BMW has confirmed it will build its first ever wagon version of the iconic M3 in 2022, two years … [+]
Europe’s fast car fans have been sent into delirium with the news that German premium automaker BMW is finally making a wagon version of its iconic M3 sports sedan.
The last of the Big Three German premium brands to deliver a hot wagon, BMW’s M division teased an overnight photo containing a 3-Series wagon (“Touring” as the Germans call them) with the M3’s signature quad exhaust pipes.
It insisted it was beginning on-road development shortly before a 2022 production debut, though this is a formality, given the 3-Series sedan and wagon, on which the M3 is based, share the same wheelbase and suspension hardware.
It means that for the first time BMW will have a direct rival for Audi’s RS 4 Avant and Mercedes-AMG’s C 63 wagon, giving BMW what it calls “unparalleled model diversity” in the M3 range.
Perhaps not coincidentally, the former head of BMW M, Franciscus van Meel, was also the former head of Audi’s quattro (now Audi Sport) division and made plenty of money for Audi with its RS 4 and RS 6 go-fast wagons.
Audi’s RS 4 Avant had the European fast, mid-sized wagon market to itself until the Mercedes-AMG C … [+]
The BMW M3 began life 34 years ago and eventually spread to a three-car lineup, including the sedan, a coupe and a cabriolet, until BMW slapped the M4 badge onto the two-door cars at the last full generation change.
BMW’s M division has form in fast wagons, despite its lack of long-roof M3s, with its bigger M5 offered with a wagon body in its second generation (1992-1995) and from 2006 to 2010 with the fourth generation.
The next M3 sports sedan (and the M4 Coupe) will be unveiled next month, with power coming from the shared twin-turbo, 3.0-liter, in-line six-cylinder engine, code-named S58, with mild-hybrid boosting from a 48-Volt electrical system.
Sources suggest the engine will deliver 473bhp of power and 443lb/ft of torque
While it hasn’t shown the front end of the M3 sedan or Touring yet, they’re likely to follow the 4-Series down the path of a huge and polarizing vertical grille.
The M3 Touring will, BMW said in a statement fulfill: “The hopes of all those who wish to take the M-specific interplay of racing-orientated performance and everyday suitability to the extreme”.
While it has never built a production M3 Touring before, it made an M3 Touring feasibility study with a third-generation M3 in 2000.
