As well as their handling and performance, M3s have attracted attention for their exclusivity. BMW Motorsport’s Roberto Ravaglia Special Edition M3 is no exception and Jesse Crosse sampled this latest M3’s power to excite – Performance Car
When the M3 was announced in 1986 marking BMW’s return to motorsport, few would have guessed just how prolific it would become and just how many variations on the basic theme there would be. Last year, 500 Evolution models, plus 180 of the extra-special Convertibles, joined that standard car (worldwide) and in august this year, BMW announced the Roberto Ravaglia Special Edition model to commemorate the Italian’s efforts in taking his Schnitzer M3 to victory in the 1987 World championship and the European Touring Car Championships of 1987 and 1988.
Only 25 of the Special Edition M3s were offered in the UK in August and they’ve all been sold, at a price of £26,850 each. Bigger front and rear spoilers from the powerful, 220bhp. Evolution M3 adorn the exteriors and there are lightweight rear body panels too, of the sort used on the actual racing cars.
Inside, there’s a special upholstery, with leather edged seats and leather-covered headrests to match, while on the outside, black-painted 7JX16inch cross-spoke alloy wheels carry the same 225/45ZR16 Pirelli P700s used on the Evolution car. Oh, and don’t forget that special plaque fixed to the centre console signed by the boy himself, Roberto Ravaglia.
Under the bonnet is a revised version of the four-cylinder, 16-valve engine but, this time, exhausting through a three-way catalytic converter. Its power output falls between those of the standard 200bhp car and the 220bhp Evolution car with 215bhp at 6750rpm. But to achieve that extra power and satisfy the lead-free demands of the catalytic converter, this version of the M3 engine is comparatively light on torque. Whereas the standard car develops 176lb.ft and the Evolution M3 181lb.ft both at 4750rpm, the Special edition produces less than either of them, with 170lb.ft at 4600rpm.
It’s the premium you pay, if you like, for running the engine on 95 octane unleaded (two-star in other words) instead of 98 octane (four star), something possibly reflected in our test figures. At the Millbrook proving ground, our Special Edition test car managed 0-60mph in 7.1 seconds compared to 6.9 for the standard car and 6.7 for the M3 Evolution we tested in the October 1988 issue. And while the same Evolution model wound its way up to a mean maximum of 144.2mph, the Special Edition was slower, by a whisker, at 143.6.
All this is fairly academic of course. A tenth of a second here or there is undetectable unless you’ve got a few thousand pounds worth of test equipment handy. And the same goes for the top speed.
It’s worth noting, though, because from now on all standard M3s, will be fitted with catalytic converters (and that means unleaded petrol only) matching exactly the engine specification of the Special edition car.
The wider wheels and tyres fitted to both the Evolution and the Special Edition M3s have also become standard on current ‘base’ M3s and it’s that extra grip, first offered on the M3 Evolution, that makes all the difference. In every other sense however, the new, unleaded M3s will remain as they are – no lightweight body panels, no Evolution spoilers, and no special interior trim.
On the road it’s much the same story as it always was, apart from the fantastic grip afforded by those big tyres. The differences between engine types is so subtle that it’s simply impossible to discriminate between the latest specification and those of the previous models.
Perhaps the only noticeable characteristics of this one, which may not have been there before, is the second wind it apparently (and surprisingly) gets at around 6300rpm. When accelerating flat out in either of the first two gears, there’s a fairly distinct urge at that point, almost as if the engine’s coming onto the cam for the second time.
It could have been a quirk of our test car, though that’s unlikely. But what it does emphasise is the smoothness of the M3 power unit at those revs. Nearing the rev-limiter at just over the 7000rpm mark, there’s no indication of an impending asthma attack – that desperate struggle to reach the red line just because it’s there. Rather, the gutsy four-cylinder power unit gives clear notice that, were it not for the restrictions of road tune, it would happily wait away until 9000rpm for so.
In the corners it’s just as much fun as it always was, too. Despite weighing in at 2864lb, the M3 turn-in with delightful nimbleness and responds to hard acceleration in tight corners with neutrality and poise.
Seemingly Unlimited Grip On The Road
The M3 is now one of the new generation of medium-sized, high-performance saloons to be fitted all-round with the super fat tyres previously found only on cars like Porsche-Carreras and even then only on the back. The result in the M3 is a level of grip bordering on the ludicrous and, frankly, to talk about the car’s limits of adhesion on the road is preposterous; the speeds have to be so high.
But for the sake of argument, you can take it that a 225/45 P700 equipped M3 will react to high power in very tight bends with mild understeer. You just can’t make the back end let go in the dry, even in first gear, unless you build near maximum revs and dump the clutch.
You can also assume too that, at high speeds, it remains much the same as ever – a neutral drift at the limit, with the tail pushed out of line by too much power as you might expect. On the road, though, you would have to be driving dangerously fast to move the car about on its tyres like that – on a dry surface at least.
One characteristic that does linger from driving this latest M3, however, and which has always been a dominant element of M3 personality, is the need for plenty of gearchanging to keep it on the boil. A flexible plugger it is not. That can be tiring but never boring; you’ll always walk away satisfied, and start looking forward to the next time five minutes later.
The cost of all this fun, not surprisingly, has risen. The retail price of a pre-catalyst car was £23,550 and the 25 Roberto Ravaglia Special Edition M3s, as we mentioned, cost £26,850 each. You can expect, meanwhile, that a BMW dealer will want to relieve you of £24,200 for the latest specification catalyst equipped car. But then, if It’s exclusivity that you’re after, the M3 must still come near the top of the list. BMW sold 55 M3s in the UK in 1987, 58 in 1988 end, up until October of this year, a total of 68.
There’s one thing, however, that never changes, and that’s the simple fact that all M3s are still left hand drive…
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September 28, 2009
1986 - 1989, Articles