New vs Old: Current-Gen BMW M3 Takes On 700 HP F80 M3
Matt Watson gets behind the wheel of a stock G82 BMW M3, to partake in a series of drag races against a previous-gen model, which features a 700 HP powerplant.
Back in October 2020, Matt Watson from carwow became one of the first YouTubers to offer an in-depth look at the all-new BMW M Twins. Recently, Watson got behind the wheel of a stock G82 BMW M3, to partake in a series of drag races against a previous-gen model, which featured a 700 HP powerplant. This exercise aimed to find out whether a race-tuned F80 M3 can beat the current generation of the nameplate.
Matt was driving the all-new BMW M3 which is powered by a twin-turbocharged 3-liter straight-six motor that produces 510 HP of maximum power and 480 lb-ft (650 Nm) of peak torque. The motor comes mated to BMW’s 8-speed automatic transmission, which gets a torque converter and sends the power to the rear wheels.
“This thing (New M3) over the quarter-mile though, launches so well. People are moaning about the fact that it doesn’t have a dual-clutch automatic gearbox. This gearbox launches better than the dual-clutch in the old version of the car,” said Matt.
One would expect this to put Matt’s G82 M3 at a disadvantage because tuning company, Evolve Automotive managed to extract 190 additional horses from the 3-liter powertrain that propels the F80 M3. The team at Evolve Automotive installed a pair of hybrid turbos, along with a set of downpipes, and remapped the car to produce 700 lb-ft (950 Nm) of torque.
After conducting the customary carwow sound check, the two M3s lined up at the starting point for the first drag race. The new BMW M3 managed to pull away from its 700 HP rival quite easily on its first run. Even on its second quarter-mile run, Matt’s M3 managed to beat Evolve Automotive’s contraption, but the latter redeemed itself by crossing the half-mile mark first.
“So then, what exactly happened? Well, the new M3’s better traction of the line meant it won, just and it completed the standing quarter-mile in 11.6 seconds. The all-tuned M3 was just behind the time of 11.7 seconds, although it overtook the new car just after the quarter-mile,” explained Matt.
Matt proved his reasoning by engaging in several rolling drag races where the Evolved Automotive M3 pulled away from the new model with ease. The tuned BMW M3 performed better than the current generation model in a brake test thanks to its sticky tires.
Even though it could not keep up with its modern counterpart, the F80 BMW M3 featured in the video is quite a formidable performance machine, and the car is currently listed on sale on Evolve Automotive’s official website for around $92,000 (£65,000).
Image Source: carwow