E46 m3 - good for throwing around a good B road?

[Lefty]

Fox- said:

RobM77 said:

I found that the E46 M3 felt scarily like the E46 330ci to be honest; it was almost as if BMW had tried to disguise the car's potential. Push it and you'll feel the better suspension, diff and engine, but 90% of the time I don't think you'd notice much difference to any other E46.

Very brave to express an opinion like that. Internet says that it's like a totally different car.

I agree with him. I've driven an e46 m3 a couple of times and it was...nice, but that's all. Too heavy, too refined, too quiet.

[Patrick Bateman]

For what? A racing car?

It's suited rather well to what it was designed to be.

[RobM77]

Patrick Bateman said:

For what? A racing car?

It's suited rather well to what it was designed to be.

If the design brief is to drive like any other E46 but have some subtle extra depths when you lean on it, then yes, it succeeds in that very well indeed. I just felt that it didn't feel special or different at all speeds, like many purpose built sports cars do (including my Z4 Coupé actually, which I drove back to back with the M3). As such, I think someone coming from another E46 and expecting motoring nirvana would probably be disappointed and would be better off in a 911, Boxster or even a Z4 Coupé like I had at the time and decided to stick with.

All that said, the E46, or any 3 series for that matter, is not a bad car at all, it's a very decent saloon car with superb handling and balance. Saying that the M3 feels like a 330ci most of the time but has extra depths when you push it is my genuine opinion that I stand by, but it wasn't meant to be insulting to the M3 at all, just descriptive.

[Baz Tench]

RobM77 said:

If the design brief is to drive like any other E46 but have some subtle extra depths when you lean on it, then yes, it succeeds in that very well indeed. I just felt that it didn't feel special or different at all speeds, like many purpose built sports cars do (including my Z4 Coupé actually, which I drove back to back with the M3). As such, I think someone coming from another E46 and expecting motoring nirvana would probably be disappointed and would be better off in a 911, Boxster or even a Z4 Coupé like I had at the time and decided to stick with.

All that said, the E46, or any 3 series for that matter, is not a bad car at all, it's a very decent saloon car with superb handling and balance. Saying that the M3 feels like a 330ci most of the time but has extra depths when you push it is my genuine opinion that I stand by, but it wasn't meant to be insulting to the M3 at all, just descriptive.

Having owned two 330cis, I would agree. I love those extra depths though!

[steve singh]

Lefty said:

Fox- said:

RobM77 said:

I found that the E46 M3 felt scarily like the E46 330ci to be honest; it was almost as if BMW had tried to disguise the car's potential. Push it and you'll feel the better suspension, diff and engine, but 90% of the time I don't think you'd notice much difference to any other E46.

Very brave to express an opinion like that. Internet says that it's like a totally different car.

I agree with him. I've driven an e46 m3 a couple of times and it was...nice, but that's all. Too heavy, too refined, too quiet.

Quiet ??? Did you go over 4k revs???

I have people turn around more so than my 996 with PSE!!!