The take-up rate for sedans is declining rapidly, as is the take-up rate for manuals and rear-wheel drive. So it would make sense for BMW to give its new 2021 M3, which by nature must be a sedan, a slushie, and all-wheel drive. Well it did. But also, it didn’t! While an automatic and AWD will be options, the base car will stick with the classic M3 manual transmission and RWD formula.
The new cars will maintain their tried and true 3.0-liter inline six-cylinder engine, the S58. This engine is already seen in the M versions of BMW’s small SUVs, but they haven’t turned it into a true coupe / sedan yet. Like the previous generation M-derived inline six-cylinder, it sticks with two turbochargers to deliver more than 400 horsepower, 480 in this case.
But that 480 horsepower output is not the whole story, thanks to the existence of the new M3 / M4 competition. That’s where the 8-speed automatic transmission comes into play along with improved horsepower of 510 horsepower. The 8 speed will be the only option if you want the added power of the competition package, however you will still be able to have rear wheel drive or all wheel drive.
There are other details that should also interest you, such as the aesthetics of the most aggressive M models. And when I say interest … well, it’s not necessarily positive. This is because in addition to offering classic M add-ons such as flared fenders, additional exhausts, and a large bump on the hood, the new M3 sedan will apparently share its front fascia with the M4 on top. This looked good on the E90 / E92 M3 which played the same trick, however the grid on the E90 3-Series was not so … say inclined to smell like the largest racks in the G22 4 series.
Despite this unfortunate aesthetic-related development of the M twin, we should all be excited. The manual transmission is not gradually disappearing from the high-performance car option lists, and BMW has already removed, and perhaps adequately, the option of the larger M5. It combines the 6 available speeds with the fact that we won’t be stuck with the steering corrupted by an all-wheel drive system, and I think we should be excited about the G80 M3 / M4. We can no longer take cars like this for granted.
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