BMW’s excellent M3 sports saloon has ceased production, and you can now buy a used version for not much money. Find just over an extra £5,000, and you can extract Evolution performance from a standard M3 – Fast Lane
So it’s farewell, then M3. BMW’s punchy little four-cylinder road-racer bows out after four and a half years, a victim not so much of the recent model change, claims MW, as of uncertainty over future Group A motor racing rules; will the formula be for two-litre or 2.5 litre engines, and should BMW respond to this with a four or a six?
Clearly, the answer to this is that a four would make a more effective race engine, but a six is a lot nicer for the road. If life were more simple, the argument could be based around these two facts, but it isn’t, so it can’t be. What is certain is that while the ‘normal’ two-door versions of the old 3-series, as well as the Calbrio and Touring, continue in production until the summer, the M3 is knocked on the head.
So the exciting little coupé become an instant classic, or it would do if we were not in our present position in the economic cycle, to quote the Prime Minister’s tidy cuphemism. You can pick up a decent, low-mileage M3 for a very enticing price these days.
Attractive thought his proposition may be, it would be much nicer to have one of the rarer Evolution models, which go significantly faster. They also cost quite a lot more, and you may remember that our verdict on the Sports Evolution was that it was a fine car “but hardly worth a 22 percent price hike.” This is the cue for the Hartge M3-260; you buy a used M3, go to Birds UK, the Hartge agents, and pay £5068 for a high-performance engine conversion. You then have an M3 with Evolution performance but at considerably lower cost. Our test car’s alterations were carried considerably further than this, not least by moving the driver’s seat from left to right, but also with work on the suspension, wheels and tyres, and interior. This brings the conversion cost up to £16,372 (including taxes).
That is quite a lot of money, but the price of the engine conversion is simply justified by the straight line. The Evolution we tested, in less turbulent air, was 2mph faster, and the standard car 7mph slower.
Hartge’s claim is for peak torque of 218lb ft at 5,000rpm. The bad news is that nothing much happens below about 2,000rpm in the top two gears, and this is borne out by the figures. But the good news is that – unlike the Evolution – the Hartge has a significant advantage over the standard M3 when it has climbed on to its cam – and it can spin all the way to 7,700rpm without coming to harm.
If you’re a lazy driver who likes to slog around in top gear once you’re over 200mph, the standard M3 will provide better acceleration all the way to 100mph, and it is only from about 80mph onwards that the other two cars begin to get moving seriously. But if you drive like that, why do you want an M3?
The Hartge engine is much like the Evolution’s in its character and in the noises it makes. It’s a bit coarse, pretty noisy, but highly effective, and actually a good deal smoother than it sounds.
To achieve all this, the engine modifications are substantial: only the standard block and cylinder head are retained, and all major moving parts are replaced, including a new forged crankshaft with eight balance weights and a vibrations damper. The bore is increased from 93 to 94mm and the stroke from 84 to 93mm. New camshafts incorporate wide valve overlap, the valves themselves are gas-flowed, and the exhaust system is all new.
Hartge’s favoured tyres for this car are Yokohamas (the omni-directional type, not the ‘semislick’ 008s), 235/45s on massive 17in diameter rims, 7.5J at the front and 8.5J at the rear. However, these were not available at the time of our test, so instead it ran on Pirelli P700s of the same size.
Standard tyre size is 205/55 VR 15, and I’d be happier with that as an everyday compromise, even without taking into account the saving of £3,214 for the distinctive three-piece rims and tyres; with this less muscular-looking set-up, perhaps you do not get so much outright grip in the dry, but it is a more comfortable car to be in when the weather turns nasty, especially if there’s any standing water. However, I am sure I’ll be in the minority in this, because there is undoubtedly more posing value in the car when it is sitting on those gumball arch-fillers.
A further saving would be the Hartge/Bilstein sports suspension, as you’d not want that without the larger tyres. This consists of lowering the ride height all round by 25mm, fitting rising rate springs and gas-filled dampers. However, I found this firm but never jarring, and much better suited to British roads than some Hartge conversions have been before essential softening has been carried out by Birds.
Our test car, in case it might be used for circuit driving, was also fitted with Group N discs; wisely. Birds does not recommend this for normal road use, and the standard system, powerful enough for most purposes and very progressive, would be preferable.
Some potential purchasers of the M3 in Britain have been put off in the past by BMW’s refusal to build a right-hand drive version, which would not be cost-effective for such a low-volume model. However, as you can see from the photograph, the M3-260 we drive here has been converted (an operation for which Birds charges £4,790). It’s certainly a highly professional job, because you can’t ‘see the join’, and the only occasion on which we noticed any squeaks was in the tight, banked bend at the end of Millbrook’s acceleration straight, where stresses are applied which would not be experienced in normal driving conditions on the road.
Though we wouldn’t spend our money on some of the changes wrought to our test car, we unhesitatingly recommend this engine conversion; it delivers Evolution performance at a reasonable cost and with no penalty in refinement or fuel consumption (we average 20.4mph overall).
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April 6, 2009
1990 - 1999, Articles