Time, development and expense BMW spent on E46 M3?

[HannsG]

Hi guys,

I never owned an M car until I got my E46 M3. I am wondering how much actually goes into the development of these cars? Is the M division an entire seperate outfit which BMW really put their main focus into when creating industry leading motors?

Or is it all a myth?

Here is pic of mine.

[NateWM]

Nothing to add except cor Blimey, I do love a good E46!

[Matt UK]

Good question.

I think at the beginning the m cars were effectively stripped and rebuilt by the Motorsport team with a high degree of manually intervention.

I think now that the m cars are very much part of the range and less intervention takes place away from the main production line.

I guess your e46 would be somewhere in the middle across that scale!

Can't be more precise and of course I may be wrong anyway!!

[Matt UK]

If you are interested I think David Vivian wrote a book on m cars history.

[HannsG]

Matt UK said:

If you are interested I think David Vivian wrote a book on m cars history.

Thanks will take a look into it.

[HannsG]

Matt UK said:

Good question.

I think at the beginning the m cars were effectively stripped and rebuilt by the Motorsport team with a high degree of manually intervention.

I think now that the m cars are very much part of the range and less intervention takes place away from the main production line.

I guess your e46 would be somewhere in the middle across that scale!

Can't be more precise and of course I may be wrong anyway!!

Indeed I thought the motorsport team would have a great deal of intervention.

I concur with your point to some extent regards that intervention maybe being minimal nowadays since every man and his dog has an Mtech badge on their 3 series etc. Dilution of the brand maybe?