rubber down on the tarmac but i think it's probably nearly time to head over and take a proper look around the inside of the m3cs with the noise of cars blasting around the track in the background let's take a look around go for a proper walk around of the car and talk about some other tidbits of information about the m3 cs and let's start with bmw m in general who in 2017 sold over 80 000 cars up about 20 from the previous year just a moment to enjoy the sound as they go down the straight so huge huge demand for m cars hence a limited edition model like this sells out virtually instantly everybody would love to get hold of one you can see why driving it the experience an awful lot of fun so the m3 cs has set a nurburgring nordschleifer time of 7 minutes and 38 seconds so that might not be the fastest thing in the world and i put that down to it not having a huge amount of straight line power 460 horsepower is a lot but it's not you know 600 plus like the m5 for example so the car's dynamics are clearly wonderful the tyres are super super sticky the standard sport cup twos that it comes with as opposed to the less sticky tires you'd have on other models but you've still got to move a car that weighs 1 585 kilos just under 1.6 tons it might be a touch lighter than the previous or regular m3 models you know the roof i think is six kilos lighter the bonnet being made out of the cfrp is about 25 percent lighter than the standard car the wheels nine kilos for the front wheels each 10 kilos for the rear wheels each an inch larger at the back carbon ceramic brakes giving them that astonishing stopping power to be completely honest so the suspension steering that side of things all set up very nicely the sound has been an interesting one when revving it stationary it sounded brilliant but on the move outside not necessarily the best inside though you do feel like you've got an awesome sounding car around you this color is lovely i think the smart additions you know bmw create these cars that are dynamic but don't shout they don't scream so unless you know what you're looking at you don't really necessarily know what it is for example look here look at this rear arch look at how wide that is that bulge that is a lovely lovely thing and you see that from the door mirrors when you're driving small things like the air opening here to reduce swelling from the front the bulge on the bonnet the additional vent sporty touches so you get this black package with the cs the high gloss package around the car let's head back to the interior actually and talk more about what we've got going on in here because a little bit of lightweight not quite as many lightweight things as the m4cs so the m4cs had the finish you can see through the center this style also for the door cards but this retains the more standard m3 door card nicely finished nice leather stitching and looks smart but not quite as sporty as the two-door equivalent the seats i think are very very smart this bit through here is strange take some getting used to but hey weight savings hey by getting rid of that small area the m3 badging here in the center is very smart along with that stripe that i mentioned earlier if we take a step back into the car actually just quickly before i do the seats are manual so you can see the movements here there is one electronic part which i believe is maybe the under leg bolster but the other parts are all manual m seat belts nice touch as well take a step inside the car i'm actually going to start it up because it's very hot and i could do with some air conditioning blowing that's me so coming over to the door let's start here as usual your window controls your mirror controls all very 3 series and yeah there will be a new 3 series in not too long so these might be a bit plasticky and outdated but a new model will come along to rectify those in the not too distant future light controls your usual lights automatic main beam on the end of that the shifter paddles very small little paddle but easily uh reachable just behind the back of the steering wheel a nice feel to when you do pull the button and press them as well then you've got your cruise control commands your m1 and m2 button that you will see change when you select them the various different driving modes underneath the rev cancer on the right hand side so if i just select m2 which you have to press again to confirm you can see it tying up there and reporting how exactly we've got it set over to the left you've got your fuel gauge your speedometer with an m badge on the digital screen right below that at the moment a couple of warning symbols in the center speedometer uh your trip down at the bottom rev counter on your oil temperature over to the right this is the most interesting bit though when you change through the different settings based on how you have the center panel down here set up to the right side you've got your phone your media controls as you'd expect and your light stalk around the back and one small detail is the m color colored stitching that you have around the inside of the alcantara steering wheel along with this 12 o'clock stripe i really like that it's very subtle by having those perforations but you do have the 12 o'clock stripe which is always a very smart sporty feel and it matches in with the texture you have for the cs logo on the dashboard on the passenger side you've obviously got the older i drive system now um here up at the top it's got newer software but it's still a slightly smaller screen so you've got the tiles that you can customize and move around but it's not quite you know the m5 system for example down beneath that your air vents your hotkeys so these can all be pre-configured to take you to instant commands you might want so that's just jumped into dab depends how you set it up really um and how you want that coming down further this has regular air conditioning rather than the full dual zone time climate control or the like so fairly simple so it's be actually quite unusual to drive a car with such a simple system we do have heated seats which you'd lose with the likes of bucket seats then you have your stop start button and your auto start stop further below that you've got a small area here for small things um your cup holders and a 12 volt socket hiding away underneath the center console the m gear stick which moves to the right to go into drive to the right again for sport up for manual down for uh sorry up for down again push it that way for down a gear and manual put it that way upper gear manual across the neutral or forwards like that for reverse we don't have a reversing camera just the sensor graphic that shows us what's going on around us so back into neutral for the moment can break right behind manual handbrake this is your toggle for the gearbox settings to take it through the different get three different gearbox modes um that we have available and then uh your parking cameras here you have your steering control to go between the different modes comfort sports support plus you have your suspension to go through comfort sports and sport plus and you have your response again but this time efficient sports and sport plus then traction to go into mdm or turn it back on depending how you want to have it all set up on the right the idrive controller this is probably very familiar to you from bmw's they were one of the first to actually introduce a system like this and now we see it on just about every manufacturer's car that is out there but we can go through the screen um toggling through different things you know navigation depending how you want to have it really what you'd like to show this is nice and responsive brings up the map very quickly um media radios back to the menu just press some buttons to see if we can just keep it going through you can configure your m drive in here there you can have a nice look at the different settings and how this car is currently configured yeah nice you can control the hello display which you might just be able to see in front of me there with the rev counter running over the top just rev it off a little bit so you can see that very nice so back to home on that so that is basically it you lose any armrest storage or the light back here other than a usb port lurking just behind the handbrake passenger side all much the same finish runs over the glovebox which i've got full of stuff at the moment the rootbook and the like that i've been running on today and then up top just a simple thing with your light controls and the bmw sos button because it's connected to full services so while it's still running it tells me to protect it it gets rolling away except i think yeah actually maybe i left it out again sorry put it in gear just to switch it off it puts itself automatically into park ignore time pressure pressure messages we've been driving out on track so obviously lower the pressures for that bit of driving earlier just to come look in the back that front seat was in my driving position so we can see how much space there is back here quite an easy aperture actually the opening because the rear wheel sits so far back um climbing in pretty easy in the back and a ton of space impressively so actually there is a lot of room back here you know what i feel like there might be more room in the back of the m3 than the m5 that doesn't make any sense except maybe it's because the seats are smaller the m5 seats are very fat and bulky it's quite fascinating actually there's a lot of room the rear um backrest is very reclined so you feel like you're leaning very far back but that's presumably to give you a touch more headroom i don't have the most in the world um it's not bad i'm fine i'm about um one meter 78 that sort of height five foot ten five foot eleven and i seem to be fine back here um reasonably comfortable speaker grilles i can see on the rear shelf behind me let's hop back out just quickly to show you in the uh boots lots of tweeters around here gosh this color is cool so i open the boot up lots of space it's a saloon 60 40 folding rear seats lots of my uh camera junk and stuff just put it in the back but obviously a practical family car now there is something very very stylish about this form factor car that can be used every day for all purposes but is a complete sleeper to those that don't know what it actually is we've seen that the car is more than capable of laying down some very nice 11s from its rear driven axle but then it's also quite comfortable to cruise in drive and use as well so to me it's very exciting it's the sporty more purest dynamic version of the bmw m3 which is already a very very good car to drive my biggest i suppose drawback on it is that this is over a hundred thousand pounds of carb and that could get you into a bmw m5 if you'd prefer along with newer technology and a lot more power needless to say though i've had an awesome time driving this car today i hope you've enjoyed this very thorough look at it both inside and out driving on the road driving on the track so big thanks to bmw and bmw m for creating the car and for having me along today to experience this and share with you a little bit about what it is like so that is it for me for today thank you very much as always guys and i'll see you again very soon cheers youhi guys i'm shmee hello to you welcome back to the channel where today you join me to take a complete look at the brand new bmw m3 cs we'll go for a walk around talk about the changes from the regular m3 and the m3 with the competition package then we'll go out onto the roads to drive it and see what it's like go through the different driving modes before coming back to where we are right now at the bmw driving academy in mysac near to munich in germany to explore it a little bit further out on the track and handling circuits so let's get started and take a look around the m3 cs as we get started then with our walk around of the new cs you're no doubt familiar with bmw's heritage and in particular bmw m's heritage in building lightweight sporty saloon cars well the m3 cs is their latest iteration based on the f-80 m3 that was launched back in 2014 but also incorporating some of the aspects that we saw in the launch of the m4 cs around this time last year so the ethos basically is increased power and lower weight through the use of carbon fiber components more aerodynamics as you can see but also like i mentioned a little bit more power coming from the three liter six-cylinder engine up front we'll have a look at that and talk about it in more detail but on the outset this particular car is very very nice in this frozen dark blue paintwork it's a lovely color frozen being bmw's terminology for the satin-esque finish that you can see on it but it's certainly looking incredibly aggressive they're only going to be building around 1 200 of these due to production reasons and in europe at least most of those are already spoken for so if you want one you're going to have to head down to your dealer very very soon to get your hands on the latest product from bmw m other upgrades also on the car it has a more sporty suspension system new m brakes and then carbon fiber reinforced plastic components used around the car for example the bonnet up on the roof which is left in the visible carbon fiber finish also if we come back down to the front you'll notice the extended splitter that runs the full length of that front leading edge and then to the rear of the car we also have the bootlip mounted spoiler for aero purposes back there as well as coming around to the very back the diffuser down here housing those quad exhaust tailpipes the traditional bmw m tail pipes that you have down there at the back so the car is about 10 kilos lighter than the standard machine it also has the high gloss shadow line trim that you can see around it interestingly it's wearing sport cup 2 tyres the stickier rubber from michelin on their 20-inch wheels at the rear 19s at the front the paintwork actually when you catch a bit of the light on it looks incredibly nice but let's have a glimpse of interior 2 which also we'll come back to in more detail later on but you can see in here sportiness all the way the use of materials i love that little m stripe that it wears up there if you hadn't noticed before the seats actually have holes going through them lightweight savings right there near center console um with the finish that you can see here the cs badging up on the passenger side of the dashboard new steering wheel finish as well in alcantara all prepared for track purposes so this is a car designed to be driven out in a dynamic environment but let's jump in it first and go find out what it's like on the roads the sun's just poked through the clouds so you can see the frozen paint work glistening away but i've also got the bmw key the familiar older style key actually for this car but the traditional lock unlock and boot opening buttons it's not keyless in terms of locking and unlocking it does have a keyless starter button which is very nice let me just climb into the car to switch this on and bring it into life so down here the bright red start stop engine button and much has been discussed about this engine but let's just hear it that engine sound is a particular talking point some people love it some people hate it what i can tell you about it is that it's very distinct you know that it's the engine from an m3 and m4 and now also going into the m2 competition however we're sat in here we've got the seven-speed mdct we also have m-adaptive suspension we've got m cervitronic steering we have a number of different upgrades and up front we have a horsepower 3 liter straight 6. so let's put it into gear and break off and head out onto the roads to discover what this car is like we're starting off actually in the configuration that it has in front of me so automatic on the gearbox but in the softer of its three individual modes we have efficient for the powertrain engine response side of things sport for the suspension sport for the steering and you can customize this to your heart's content you can change just about everything in this car to individually set it up and even when you have set it up you have the hot m1 and 2 buttons mounted on the steering wheel to save your pre-configured preferences they're ready straight away for the push so you can also have them doing the traction control through its various stages the steering the suspension the exhaust literally everything which is what i like quite so much and i think it still carries some of that traditional bmw m driving enjoyment you know these cars were built to be drivers cars and you do still get that you obviously mix it in this with stop start for example amongst other technologies various different safety systems it's not five series level you know not completely loaded up to the absolute max as i've experienced in the m5 that i'm currently driving from bmw um some notable differences as well to talk about but when you drive along you definitely feel there is more of a sports car character to it it feels more boisterous which is the segment that it's in right it's their small saloon car in its top sporty version you have the regular m3 the m3 competition package and then way up top you have the m3 cs they're produced in limited numbers as i mentioned it's going to be limited by the capacity they can build not a strict number but roughly 1 200 of them in total the european cars for which just about sold out as they told us so clearly there's high demand for the car um driving in it right now though you feel like you're in a small nimble car the mirrors the traditional m-style mirrors i love the massive wide arches looking in the door mirrors you just see this gigantic arch on the rear axle which i guess emphasizes that it's a rear-wheel drive car that it is that traditional bmw really so not cheating along like this not doing anything particularly dramatic but we can play with individual preferences put it up into support plus where it gets a touch noisier i'll keep the suspension in sport we're going to support plus for the steering where i can feel instantly actually even at slow speeds that it weights itself up a little bit you can feel that it's a little bit heavier and more i guess pushing back against you which is the feedback you get from the car right that's what makes it a pleasurable driving experience as we're going to experience on the track sections later on here though just to hear some of that engine noise it's not quiet and as you lift off you get that quite raspy sound out of it as well so one more push to the right and it goes into manual and the quickest setting that it has drop some gears burbles galore now that's quite cool it revs up to 7600 rpm which for a twin turbocharged six-cylinder engine is actually quite a lot it definitely is a character full engine it makes some interesting sounds out of it the thing that i'm struggling with though is you have to think what this price tag what territory that puts you into that's almost baby supercar money and this is their small saloon car the smallest of the lineup now that definitely twists me slightly oh i'm gonna have to wait for this truck unfortunately oh hopefully we'll get a clear run i'm gonna head out onto the autobahn for a moment that's definitely a pretty busy day today pulls away with a bit of a jump a bit of a let's get up and go let's go out and drive but that's what this thing is for right you're not going to buy this unless you're a driving enthusiast unless you want a car that is there and ready for you to take it and i'm actually quite intrigued to see what it's going to be like when we do get to stretch the legs more even just doing this it's fun i've got something sliding around in the door pocket though so please excuse me for that so let's get away from the trucks go find somewhere we can stretch it further here we go then so the settings are all as they were it does look quite busy with trucks today so you got to watch out but we should get an opportunity to put the foot down a little bit and see what this car has to offer so out we go then and away we go do you know what the nice kick on up shifts definitely gives you a proper sensation almost an inertia kind of push forwards a propulsion ahead of you so don't get to go too fast have to think a little bit about the power because really at this price point do you want the car to be a little bit faster i know this is at the top end of what this engine is actually capable with and i believe it's the fastest main stream or the most powerful mainstream production three series that bmw have made there was the m3 gts of the e92 generation but that wasn't a main production car that was a special series a limited edition version so to suspect say although maybe that's what you can call this as well i'm not sure where 1200 cars really puts it in that end of the spectrum if we just back off a little bit though just to experience the pull of the power and touch more on a slightly more open stretch nobody behind me just a line of cars on front unfortunately into third gear just to go up towards the red line where the shift lights come alive on the dashboard giving you a wonderful actually graphic it's quite old-school but perfect up towards 200 so 100 to 200 kilometers an hour or so decent pole rear wheel drive sport cup two tires if the weather was bad you definitely want to be aware of that aware of what's going on it feels quite firm not uncomfortably so but exactly i suppose exactly where they're trying to position it i tell you when you have your foot flat to the floor it's definitely very noisy inside the cabin yes it's slightly artificial you can hear that some of the soundtrack is coming from down almost towards the footwells from the speakers but that's due to legislation due to the laws bmw trying to make the cars still have some character while not be too loud from the outside now this car has a sporty exhaust system as you would expect from a cs cs being derived from the traditional name the csl of the e46 m3 we're sitting almost at the as the sportiest top-of-the-line models i mean for autobahn cruising it's plenty of power that's for sure i think on the track would be interesting to see how the aero capabilities work it seems like we've got a busy section right now but just cruising along let's see what it's like going around these corners actually holding on to a nice tight chunky steering wheel feels pretty good but here we go again back out onto the autobahn third gear foot flat not bad this is what i love about germany i was 200 kilometers an hour straight away to 10 to 20 to 30. we're gonna have to back off the moment yeah we've gone up to 245 and back onto the brakes with some cars in front of us for the general traffic's cruising at 200 also so it gets up to that speed fairly effortlessly the sound is nice the gear shift well set up like this is certainly quite a push you could actually um toggle it down with the button just beneath the gear lever down into the softer setting and just to uh experience actually that what that's like shifting up drop back a little bit just to open up some space but here i expect it will be slightly less aggressive yeah completely smooth that's the thing with these gearboxes they can be configured to be exactly how you want so the third mode is very sporty perhaps too much so for driving on the road like this the bottom mode is maybe a bit soft presumably the one in the middle is exactly where you'd want to have it let's see if we get another stretch top speed by the way is 280 kilometers per hour electronically limited that's miles per hour so standard in these cars is to normally have a top speed of 250 k's 155 miles per hour but in this case it has what would have been the optional driver's package on the regular m3 which raises that up to the fault 280 so that's limited electronically that's not the top speed of the car there aren't too many scenarios really where you want to drive faster than 280 other than if you were doing a bmx run so it is a little bit too busy but nonetheless we can have plenty of sound inside this cabin up and away it's very sure of itself at speed 260 odd kilometers an hour right now 265 and i'm going to back off yes there's a fair amount of wind noise at that speed of course brakes are good we've got the carbon ceramic brakes in here the optional ceramic brake i'm on the standard car adrenaline rush there's a lot of noise inside obviously when you're doing that people do that up to 280. it's crazy when you think about it isn't it that's a three series yes it's a very top of the line 3 series but a bit w3 series comfortable at 260 plus kilometers per hour back at the driving academy and we're going to be going out on track any moment now but let me quickly run around and show you inside the engine bay of this car so we've got a nice m foot rest we pop open the engine bay we can come and have a quick look at this just very quickly here before we head out and you'll see the carbon fiber reinforced plastic of this a very light bonnet that lifts up for the raw materials that you have right under there so this the three liter straight six twin scroll turbo chargers twin power as they call it's a bi-turbo engine making 460 horsepower and it's 600 newton meters of torque in the cs it's 550 newton meters in the regular m3 and the m3 competition 450 horsepower in the competition 400 i think 25 horsepower 420 horsepower or so in the regular m3 so a little improvements on that side also more torque and mounted underneath the very nice carbon fiber strut brace that it wears as well but let's jump in it's time to go straight out onto this drive surrounded here by plenty of the cars enjoy it on the track we've had a few little exercises just speeding up braking pressing the brakes firm and i have to say this car is very very stable under heavy braking but now we've got a few laps of the track first in m1 mode so some sporty settings but not the full on then we'll go into m2 with mdm and dynamic mode as well and experience that afterwards so let's get around in a little parade of m3 css on their test track here away we go this is a fun little track with a few chicanes set out as we can experience here but the amazing thing is how stable this car is under heavy braking the carbon ceramics are wonderful and this is pretty much what i expected through these tight twisty bits the car is super nimble a very fun car to drive we've been instructed to keep it in m1 just for the moment so automatic gearbox mode and a few traction aids which you definitely notice slightly uh interfering on occasion but it feels good it feels really really very very good just on a small cool down i've noticed that the gearbox sometimes doesn't go quite as low as you want it to so a push to the right goes into manual mode if we press m2 though press it twice just to confirm because we're lowering the state of traction now we get to explore a little bit further stretch the car and see what it's capable of concentration here in absolute overload as we fly around this track the sport cup two tires doing their sticky work m2 with the mdm mode really bringing out the playful character of this car plenty quick enough for a small tight twisty handling circuit like this firm on the brakes feeling that second dab here just to balance the car before we turn into the corner feel a little bit of the back playing around and away we go up towards the red line this is exactly my kind of fun that was hilarious fun to be honest concentration in overdrive but it's a very welcoming car you jump in and just feel like you can really push that without too much work and that's very rewarding when you're at the wheel it's quite interesting to hear the cars blasting around from the outside because they're not actually all that loud it makes you realize that a good chunk of the sound is being funneled in through the speakers because as they fly by yes there's a nice frosty six-cylinder engine note a traditional kind of sound but there's not that much of it even though it sounded so loud when we were inside the cars earlier quite intriguing to watch though looks awesome as they come past the blue cars here the downshifts are always good as well and those bubbles those bubbles on the overrun those are definitely very nice now that's more like it that sounds very good when you rev it up towards the red line now it's time for a few little drag races between the two cars clearly there is a little learning curve to get it right the m3 cs has two different modes the launch control and also the slightly burnout mode that we've also witnessed awesome to see and hear with the cars the way that it shifts between gears and still leaves rubber down on the tarmac but i think it's probably nearly time to head over and take a proper look around the inside of the m3cs with the noise of cars blasting around the track in the background let's take a look around go for a proper walk around of the car and talk about some other tidbits of information about the m3 cs and let's start with bmw m in general who in 2017 sold over 80 000 cars up about 20 from the previous year just a moment to enjoy the sound as they go down the straight so huge huge demand for m cars hence a limited edition model like this sells out virtually instantly everybody would love to get hold of one you can see why driving it the experience an awful lot of fun so the m3 cs has set a nurburgring nordschleifer time of 7 minutes and 38 seconds so that might not be the fastest thing in the world and i put that down to it not having a huge amount of straight line power 460 horsepower is a lot but it's not you know 600 plus like the m5 for example so the car's dynamics are clearly wonderful the tyres are super super sticky the standard sport cup twos that it comes with as opposed to the less sticky tires you'd have on other models but you've still got to move a car that weighs 1 585 kilos just under 1.6 tons it might be a touch lighter than the previous or regular m3 models you know the roof i think is six kilos lighter the bonnet being made out of the cfrp is about 25 percent lighter than the standard car the wheels nine kilos for the front wheels each 10 kilos for the rear wheels each an inch larger at the back carbon ceramic brakes giving them that astonishing stopping power to be completely honest so the suspension steering that side of things all set up very nicely the sound has been an interesting one when revving it stationary it sounded brilliant but on the move outside not necessarily the best inside though you do feel like you've got an awesome sounding car around you this color is lovely i think the smart additions you know bmw create these cars that are dynamic but don't shout they don't scream so unless you know what you're looking at you don't really necessarily know what it is for example look here look at this rear arch look at how wide that is that bulge that is a lovely lovely thing and you see that from the door mirrors when you're driving small things like the air opening here to reduce swelling from the front the bulge on the bonnet the additional vent sporty touches so you get this black package with the cs the high gloss package around the car let's head back to the interior actually and talk more about what we've got going on in here because a little bit of lightweight not quite as many lightweight things as the m4cs so the m4cs had the finish you can see through the center this style also for the door cards but this retains the more standard m3 door card nicely finished nice leather stitching and looks smart but not quite as sporty as the two-door equivalent the seats i think are very very smart this bit through here is strange take some getting used to but hey weight savings hey by getting rid of that small area the m3 badging here in the center is very smart along with that stripe that i mentioned earlier if we take a step back into the car actually just quickly before i do the seats are manual so you can see the movements here there is one electronic part which i believe is maybe the under leg bolster but the other parts are all manual m seat belts nice touch as well take a step inside the car i'm actually going to start it up because it's very hot and i could do with some air conditioning blowing that's me so coming over to the door let's start here as usual your window controls your mirror controls all very 3 series and yeah there will be a new 3 series in not too long so these might be a bit plasticky and outdated but a new model will come along to rectify those in the not too distant future light controls your usual lights automatic main beam on the end of that the shifter paddles very small little paddle but easily uh reachable just behind the back of the steering wheel a nice feel to when you do pull the button and press them as well then you've got your cruise control commands your m1 and m2 button that you will see change when you select them the various different driving modes underneath the rev cancer on the right hand side so if i just select m2 which you have to press again to confirm you can see it tying up there and reporting how exactly we've got it set over to the left you've got your fuel gauge your speedometer with an m badge on the digital screen right below that at the moment a couple of warning symbols in the center speedometer uh your trip down at the bottom rev counter on your oil temperature over to the right this is the most interesting bit though when you change through the different settings based on how you have the center panel down here set up to the right side you've got your phone your media controls as you'd expect and your light stalk around the back and one small detail is the m color colored stitching that you have around the inside of the alcantara steering wheel along with this 12 o'clock stripe i really like that it's very subtle by having those perforations but you do have the 12 o'clock stripe which is always a very smart sporty feel and it matches in with the texture you have for the cs logo on the dashboard on the passenger side you've obviously got the older i drive system now um here up at the top it's got newer software but it's still a slightly smaller screen so you've got the tiles that you can customize and move around but it's not quite you know the m5 system for example down beneath that your air vents your hotkeys so these can all be pre-configured to take you to instant commands you might want so that's just jumped into dab depends how you set it up really um and how you want that coming down further this has regular air conditioning rather than the full dual zone time climate control or the like so fairly simple so it's be actually quite unusual to drive a car with such a simple system we do have heated seats which you'd lose with the likes of bucket seats then you have your stop start button and your auto start stop further below that you've got a small area here for small things um your cup holders and a 12 volt socket hiding away underneath the center console the m gear stick which moves to the right to go into drive to the right again for sport up for manual down for uh sorry up for down again push it that way for down a gear and manual put it that way upper gear manual across the neutral or forwards like that for reverse we don't have a reversing camera just the sensor graphic that shows us what's going on around us so back into neutral for the moment can break right behind manual handbrake this is your toggle for the gearbox settings to take it through the different get three different gearbox modes um that we have available and then uh your parking cameras here you have your steering control to go between the different modes comfort sports support plus you have your suspension to go through comfort sports and sport plus and you have your response again but this time efficient sports and sport plus then traction to go into mdm or turn it back on depending how you want to have it all set up on the right the idrive controller this is probably very familiar to you from bmw's they were one of the first to actually introduce a system like this and now we see it on just about every manufacturer's car that is out there but we can go through the screen um toggling through different things you know navigation depending how you want to have it really what you'd like to show this is nice and responsive brings up the map very quickly um media radios back to the menu just press some buttons to see if we can just keep it going through you can configure your m drive in here there you can have a nice look at the different settings and how this car is currently configured yeah nice you can control the hello display which you might just be able to see in front of me there with the rev counter running over the top just rev it off a little bit so you can see that very nice so back to home on that so that is basically it you lose any armrest storage or the light back here other than a usb port lurking just behind the handbrake passenger side all much the same finish runs over the glovebox which i've got full of stuff at the moment the rootbook and the like that i've been running on today and then up top just a simple thing with your light controls and the bmw sos button because it's connected to full services so while it's still running it tells me to protect it it gets rolling away except i think yeah actually maybe i left it out again sorry put it in gear just to switch it off it puts itself automatically into park ignore time pressure pressure messages we've been driving out on track so obviously lower the pressures for that bit of driving earlier just to come look in the back that front seat was in my driving position so we can see how much space there is back here quite an easy aperture actually the opening because the rear wheel sits so far back um climbing in pretty easy in the back and a ton of space impressively so actually there is a lot of room back here you know what i feel like there might be more room in the back of the m3 than the m5 that doesn't make any sense except maybe it's because the seats are smaller the m5 seats are very fat and bulky it's quite fascinating actually there's a lot of room the rear um backrest is very reclined so you feel like you're leaning very far back but that's presumably to give you a touch more headroom i don't have the most in the world um it's not bad i'm fine i'm about um one meter 78 that sort of height five foot ten five foot eleven and i seem to be fine back here um reasonably comfortable speaker grilles i can see on the rear shelf behind me let's hop back out just quickly to show you in the uh boots lots of tweeters around here gosh this color is cool so i open the boot up lots of space it's a saloon 60 40 folding rear seats lots of my uh camera junk and stuff just put it in the back but obviously a practical family car now there is something very very stylish about this form factor car that can be used every day for all purposes but is a complete sleeper to those that don't know what it actually is we've seen that the car is more than capable of laying down some very nice 11s from its rear driven axle but then it's also quite comfortable to cruise in drive and use as well so to me it's very exciting it's the sporty more purest dynamic version of the bmw m3 which is already a very very good car to drive my biggest i suppose drawback on it is that this is over a hundred thousand pounds of carb and that could get you into a bmw m5 if you'd prefer along with newer technology and a lot more power needless to say though i've had an awesome time driving this car today i hope you've enjoyed this very thorough look at it both inside and out driving on the road driving on the track so big thanks to bmw and bmw m for creating the car and for having me along today to experience this and share with you a little bit about what it is like so that is it for me for today thank you very much as always guys and i'll see you again very soon cheers you\n"