It was on the second day that the temptation became irresistible. Oh certainly, we’d spent a day tearing up and down Welsh mountainsides for the benefit of lensman Tim Andrew’s pictures. And perhaps there had occasionally been a touch of oversteer here and there on tighter corners to remind me that I was driving a BMW.

But the grip generated by those huge MXX Michelins was becoming disconcerting. No embarrassing tail-slides pulling away from road junctions in a hurry, no red-faces following rushed zig-zags through quiet, backwater intersections. In the end it took a dumped clutch at a secluded country cross-roads near to home. That did it.

A touch with the right foot to pick up the revs, then a sidestep with the left. Two large patches of French rubber on the road or not, the result was wickedly satisfying. The tenor howl rose from beneath the hood, the tail drifted slightly to the right, and those back wheels spun at last.

Well yes, it was uncalled for and, yes, they are expensive tires and, yes, they do belong to somebody other than myself.

You see, it isn’t often that people get away with shoe-horning very big, very powerful engines into small, thoroughbred, sports sedans better suited to high-revving, piccolo power units and get away with it. Usually such experiments are ill-conceived, sometimes poorly executed, and more often than not best quickly forgotten.

And in truth it’s not generally the Alpina way, either. Alpina usually sticks to “sensible” modifications like straightforward engine and chassis tuning. Usually, but not always. The Alpina B63.55 isn’t till-conceived, though. Oh, no, not that.

Sometimes, just occasionally, a car comes along that’s so fundamentally correct, so well thought out, that it can happily withstand quite drastic modifications. Less often can they withstand such changes without allowing the finer points of the originals to be compromised.

M3 Ancestry

The B6 hails from a racing success story, like most good hybrids. It is basically an 3 whose four cylinder engine has been replaced by a tune 3.5 litre six, although that’s nto the whole story. The M3 was the BMW that shook the European high performance scene in 1986 and arrived stateside a year later. There hadn’t been a BMW like it for many years – the company had grown conservative and the idea of using four cylinders to make one of their cars go quickly just wasn’t acceptable.

But the M3 wasn’t designed like the other BMWs, to woo executive customers away from Daimler-Benz. This little fellow was designed to win races. Thomas Ammerschlager, an ex-Ford Motorsport man, was in charge of the team at BMW Motorsport. And he, like the rest of the team at BMW’s highly specialized motorsport department, understands the basic elements of speed.

The first journalists to drive the new racer scarcely knew what to think. With those wide, boxy wheel arches and rear spoiler, the car barely looked like a 3-Series. On the sweeping circuit at Mugello in Italy where the M3 made its summer debut, it didn’t feel like any other 3-Series BMW.

And that engine. The 2.3 litre four cylinder engine Ammerschlager created had a 16-valve head and developed 200bhp at 6750rpm with 176lbs. ft of torque at 4750rpm. Nothing happened below 4500rpm; once over that barrier, however, everything happened. It carried on happening until 7000rpm and made sure everyone knew about it. In Group A racing trim, the little four produces nearer to 300bhp (the rank is strong enough to withstand 10,000rpm). More people now know about the little Motorsports engine that could.

Group A is Europe’s sedan racing category. To be eligible or “homologated” for it, manufacturers have to build at least 5000 cars for public consumption, cars which earn the nickname “homologation special.”

The M3’s success since 1986 has been enormous, with many international championship wins to its credit. But despite its appeal, the power unit is uncompromisingly noisy and needs to be worked very hard indeed to get any satisfaction, either in street or race form.

Enter Alpina

Burkard Bovensiepen knows a bit about racing BMWs, too. He did a lot of it before and after he created Alpina Burkard Bovensiepen GmbH in 1965. Alpina is an unusual company. It isn’t owned by BMW, yet BMW gives its blessing to Alpina’s work. It is a curious relationship. One company’s desire for excellence feeds off another’s similar desire.

Alpina is also an autocracy – Bovensiepen is the boss – big enough to turn out 600 cars a year and is recognized by the VDA in Germany as a manufacturer, not merely a tuning firm.

When a small group of journalists went to the Alpina base at Buchloe (say Book-low-ay) in 1988 just outside Munich, they expected to be shown only the new 5-Series based Alpina B10, and the B12, based on the 750i V12. To be honest, the performance levels of the standard cars are so high that the attention of Alpina produces a much lesser margin of improvement than Alpina has achieved with earlier BMW models. But the B6, held out as a surprise for our visit, is different from its stablemates, and it quickly became the center of attention.

B6 Engine

The B6 is equipped not with the standard 3.5 litre six cylinder BMW engine (you’d be forgiven for thinking that would suffice), but the Alpina-tuned version as fitted to the B10 sedan. These engines, like all Alpina engines, are hand-built in Bovensiepen’s engine shops, which are immaculate, the mechanics working in a squeaky clean environment on the shining, lightly oiled steel and alloy that forms the heart of every Alpina.

The modifications are mostly straightforward. The stock camshaft is swapped for an Alpina one, the valves are changed, and cylinder head porting is modified. In the B6, shorter forged Mahle pistons are used in conjuction with longer connecting rods to make the engine smoother. Chips for the Bosch Motronic engine management system are developed and modified by Alpina, too.

The engine is impressive. The non-catalytic converter cars for Europe deliver 260bhp at 6000rpm and 235lbs.ft of torque at 4000rpm. Catalytic converter-equipped cars for the rest of the world develop 254bhp, but Alpina uses EMITEC three-way catalysts rather than the ceramic type, to minimize power loss.

Once the big six is shoe-horned into the M3’s engine bay, there’s little room left fore and aft – millimetres, in fact. The firewall needs surgery to make things fit, and there is a special exhaust manifold and exhaust system fitted. The Getrag 5-speed gearbox is the same, with the same internal ratios.

The rear axle has a limited slip differential set at 25 percent, and the axle ratio is longer, up to 2.79:1 from 3.25:1. That’s enough to push the B6 to 152mph. The taller final drive also means long legged cruising capabilities. First gear catapults you to 45mph, second gear to 70mph, and by 6600rpm on the rev-limiter in third, you’ll hit a cool 93mph. At that speed you’re already in trouble with the law on most public roads throughout the world except some of the unrestricted autobahns in Germany. Fourth gear compounds the problem at a rev-limited 127mph. Officers of the law may not like it, but the chassis swallows up all that power with aplomb.

Suspension Bits

The M3 retains the basic suspension of other 3-Series cars, with MacPherson struts up front and semi-trailing arms out back. But an M3 handles like no other 3-Series. The steering rack is much faster, with a 19:1 ratio, front wheel caster is increased three-fold, semi-trailing arms are set at 15 degrees, and both front and rear anti-roll bars are repositioned. The spring and shock rates are stiffer and the ride heights lower. There are twin-tube gas shocks at the front and single tube at the rear.

The resulting M3 bears little resemblance to its 3-Series brothers. One hundred percent feel replaces the not-quite-sure sensation the 325i gives its driver when entering a corner fast in the wet. And should you push your luck just that little bit too far, the M3 compensates for your enthusiasm. Instead of snapping, ferociously into a power-on broadslide, the M3 will at first understeer – quite a lot, in fact. Like a mid-engined single-seater, more power in a high speed drift will push the tail out, but progressively so. The basic M3 is a beautifully balanced, well mannered car that responds to your touch as only a thoroughbred can.

Replacing that relatively delicate four cylinder racing engine with the massive six out to cause all sorts of problems, but it doesn’t. BMW has tried it, and they too know just how graciously the little M3 bows to the task. They too know that far from destroying the characteristics of the car, the big engine actually improves them. The B6 is so simple, so perfect in its conception, it’s a wonder that BMW doesn’t produce their own version.

The only chassis modification carried out in the creation of the B6 is the addition of front springs taken from the A/C equipped M3. They’re stiffer, and tough enough to handle the extra weight of the engine which, surprisingly, isn’t that great. The final touch is a set of Alpina wheels, which are an inch wider and taller than standard.

Salzburgring

Being part of that first group of journalists to visit Buchloe last year also provided me the opportunity of testing the B6 briefly on the Salzburgring in Austria. There, after miles of frustrating holiday traffic, the B6 could stretch it legs. And rather than plowing off in understeer, the B6 proved sharp as a tack. The merest touch on the thick leather Momo rim would have the B6 diving for the nearest apex. Follow through with the throttle and the nose would tuck-in further, cosily nuzzling the inner red-and-white striped curb of a turn. Ease-on still more power and the oversteer would increase gently, the big tires howling in protest, the lightweight BMW flying out towards the exit point of the bend in a satisfyingly controlled four-wheel drift.

On English and Welsh roads a year later, little had changed. The only difference between the car at Buchloe and the one loaned to us by BMW Great Britain is the full Alpina interior of the British car. This car has the multi-adjustable, Alpina-trimmed front seats in blue and green. The doors are trimmed in the same cloth and the dash now has walnut veneer. The BMW black gearshift knob is replaced by a wooden Alpina one and in front of that is the exclusive Alpina plate, telling the occupants that this is car number -35.

Because of the B6’s low seating position, even folks with long legs can get close behind the wheel with arms comfortably bent, yet still achieve heel-and-toe shifts without catching a knee on the wheel-rim or the steering column. Rear-seat passengers suffer from the usual lack of knee room you get in any of the 3-Series cars.

It’s very smooth, no doubt about it. If you wanted to split hairs, you could argue that there’s too much luxury. Somehow the elegant finish is too great an addition to the attractive but slightly flashy interior of the standard car. You might feel that the lily is glided, or that the sporting nature of this car is compromised by the trappings of wealth.

You might think that, until you strap in and turn the key. The bodyshell kicks nervously. The engine fires, but instead of the four’s raucous whinny, there’s the deep, basso rumble of a six that doesn’t sound quite ordinary. The exhaust note steadies to tickover. It’s uneven and a little rough for a BMW. Blip the throttle and the response is instant. The bodyshell jerks with the torque, like a stallion touched by the whip.

The Getrag gearbox is notchy as always. The clutch is reasonably weighted and at least smooth. Rolling away, the slight transmission whine is familiar, too. But flooring the throttle pedal brings a response that isn’t. The reaction at first is reasonable; then the revs climb and there’s an MX missile under your right foot. The power is immense and linear in it’s delivery, but even with this big engine the real action starts at around 4000rpm and carries on to the rev-limiter at 6600rpm.

Shifting all Getrag-equipped 3.5 litre BMWs, whatever the model, requires the same technique; full-power shifts will always be jerky until you’ve got the rhythm. The shifting is slow, heavy, and a little vague, the inertia of the flywheel in the big engine huge, and the injection cut-off sharp. Clumsy shifting just won’t work; the B6 will frustrate your progress, chew you up, and spit you out. Deliberation, firmly controlled clutch action, and a feathered throttle to prevent the revs dropping right off is what it takes, and lots of practice. With the shifting mastered, that MX under your right foot will take you skywards.

Performance

The standard M3 accelerates from zero to 60 in 6.9seconds and zero to 100 in 20.5seconds. It will cover the fourth gear 60-80mph increment in 7.3seconds and 70-90 in 7.9 seconds – good by most standards.

But at the GM Millbrook test facility, the B6 scorched its way to 60mph in just 6.0seconds (as fast as a Testarossa) and thundered on to 100mph in 15.8 seconds. The increments between 60-80mph in fourth took only 5.7seconds and 70-90mph exactly the same.

On the high speed circuit at Millbrook, the B6’s average of 152mph on a windy day, allowing for scrubbed-off speed on the banked circuit, is consistent with Alpina’s claimed figured of 156mph on the flat.

Round town though, the B6 is a pussycat. Owners can expect to drive around at crawling speed in fifth hear if they really want to. Driving normally, without tapping the enormous reserves of power, requires much less technique at the controls to get a satisfying result. The B6 putters easily about town and won’t show its brute strength unless asked.

Stopping is no problem. Standard M3 four-pot callipers (ABS is standard, too) on the 11.0inch ventilated front discs are designed to slow 300bhp lightweight racing cars. Suffice to say they are up to snuff.

The B6 is no ballet dancer when it comes to weight, but at 2,904 pounds it’s a full 254 pounds lighter than the standard M3. It also has 60bhp more under the hood and more importantly another 60lbs.ft of torque to go with it. Where the M3 has a power-to-weight ratio of 169.5bhp per ton, the B6 has a muscle-bound 200bhp per ton.

On the road you’d never think the B6 was that heavy. The highly geared steering and taught chassis give it nimbleness and the razor-sharp turn-in that the BMW M6 is famous for. The ride is pretty hard, but then that’s what you would expect. It’s not tiresome though, and doesn’t jostle the occupants too badly. On smooth roads, feel through the springs seems quite mellow; at high speed the B6 rides with arrow-like stability.

Overall the sensation is still very luxurious, but tempered with a degree of menace emphasized by the firmness and response of the chassis, which rises to the surface every time the throttle is opened. What makes the B6 such a superlative high performance car is the compatibility of chassis and power unit. There’s nothing clever about over-the-top sedans or sports cars that have masses of power and a lousy temperament. Anybody can put something like that together. The B6 is even fun and safe in the wet, and that’s saying something.

Fine Vintage

Bovensiepen is also a lover of fine wines. In fact, Alpina makes 10 percent of its income from trading in them. The folks in Buchloe like to think that their cars and wines are closely linked: both appeal to people who want the finer things in life and can afford to pay the price.

The B6 isn’t cheap. The expense of the engine transplant alone sees to that. The price in Germany is DM85, 000 which on current exchange rates is about $43,000 (not including US taxes). The B6 is more or less built to order, so you can’t get much more exclusive than that. But like some of the virtually priceless Bordeaux wines lying quietly in Bovensiepen’s cellars, there’s always a premium to pay for the very best.

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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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Forget appearances, the vast price difference and the chalk and cheese chasm in technical detail: Britain’s belt and braces Morgan +8 and Germany’s computer literate BMW M3 convertible do the same job. And you know it the first time you drop their tops and aim them down a favourite road on a sunny morning. It’s not just that either blasts to 60 in six wind-in-their-hair seconds or less, it’s that both offer an unforgettable drive. But what conclusively different cars they are.

This is indeed a prizefight with a difference: the Morgan, hairy-chested and with the support of the crowd, facing a car trained by science and the racetrack to the peak of physical fitness. The battleground: The Lake District and the Yorkshire Moors….and the sort of roads for which both cars were born.

In the whole of motoring there are surely not two more opposed routes to what is ultimately the same result. The Morgan gets its punch from the old and ubiquitous pushrod Rover 3528cc V8. It produces 190bhp at 5300rpm and 220lb ft of torque at 4000rpm. When this kind of power is dropped into a car weighing a little more than 200lb, shattering performance is guaranteed.

With sliding pillar front suspension and a live rear axle located by leaf springs – ye gods, even lever arm dampers – the Morgan’s suspension is pure pre-war. The car costs £17,703 and you will have to wait up to four years for delivery.

The BMW’s 2302cc four-cylinder engine has twice as many valves per cylinder, operated by two overhead camshafts. The engine is unique to the M3 and was designed primarily as a racing unit. In roadgoing tune it develops 200bhp at 6750rpm and 177lb ft torque at 4750rpm.

Suspension sounds identical to that of any other 3-Series: MacPherson struts up front, semi-trailing arms at the back, coil springs and telescopic dampers all round. But BMW Motorsport has been to work here. With a combination of fine tuning and geometry revisions it has produced a chassis of rare quality.

BMW GB charges a ridiculous £37,250 for the M3 convertible. Only 40 left-hand-drive cars are being imported this year.

Straight-line performance in either car is sensational but the Morgan is the quicker. It can reach 60mph in just 5.6secs and up to 100mph in 16.4secs. Above 120mph the German’s vastly superior aerodynamics mean the BMW can start to regain lost ground and pull away from the Morgan. In the gears, too, the Morgan is quicker. Between 50-70mph in fourth the car accelerates in 5.1secs, and in fifth 7.6secs; the BMW requires 6.4 and 9.5secs. It is only on top speed that the Morgan has to give best. Its 122mph cannot live with the BMW’s 144mph.

Driving the cars on public roads shows this performance gap to be even wider than the figures suggest. For much of our two day jaunt the Morgan was simply held up by BMW, at least on straight roads. One event illustrates the point: overtaking a column of dawdling traffic, I dropped the BMW down from fourth to third and powered past on full throttle. The Morgan came too, but requiring neither a gearchange nor a foot on the floor.

It may seem hard to believe that Rover’s ageing pushrod V8 could be a more effective engine than the multi-valve marvel produced by BMW Motorsport, but in these cars there is not contest. First there is the Morgan’s torque. Even with very high gearing – 27.6mph/1000rpm in top – it will pull cleanly from walking pace in any gear. It will continue to deliver a flood of power to the 5500rpm limit we imposed, with no ‘coming onto the cam’ or fall off the power at high revs – it delivers its performance in one clean, solid shove. Then there is the noise. A classic V8 burble at low revs, rising to a deep-chested roar as it is extended. The effect is inspiring.

Taken in isolation, the BMW four is a great engine. It has a tremendously successful track record and in road trim it combines its power with a quality edge that the V8 lacks. But still there are racing traits: below 4000rpm, for instance, there is not much urge. Above this is unleashes its power and the rev-counter will charge to the limiter at 7400rpm with superb response. So you have to work at the BMW, with frequent gearchanges the key to keeping it on the boil Fail to do this and the power disappears from under your feet.

There is not the engine music either. The engine sounds less distinguished than that of a Golf GTI up to 5000rpm and there’s some roughness too – certainly it’s not as smooth as any BMW six cylinder unit. After 5000rpm it issues a mechanical howl to remind you of its racing aspirations, but still it does not seduce like the Morgan.

The BMW waits until the corners before it seduces you. The M3 has as good a claim as any to having the most competent and entertaining front-engined chassis in production. Remarkably, the convertible has lost none of the saloon’s ability. Turn-in is sharp and the grip from the 225-section Michelin MXX tyres is of the very highest order.

The convertible will understeer or oversteer on demand, but its basic cornering stance is one of strong neutrality. Push on harder and it just feels better and better, neutral cornering balance eventually giving way to mild, benign oversteer. The steering, so full of feel, lest you keep the front wheels pointing in the desired direction, without drastic correction, and the car follows this line faithfully. It has no hidden vices, no ghastly secrets.

Driving the same road in the Morgan induces acute culture shock. Grip is not the problem if the road is smooth. With only 2000lb to persuade a change direction, the 205-section Uniroyals allow the +8 to be hustled through well-surfaced corners at a cracking pace. Put it on the pockmarked B roads of the Lake District and the story is very different. The car hops wholesale across the road as soon as look at a bump. The ride is truly appalling.

And the otherwise dead steering can generate the sort of kickback that wrenches the wheel from your hands. You drive this car from the seat of your pants. Do this, and it is not without its reward. Fight the steering, kill the heavy understeer with a bootful of throttle, be ready to catch the inevitable tail slide and you will have one of the most invigorating rides this side of a rollercoaster. Despite the dead steering, the Morgan can be placed accurately, but it takes practice.

On the practical side, the BMW is streets ahead, and Morgan wouldn’t have it any other way. Hood up in the M3 you could be in a saloon up to about 70mph. Engine noise is prominent, and there is a distant rumble from the fat Michelins, but wind roar, though audible at motorway speeds, is very well suppressed.

The refinement is heightened by heated leather seats which are comfortable and supportive. With comforts like these the worries of left-hand-drive soon disappear.

Driving the Morgan roof-up on the motorway is not recommended. The tall gearing keeps engine noise to a minimum but since the wind drowns any attempt to hear anything, it’s rather academic. The wind causes the hood to billow skywards – creating some much needed headroom – and assaulting you from every hole in the ill-fitting side-screens.

The Morgan does do some practical jobs surprisingly well. The seats are comfortable even if the ride is not. The two-stage heater keeps you warm in freezing conditions. The driving position is not terrible, even if it is short on leg room. However, none of this can make the car anything but fatiguing to drive in less than ideal conditions.

The M3 convertible is the only BMW to come with an electric hood. Raising or lowering it is a simple matter of pulling two levers and pressing a button. The mechanism required to achieve a taut cover that is both water and air tight is not to be underestimated. The hood has to go through a complex range of manoeuvres, all of which are achieved with absolute millimetre-perfect precision.

The Morgan has a typically belt and braces hood. A skeleton frame provides the basic shape. You have to hang the hood over it and clip it to the top of the windscreen and the back of the car, having already screwed on the sidescreens. The job could conceivably be done inside five minutes. Unfortunately our time with the car was spent in freezing conditions with a howling gale, when the job becomes nigh on impossible.

Both cars are beautifully built. Scuttle-shake, which can reduce a sound saloon into a rattling undesirable, is only apparent in the BMW on badly broken surfaces. Paintwork is deep and lustrous, and body panels fit tightly and evenly.

If anything, the Morgan is more impressive. The test car was Morgan’s demonstrator and even after 40,000 miles of the suspension trying to shake the car to pieces is still felt and looked like new, save for the odd stone chip. Drive one and you will know that this is no mean achievement.

The BMW teaches lessons you never forget. It extends the boundaries which the comprised structure of a convertible has previously had to observe. It is fast and flattering, and as practical a drop top as anyone could wish.

Still, there is something not quite right about this car. It’s partly in the price. A 325i convertible costs £17,000 less. A saloon M3 is nearly £14,000 cheaper. This cannot be justified by leather seats and an electric hood. The car seems to have been conceived as a money-making exercise.

The Morgan has no such problems. Apart from straight-line speed, it is not match for the BMW and now, perhaps, would it want to be. What it offers is an unrivalled tactile experience. You can get out of the BMW, unruffled, after a hard blast down a fell road and marvel at the car’s ability. Do the same in the Morgan and you get out with a real sense of achievement.

Then there is the way the car looks. Beside the Morgan the BMW, for all its flared arches and spoilers, looks anonymous. The Morgan looks classically beautifully. It has a hint of fragility that makes you want to look after it. For all the money it costs, the BMW is much less of an individual.

The Morgan has only one real problem. It is pointless driving it in anything other than ideal conditions. The car’s comprehensive inability to transport its occupants for long distances in anything but severe discomfort is something that only the most die-hard nut will discount. But when the roads are dry and the sun shines, you cannot have too much of it. The Morgan ladles out fun like the BMW never could.

The essence of it is that in the BMW you enjoy the car, while in the Morgan you enjoy yourself.

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While red, violet, and blue might not be the sort of combination you’d choose for the May Ball, just a glimpse of those colours is enough to set the pulses of most cars enthusiasts racing.

Because that distinctive tri-colour stripe is what-sets certain BMWs aside from most other BMWs, and usually slaps another 20 per cent on the price into the bargain.

Not without cause, though – because the letter ‘M’ in the famous emblem stands for Motorsport, and on a BMW’s bootlid it generally means business.

Most people have heard of the ‘M’ cars. The mid-engined M1 sportscar of the 1970s is probably the most famous. It, in turn, lent a close derivative of its powerplant, the 24-valve, 300bhp 3.5 litre straight-six to the M635CSi coupe of 1984, the M5 due in the Uk in right-hand drive form early next year.

1987 was also the year of the M3, the four-cylinder, 2.3 litre 3-Series ‘homologated’ car, which took saloon car racing by storm, with wins in the German Championship, the European Championship and the World Championship.

The ‘M-Power’ late starts in 1972, when a certain Bob Lutz thought it might be a good idea to establish a specialist division to look after BMW’s racing interests.

That wasn’t the start of BMW’s racing successes though, far from it. There was, of course, a heavy involvement in motor racing both pre-war and post-war, but it was in the 1960s that BMW started along the saloon car racing path that they’ve stuck to ever since. Following the BMW 1500 in 1961, the 110bhp, 112mph 1800 __ which arrived three years later won 27 out of the 28 races entered in 1964. And following those successes a limited edition car, the BMW 1800 TiSA (Tourismo International Sport-Aushtuhrung) was sold to 200 lucky customers, for Dm13, 500 each.

The First Of Many

In 1966 Hubert Hahne started the ball rolling properly. By winning the European Championship with an 1800 TiSA and Dieter Quester followed that up in 1968 and 1969 with a 2002 and 2002 turbo.

In 1972, Jochen Neerspach was norminated to start the new division at Preussen Strasse in Munich and a string of successes followed.

Other bosses would follow in his footsteps during the next two decades, as BMW Motorsport grew – there was Scheu, Prommesberger, Flohr and finally Kalbfell.

But BMW Motorsport GmbH have changed a lot since their early days. They have evolved from a simple toot designed to win races, into a sophisticated instrument whose function is embroiled with development of some of BMW AG’s major products. While they haven’t lost that innovative capability, and the ability to produce winners on the race tracks, they are also responsible for designing and producing series production cars that reflect, says Karl-Heinz Kalbfell, the very heart of BMW Kalbfell, at 40, hes made it.

He joined BMW AG’s communications department in 1987 and was leading it by 1985. In October 1988 he was made head of Motorsport.

On the wall at the end of his office is a variation of the famous ‘M-Power’ logo – I reads ‘K-Power’, a leaving present from his colleagues at BMW AG. On the window sill behind his desk is an ornamental mask with one eye blacked in; it is another gift, this time from Japanese colleagues.

Setting Out Objectives

When you start a job, explained Karl-Heinz Kalbfell, looking at mask: ‘you paint one eye black when you’ve set your targets. You paint the other eye black when you’ve achieved those targets.’

And he’s got plenty of those to fulfill. Motorsport’s production plant is at Garching, a Munich suburb. That’s where the new M5 is handbuilt, while the M3 is now built at BMW AG, as are all Motorsport-series engines. The engine development division is at Preussen Strasse, together with four engine dynos, and the uual array of exhibits, including the old Formula one engines.

‘We have capacity for 2000 cars at Garching,’ Kalbfell continued, ‘and we’ve just finished the last of the 180 M3 Convertibles. Our sales overall, including the M3s built at the main plant, will be about 4500cars. In total we’ve built 15,000 M3s to date and that would be too many to consider building just at Garching.’

So how much have Motorsport changed? How much time is devoted to racing and how much to the roadgoing specials that the division has become so famous for?

It’s difficult to describe that exactly, because my way of organising this company is to link all the specialists together a little bit, so the engine specialists, for example, are working on both racing engines and series engines. But to give an idea I’d say the split is roughly one-third racing and two-thirds street cars.

The company has one philosophy and that’s all under one roof. We don’t operate like a mini BMW AG. Today Motorsport has two important roles. One is racing, where we prove our engines’ reliability and performance and try and produce the best handling cars. On the other hand we have the direct link with racing by building unusual series cars for a small number of people who don’t reflect the average BMW customer. ‘So BMW Motorsport is not  a racing department, a racing company, or a production company, it’s a high performance company.’

BMW were traditionally a conservative company, and it’s taken two decades to turn them into the creative and progressive body that they are today. But in the early 1970s the turn-around was only half complete and that begs the question as to how such a radical core as the fledgling Motorsport division has dovetailed into the corporate whole over the years – and been tolerated by it.

‘I don’t think ‘tolerate’ is the right word: they need us. People often expect that I’m a racing man, but I’m a sales and marketing man and that’s the way I run this company.’

‘My chief consideration has to be what the need is for BMW AG, to have a company like this one. In the 1970s, the products were very heavily directed towards sportiness only. Now it’s completely different. Today the limits on everyday motoring are increasing and traffic conditions will be moderated. But on the other hand companies must continue to improve the efficiency of their technology, and that’s a good reason to place an even stronger emphasis on racing in the future.’

Another division of BMW is BMW Technik GmbH, the research division responsible for the Z1. So together with the main R5D facility that makes three separate engineering facets of the company contributing to the output of the company as a whole BMW Technik are involved principally with research into new techniques and materials, while Motorsport are concerned with developing what’s already there. But major new projects like the M3 have to start somewhere, and it’s usually as the result of a single good idea. And although Kalbfell points out that he wasn’t around when the M3 project was started, it’s a good example.

‘It’s really up to the strengths of managing directors in getting their ideas across tot eh board on individual projects,’ he says. ‘Motorsport is an independent company owned 100 per cent by BMW AG, we have our own finance and sales departments, but where the resources already exist in the parent company then we use those, it would not make sense, for example, to build a separate distribution system. But we are responsible for fulfilling our own financial targets, and it’s up to us to find the right products.’

Forward Planning

How about their contribution to the main R6D department?

‘I mainly hear what they are planning, because their thinking is in the longer term. We plan from five to ten years ahead, though at ten years our plans are relatively open; at five they’re fixed.’

The M3 will carry on racing for another two years. After that, says Herr Kalbfell, ‘we’ll look at other options to remain competitive. No, there isn’t any likelihood of larger series cars returning to racing, the future is still with the 3-Series.’

There’s also no likelihood, says the Motorsport boss, of any project concerning the Z1. ‘There isn’t any capacity at the moment anyway.’

There are plans, however, to provide a greater service to individuals wanting modifications made to their existing cars. It’s not a service that BMW advertise, but usually happens as a result of customers asking their dealers about it. It’s an area that Kalbfell is anxious to expand.

‘We did 200 last year and at a guess, it might be nice to do, perhaps, 500 this year.’

But the new M5 forms the principal thrusts of Motorsport’s activities at the moment. And it’s that project that is perhaps one of the most impressive, in production terms particularly, to be found inside a major manufacturer anywhere in the world today. Because a few miles away at the Garching plant, on the ironically named Daimier Strasse, M5s are assembled entirely by hand, each on one of 20 individual hoists.

The M5 shops at Garching are breathtaking. Red-tiled floors are scrubbed by machine at the end of every day, leaving a perfume I the air more reminiscent of someoen’s kitchen than of a factory.

Siegfried Schwarz started with BMW in 1965 as a race and rally mechanic and has been at Motorsport since 1973. He is the man charged with making sure that 2000 M5s leave the plant in the next year and he’s got about 82 people to do it with. Same 72 of those are productive mechanics and ten are quality inspectors. There are about 110 people all-told – including engineers, storekeepers and so forth.

He starts with bodyshells which arrive from the Dingolfing plant complete with radiators, plumbing and interior trim. Seats are only installed for convenient transportation, they come straight out again. The shells are cleaned, put on a jig and initial work is done to the underbody, including the fitting of heat reflecting material to protect it from the hot exhaust.

From there, the cars are wheeled into a second shop and are installed on one of the 20 hoists. Next door 35 or so of the 24 valve, 3.5 litre 315bhp engines lie in racks, waiting to be built into complete front axle assemblies, each engine, built at the Munich factory, is the rough Deutschmark equivalent of a complete BMW 316. A few feet away, rear axles get the same treatment.

Next door again, one men assembles each car, unwittingly endowing it with his signature.

‘Every mechanic has his own individual style’, explains Peter Locke, who’s in charge of export sales. ‘The quality inspectors can work out who built each car without being told.’

The mechanics are unusually skilled, and most started in specialised crafts like tool-making. A new routine of quality checking was instigated recently, whereby senior mechanics are charged with checking work in progress, a better solution than having quality inspectors looking over the mechanics’ shoulders.

At the far end of the assembly shop is the upholstery department, where there’s a machine that can shave any of the many hides in stock down to a thickness of 0.3 millimetres. You can have almost anything you want.

‘If you want your trunk finished in leather then we will do it for you’, says Peter Locke, ‘One customer wanted his dash trimmed in water buffalo hide’, he continues, uncovering an incomplete M5 dashboard which had been lying on one of the finished tables.

‘The problem is, water buffalo hide fades in strong sunlight. We put this in writing to him to make sure he understood, but we’ve given him what he wants, nevertheless.’

When the cars leave the hoists they are drivable and go back over the road for the ABS rolling road tests, suspension setting, and finally to the finish line where they are checked, waxed, road tested (every car is tested for 30kilometres) and then sent to the dealer.

Each car is spoken for before it is built, no stocks are held, and a customer can come and see his car being built if he wants to.

The M5 is 100 per cent quality controlled, so every single nut and bolt that goes on it is checked during and after it’s completed.

They’re all left-handed drive and German spec at the moment. British, US and Canadian spec cars will start production in the spring of 1990.

It’s a remarkable feat, and it’s astonishing to see it coming from a major manufacturer. Siegfried Schwarz reckons the principles operated there work well for everyone. Mechanics are often working on different things, since the number of areas varies from day to day. So it’s a flexible system and there’s better motivation for those concerned.

If they product they build there is anything to go by they’re right.

Earlier, Karl-Heinz Kalbfell was understandably cagey when questioned about the forthcoming 850i Coupe, and thought it probably ‘too good’ to need much doing to it. That probably means there are no plans for a more sporting version at present. After all, the new M5 was announced within six months of the introduction of the 5-Series itself.

But the M635CSi ceased production a couple of months ago, and it would e nice to think of another coupe coming from the red-floored workshops and wearing the distinctive ‘M’ badge on its boot.

Meanwhile, we can only sit and watch the progress of what must be one of the all-time crack divisions in the car industry. Its turnover has gone from Dm50 million in 1985 to Dm300 million today.

And that really cannot be at all bad for a company employing just 450 people, can it?

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The headlights were a mile away and downwind. Nothing happened for some time, and then they flashed, as if flicking from dip to high beam. In fact the car was leaving the start line at 5000rpm, in this case at least, the perfect ‘stepping-off’ point. A few seconds later the quoted factory figures tumbled in a flurry of gearchanges. Because of the wind, it was impossible to hear the sound of the engine until the car was fully halfway down the strip towards us. When it did come it was intoxicating; the straining, raucous, blast of a big straight-six at full chat. It was beginning to look as though the West German manufacturer Aplina, with the latest in their long line of re-born BMWs, had got away with gliding the lily once again. The B6 3.5S, and M3 fitted with modified 3.5litre engine, was making a mockery of conventional performance figures and proving, decisively, to be more than just another ‘special’.

Rarely does a car come along with creates quite as much excitement as the BMW M3. Not only was it the first 3-Series genuinely to nudge the upperechelons of high performance, but it was a four-cylinder 3-Series at that.

For the M3, BMW discarded the strict observance to the self-imposed six-cylinder rule that had served them for so long. Instead they settled for an engine based around a similar block that on the one hand propels lesser 1.6 and 1.8litre cars and yet on the other, in turbocharged guise, formed the basis for their own Formula One engine. The M3, of course, was intended strictly for motorsport.

But mention to a BMW technical man that you’ve tried a six-cylinder hybrid of the now world-famous saloon racer and liked it, and he’ll most likely reply with a nod of understanding. Go on to say that the car you’ve driven is powered by the 2.5 litre six as you might expect, but a refined and beefed-up version of the 3.5 litre six, and far from shrinking away in horror, he’ll smile.

They’re tried the concept too, you see. They too, know just how well it works.

But despite that, the 3-Series to end all 3-Series cars comes from the Alpina works just outside Buchloe (say Book-low-ay), rather than the BMW Motorsport halls in Munich. You may remember that Performance Car tried one briefly last year during a trip to Burkard Bovensiepen’s small but exclusive factory, to drive the new B12 (750i based) and B10 (535i based). Driving the B6 fitted with the B10 engine, was an unexpected bonus.

There’s precious little space left under the bonnet of the B6. The front of the big, in-line six, snuggles up to the radiator at one end, and a slightly modified firewall at the other. It’s a tight fit alright, but there’s no drastic cutting or welding needed to make it work.

Behind the engine is the standard M3 gearbox, with the usual dogleg first gear pattern. Strong enough to withstand the 300bhp Group A racing engine, it’s strong enough to handle the torque of the modified 3.5 litre unit too, up from the four-cylinder M3’s 176lb ft at 4000rpm. Power, meanwhile, has been increased from the four’s 200bhp to 260bhp at 6000rpm. The engine will develop that sort of power using unleaded fuel, but should you go for the no-holds-barred emissions version with its EMITEC three-way car cat, then it would be fair to expect slightly less, somewhere in the order of 254bhp.

Other than that, there’s not much change from the basic. The front springs have been changed’ swapped for those used on air-conditioning equipment M3s. The extra weight of the air-conditioning equipment is on par with the 3.5 litre engine. It couldn’t be simpler.

Aplina’s big 8JX16 wheels provide the only visually obvious difference. Wrapped in 225/45VR16 Michelin MXX tyres, they’re not only an inch wider than the original but bigger in diameter by the same amount. In fact the Alpina wheel and tyre sizes exactly match those of the 1988 M3 Evolution. The factory original had small 205/55VR tyres.

Inside Aplina’s M3 there’s walnut trim on the dash as well as the centre console. It’s good enough to look like original equipment but in some ways slightly incongruous in this throughbred of thoroughbreds. One of the dash mounted, rotating fresh air-nozzles is replaced by a special version containing digital instrumentation. This strange device, which frankly, you could live without, displays details of oil pressure and temperature, final drive oil temperature and intake manifold pressure. Alpina-trimmed upholstery adds tot eh effect and there’s a chunky Momo steering wheel too. But the rest of the car is standard M3, and that includes the now familiar left-hand-drive only bodyshell.

Start the B6 up and you’ll be left in no doubt as to the most important difference of all. In fact, you might imagine that you’ve startled a frightened creature rather than activated an inanimate object. The chassis will jerk nervously beneath its driver before settling down, not to a quiet murmur, but rather, an uneasy grumble. The Alpina tuning, which includes their own brand of chip for the engine management system, doesn’t leave the straight-six with the slowest, smoothest of tickovers. There are other changes too, of course, the usual things like camshaft, valves and compression ratio have been interfered with. And the forged pistons from Mahle are shorter, with longer connecting rods to build in more smoothness at higher revs.

The back-towards-you dogleg position of first gear will add to the confusion of using your right hand if you’re not used to left-hand-drive. But there’s nothing unusual about moving away in the B6 – not until you open the throttle. Alpina use a rear axle ratio of 2.79:1 instead of 3.25:1 with a limited slip differential set at 25 per cent, and that all adds up to the long-legged acceleration of the sort that can only be enjoyed in the presence of real power. The engine’s slightly lumpy tickover promises a jerky low-speed response – but it’s just kidding really. A wonderful, mellow howl accompanies the quick dispatch of first gear at 45mph while second gear will take you, Porsche Carrera-like, up to the legal limit at 70mph. Hold third to the 6600rpm rev limiter and you’ll be whisked to 93mph while fourth gear will take you right up to 127mph.

At the Millbrook Proving Ground the B6 blasted to 60mph in 6.0 seconds dead, matching a Ferrari Testarossa, and scorched its way on to 100mph in 15.8 seconds. In fourth gear it will gobble up the 60-80mph increment in just 5.7 seconds and the 70-90mph gap in exactly the same time.

The standard M3, impressive enough in its own right, will take 6.9 seconds to reach 60mph and a full 20.5 seconds to get to 100mph. The 60-80mph increment, meanwhile stretches to 7.3 seconds and 70-90mph 7.9 seconds.

Alpina claim a top speed of 156mph top speed for the B6 which admittedly seems a lot for the square fronted 3-Series. But the B6 didn’t disappoint us and, on the high speed bowl, it averaged 152mph on what was quite a windy day. Allowing for scrub on the two-mile banked circuit (as well as the wind) that’s about what you might expect given several miles of dead straight road.

Mind you, there’s a premium for all that performance. The B6 averaged 20mpg on the road and 12mpg at the Millbrook proving ground.

It’s a heavy car. The B6 tips Millbrook’s scales at 2970lb with a full tank of fuel, compared to Alpina’s official unladen weight of 2904lb. So despite the extra weight, 60bhp plus 60lb ft of extra torque see to it that the power-to-weight ratios are 196bhp per ton, or 200bhp per ton unladen.

But all that weight seems lost in a sea of engineering refinement. The turn-in is even sharper than it was before and the taut chassis and high-geared steering are a sure-fire recipe for a car that’s as nimble as any of its famous forebears.

Oh yes, the ride is uncompromisingly firm. But at the same time it’s never irritating or tiresome. And anyway, on smoother, faster, roads it will seem quite mellow, while on motorways the chassis tracks like the proverbial arrow.

Inside, the driving position is clearly meant for business. There’s no difference from the original and there’s room to sit close enough to the wheel even with long legs. Heel-and-toe shifts are easy and useful for smooth, fast cornering as the 3.5 ltire engine decelerates sharply when you lift-off.

Most important of all with a hybrid car like this, is that the balance is near perfect. The big engine, shoe-horned (however neatly) into the engine bay apparently has no adverse effects on the chassis at all. The B6 understeers less if anything, than the original, due to a large extent no doubt, to the bigger tyres. In short, that M3 chassis, including the different roll-bar, damper and spring settings – still works the magic that separates it from any other 3-Series.

Familiarisation doesn’t take long. Any driver will soon learn that the B6’s roadholding is leech-like. And before long anyone interested in exploring the limits will discover just how progressively that chassis will oversteer with the application of that awesome power – even in the wet. In fact if the mark of a fine chassis were to be just how easily it can be driven and controlled, tail-out, in a small space; then the B6 would easily rank amongst the best.

But the same sharp injection cut-off which makes heel-and-toe downshifting desirable, combined with the 3.5’s heavy flywheel effect, also demands technique on the up-shift. The standard M3 Getrag gearbox (with the same internal ratios) will not be hurried. Reach maximum revs in first and expect to snick-snick the lever into second and you’ll be sadly mistake. Though the clutch is smooth, that awkward dogleg will make you concentrate hard to start with. Rush it and the B6 will make you wish you hadn’t – ill-matched revs will set the Alpina jerking its way to third.

Feather the throttle slightly, cover the clutch pedal rather than dump it, ease the gearlever deliberately but quickly through the gate, and you have it.

Stopping is much more straight forward. The B6 retains the M3’s 11.8inch ventilated front discs and 9.8 inch solid rears, together with those racing s pecification, single-pot callipers on the front, and ANS.

But macho though the new Alpina may be, the wilder side of its nature quickly settles down in town. Trickle it through the city streets and the B6 will come quietly, eager to please, smooth and supple. But underneath a degree of menace still lurks. It’s always there, always ready to leap out, and you always know it. That is what’s so exciting.

It is a classic motorcar for sure. Spend a week with it and you’ll almost regret it – the following week is lost in hopeless fantasies of a Pools win.

The B6 is a villain among motorcars. It’s wicked, and attacks the road with a gritty exuberance. Yet it’s not temperamental, you’d have t be daft to get caught by it, and most important of all it’s not a trickster in the wet.

But in this case the priviledge of ownership doesn’t come cheaply. You’ll probably remember that Burkard Bovensiepen, Alpina’s boss and founder, also specialises in some of the worlds finest wines. You may also remember that he considers his cars and wines to be complementary to one another.

The B6 costs Dm85,000 (£27,243) in Germany exclusive of tax. In the UK it is available to order from Sytner of Nottingham (0206 582 831) for around £35,000 depending on the specification. It’s a lot, but the B6 is also one of the best rear-wheel-drive performance cars you are ever likely to find.

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This company, is not hunting big game. No, leave that to other larger West German tuning firms whose employees delight in modifying Porsche 928S 4s and Ferrari Testarossas by cramming multiple turbos and superchargers into every underhood void, all the while thinking prurient thoughts of doubling, maybe tripling the engine’s output. They writhe with excitement at the thought of covering gauge faces in leather, creating visual unrest with clashing interior colors and covering impossibly wide tires with b bodywork that oftentimes is tasteless.

Hör (that’s pronounced her) Technologie has been steadily cranking out a small, high-quality product line composed of camshafts, timing gears, high-performance suspension springs and exhaust systems, all in applications to fit most German cars since it was established in 1979. Though not a prominent name in the U.S. market, Hör Technologie has been steadily toiling away for years, manufacturing camshafts that are sold under the names of other manufacturers. Now it’s coming out of the closet, so to speak, looking to make the Hör name as familiar a word to the enthusiast as Alpina or AMG.

Aftermarket parts glisten, gleam and look wonderful through the glass of a display case, but what’s
really needed to show them off is another showcase, the rolling kind. Enter Hör Technologie’s recently opened U.S. branch (1800 N. Glassell St. Orange, Calif. 92665: 714-974-4655). The folks there arranged for Road & Track Specials to borrow a privately owned example of their project car: an orange/red BMW M3 fitted with a sampling of Hör parts as well as other manufacturers’ performance bits they market.

By selecting the BMW M3, they presented themselves with a challenge. The M3 stands for Motorsport, and this 3-Series Bimmer was built from the outset as a homologation special to compete, albeit in somewhat modified form, in the Group A class for 4-seat sedans. The racing car does quite well, thank you, as demonstrated by its popularity and strong showing so far in this year’s German touring Car Championship. As one would expect, the road going M3 has a very competent chassis, honed and modified through racing efforts. And making it all the more difficult for Hör Technologie to improve it.

As for the bodywork, the Hör folks did the bet thing they could possibly do: They left it alone. Group A regulations prohibit any sort of add-on aerodynamic aid, so BMW saw fit to equip the stock M3 with a rear wing of monumental proportions, a deep chin spoiler, rocker panel extensions and a rear valance panel. The regulations also state that racing wheels and tires cannot stick out beyond the stock fenders: to that end, BMW provides lots of tire clearance with an ample set of blister fender flares.

The stock M3’s tires (205/55VR-15 Pirelli P600s) don’t take full advantage of all that under-fender room. Out they went, to be replaced by grippy Yokohama A008Gs, size 225/45VR-16, mounted on Etoile 16 x ½ in. wheels, at all four corners. Nor were the OEM underpinnings safe from their tinkering hands-the stock shocks were tossed in favor of a set of Tokico Illumina 5-way adjustable units ($454), and a set of Hör Technologie progressive rate performance springs ($345) take residence where the stock ones used to be. To cope with the increased cornering loads a beautiful Motorsport Series strut tower brace ($240) lovingly welded up from elliptical-section tubing pieces, Höres up the chassis.

The modifications improve the car’s looks considerably: it’s like comparing a custom-tailored suit to
one bought off the rack. The wider tires fill the wheel wells just right, and the springs lower the car
25-30 mm just enough to eliminate any visible, vertical gap between the tire’s tread and the fender lip. Wheel/tire packages that fit this well usually have interference problems, but no evidence of rubbing or scraping was seen, felt or heard. The polished rims and 5-spoke black centers of the Etoile wheels add the final dazzle; they’ll make the valets want to park this car in full view.

For whatever reason, some aftermarket “tuners” mess up the balance of a perfectly good chassis with modifications. Thankfully, this fate hasn’t befallen the Hör M3. The progressive springs keep body roll to a minimum without paying a high impact-harshness penalty when meeting life’s little bumps. Sure, it’s stiff, but not painfully so: the reward is a stable, responsive chassis that can put the generous Yokohama’s to their best use. The Hör M3 negotiates the skidpad at 0.852g, besting the stock car’s 0.82g by a considerable margin. Road Test Editor Kim Reynolds lauded the chassis’ competence: “It’s the kind of car you could drive real fast down an unfamiliar curvy road…you could hustle down that road safely and securely because of the car’s basic stability.”

An up rated chassis can safely handle more power, and Hör’s engineers claim they’ve increased output 27 bhp (the stock 2.3-liter 4-cylinder makes 192 bhp at 6750 rpm) through their sport camshafts, reprogrammed engine-management microchip and large-diameter exhaust package ($2595). The exhaust system includes a free-flowing Emitec steel catalytic converter (similar to ones used on some BMWs and Porsches) that’s said to reduce back pressure up to 65 percent compared to conventional ceramic units.

The accompanying acceleration figures speak for themselves. It is too bad a stock M3 wasn’t available for back-to-back testing, but when compared to previous test figures, there was no appreciable performance gain. The character of the modified engine was much like that of the stock version-smooth and not especially exciting below about 4000-4500 rpm, but humming like a kitchen blender set on puree as the tach needle bolts toward its redline 7300 rpm. The aluminum-plated steel exhaust system (which tucks up against the chassis as neatly as the stock setup) lends the spent gases a throatier, slightly boomier note that’s consistent with the car’s newfound good looks.

While I can’t condone engine modifications that don’t make a car appreciable faster or change its character for the better, the Hör M3 as a whole has better grip and composure than its stock counterpart. Its looks make it stand out in a crowd (even a crowd of other M3’s), and modifications to its suspension require very few concessions from the driver (with four adults on board, it only scraped its muffler once on a steep entrance to a gas station). It’s a car that, in a world of take-it-or-leave-it cars, gets lots of double-takes, and that in itself is something special.

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