BMW M3s have been around for a long time. The current 3-Series is the fifth generation of cars with that name, and there have been high-performance M3 versions of the last four. Progress being what it is, the latest M3 is by some way the most powerful - and of course fastest - of the lot.In achieving this, BMW has cleaved to the philosophy behind the thoroughly remarkable Audi RS 4, which is the M3's closest rival. Each car uses a large, naturally-aspirated, high-revving V8 engine producing 414bhp (slight kudos to BMW here in that the M3 unit is 164cc smaller than that of the RS 4, not that it matters much). The fundamental differences are that the M3 engine is mounted much further back, and drives through only the rear wheels while the Audi uses all four.Both cars are visually distinctive, but the BMW especially so. With purposefully-styled wheels (19" in the case of the test car, though 18" is standard), a brutal-looking front end including an enormous bonnet bulge, four exhaust tailpipes and a rear spoiler, among other things, it has immense presence - so much so, in fact, that a friend who briefly caught sight of the tail of our car while driving past my house convinced herself that she was looking at an Aston Martin.The non-standard body parts include a carbonfibre roof, which lowers both the overall weight and the centre of gravity. This is one of several details - others are the optional Electronic Damper Control and the Power setting which actually changes nothing but the responsiveness of the throttle pedal - which would each make a difference if you were timing an M3 round a race circuit to the nearest hundredth of a second, but which do very little to affect the car's rear-world road behaviour and are more significant as talking points during pub conversation.Still, they help contribute to the fact that this is an importantly fast car. 0-62mph takes 4.8 seconds, and the limited top speed of 155mph merely hints at what a fully unleashed M3 could do.Maximum power is developed at 8300rpm, just 100rpm short of when the revlimiter kicks in, but you don't have to work the engine anything like that hard to enjoy sturdy performance. In fact, you can have a good time even when you change up by 2500rpm, which is incredible for a highly-tuned petrol engine - it's the sort of thing you would more readily expect from a turbo diesel.Tone down the revs even further and the M3 actually surpasses any turbo diesel I've ever driven. Most of those give up below about 1500rpm, but the M3 keeps performing well south of that. I doubt that many owners are going to bother experimenting with this, but I found that the car can accelerate reasonably well from slightly lower than its normal tickover speed. From an engine which will happily scream past the "8" mark on the revcounter, this is phenomenal stuff.At most speeds, the engine sounds great, but compared with the less powerful but more vocal six-cylinder units of past years it seems rather muffled (no doubt due to pesky noise regulations), and strange to say the same description could be applied to the way the M3 behaves generally. This can be a good thing - there is an enormous amount of grip, but even with the most savage suspension setting in place, and despite the 35 profile tyres on the optional 19" wheels, the ride is surprisingly compliant.The front end turns in beautifully, and if you apply the throttle at just the right time the balance from mid-corner onwards is sublime (it's also pretty good if you're less expert with your right foot). All this is very impressive, but you can find yourself being impressed without being noticeably thrilled.The steering is the main culprit. Famously, BMW's M Division will have no truck with the electronic power steering used in more mainstream models, favouring instead a more conventional method of power assistance on the grounds that this provides more "feel". But the M3's steering is surprisingly vague. It may get the results, but you feel the behaviour of the chassis much more through the seat of your pants than through your fingers.The other major controls don't help either; the gearchange and the clutch action are not great when you're going slowly, and they don't improve to any great extent when you start pushing harder.M3s were not always like this. One of the earliest examples I ever drove was a 2.5-litre four-cylinder Evo variant of the first-generation car, and since then only the M3 CSL which appeared on the market very briefly in 2004 (see road test) has been anything like as exciting.The 2.5 Evo felt like a tarmac rally car tamed only slightly for road use - which is more or less what it was - whereas the current M3 has the air of a vastly uprated road car. There's a considerable gap between those concepts, and despite its enormous shortfall in power I'm sure there are routes which the Evo would cover more rapidly, and certainly more enjoyably.Of course, the Evo is a car of a different time, built for different reasons and likely to be appreciated by quite different people, but there's a similar situation now. The Audi RS 4 - similar to the M3 in so many ways - is a true wonder, more exciting for more of the time than the BMW while still able to offer relaxed motoring if that's what you want.All of which leads to a conclusion I wasn't expecting to reach when I first took the wheel. The M3 is a car of startling ability, very fast in a straight line and able to take corners in a manner which would send the vast majority of the world's four-seaters hurtling into the scenery. It's comfortable, it's splendidly well-equipped and it looks like the work of the Devil. If you buy one, people will stare longingly after you in the street, wishing they were you. But for all that it is nevertheless, compared with its predecessors and at least one of its rivals, the soft option. Engine 3999 cc, 8 cylinders Power 420 bhp @8300 rpm Torque 295 ib/ft @3900 rpm Transmission 6 speed manual Fuel/CO2 22.8 mpg / 295 g/km Acceleration 0-62mph: 4.8sec Top speed 155 mph Price From £50881.00 approx Release date 08/09/2007
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