Wild Thing! Is BMW’s M3 Competition All its Cooked Up to Be?
Wild old-school rear-wheel drive M3 Competition carries all those contradictions, but that’s what we love about it.
It was still dark, bar a steely sheen in the eastern pre-dawn sky. The BMW M3 Competition had arrived while I was away the day before, so I had not seen it in the flesh in the light, but its silhouette was matt with the morning dew. And a few autumns vine leaves had fallen on it from the pergola. I never bothered looking at it, just opened the door. The that lurid orange trimmed cabin was dramatic as it lit up the night.
Mad Cabin ‘Exploded’ in the Dark
It’s splendid. The M Sport seats seemed to explode in their fiery hue, backed by same color strip lighting. It’s a bit of a battle to mount them though. I actually had to clamber out and try again as if I was slipping through a racecar roll cage. The massive bolsters and the M Sport steering wheel don’t leave much room to clamber through and those carbonfibre trims under your seated balls cramp it even more. But when you’re in… hoo boy — the chairs feel just fine.
Click, whirr. Boom! Is it purring? Or is that a growl? Either way, M3’s start-up feigns a predator whose tail has just been trodden on. M3’s tautness was immediately apparent as I trundled out of the estate fiddling the M buttons. To be honest, that M setup menu is unnecessarily complicated, but I eventually had it my way and extinguished the traction control. Onto the road it instantly lit the rear axle. No! Rather click MDM back on until that rubber wakes up. This thing is vicious.
I was under the wrong impression that both this and the M4 were xDrive all-wheel drive. I only realized when tester Gio mentioned it, that this one’s a proper rear-wheel drive M3. Just like the first 4-door E36 I ran for a while a quarter century back. Can it really be that long ago? In fact, you can even still get a 6-speed manual overseas. This Competition however ditches the old seven-speed dual-clutch for a BMW M’s latest Drivelogic programmed eight-speed torque converter slush box auto.
Eight Miles Long, it has 125 corners
I live where I do, more than just partly because of the roads. Franschhoek Pass is five minutes from my door. Eight miles long, it has about 135 corners, twists and bends. About 60 on the way up, the rest down the other side. Manna from heaven. In the M3 it’s more like paradise.
Still a little nervous after that cold rubber wake up call, I waited a good few bends into the Pass to get the 275/40 front and 285/35-profile Michelin Pilot Sports on those splendid 19-inch forged alloys up to temperature before extinguishing the nannies again.
And then it was magnificent! Of course, having 479 lb-ft on tap on the rear axle from just over 2000 rpm, demands you drive with great circumspection. Feed it in gently to start and learn what it wants. Then get braver. Still, I was soon really at home with it. The M3 Competition likes to be steered by the throttle. The rear end is wonderfully lively and kept just below the threshold its splendid to revel in.