30 years and five generations of BMW's M3

Although the BMW M3 didn't make its way into Australia until the arrival of the E36 version in 1994, it was preceded in its home country of Germany eight years earlier, in 1986.

And while Australia's first M3 came in 1994 as a 3.0-litre 210kW six-cylinder two-door coupe, the original – though developed by the BMW Motorsport Division with Group A German Touring Car Championship racing in mind – sounded somewhat tamer with a 147kW 16-valve 2.3-litre version of the regular 2.0-litre four-cylinder and a body trimmed as much as was practical of excess fat.

This was followed by an Evo version in 1988 that upped power to 164kW before leading to the M3 Sport Evolution model in 1990 that adopted a bigger 2.5-litre engine developing 177kW. Production was limited to just 600 vehicles.

The step from four to six cylinders followed in 1992 when BMW slotted-in a 210kW/320Nm 3.0-litre six-cylinder engine and moved the focus from racetrack to road. At the time, that didn't prevent the engine, which introduced BMW's VANOS variable valve timing system, from claiming the highest output per litre and the highest specific torque for a naturally-aspirated volume production engine.

The sweetly raucous inline six went to 3.2 litres in 1995 (1996 in Australia), with the use of Double VANOS valve timing helping lift the output to 236kW. In 1996, the M3 became the first production car to offer an automated manual gearbox.

In 2000 (2001 in Australia) BMW lifted the wraps off the third generation M3 which used a newly developed 3.2-litre six-cylinder that pumped out 252kW/365Nm.

Come 2007, and the M3 changed tack to a totally new direction as far as the powerplant was concerned, adopting BMW's new, naturally-aspirated 4.0-litre V8 to up power yet again, to 309kW. It also went a step further in weight-saving measures by adopting a carbon-fibre roof and using a virtually all-aluminium front suspension.

Then, in 2014, BMW turned the tables on its V8 M3 by reverting again to an inline 3.0-litre six-cylinder format, but departing from the original principles by adding turbocharging into the mix and lifting power yet again, to 317kW. This has been added to with the release of a limited edition 30 Jahre M3 Competition Package model producing 331kW.

As the M3 celebrates its 30th anniversary, the company is preparing to bring four prototypes out of storage to add extra meat to the car's history.

The unlikely M3 variants were designed not for regular production, but either for use within the confines of BMW's operations primarily as hi-po workhorses with the heart of an M3, or as fanciful exercises pondering what might have been.

Which would be all very well, except for the fact that Australia is not expected to see any of them...
BMW M3 Pickup (1986)
BMW's Motorsport division's need for a handy vehicle for transporting parts around the facilities near Munich was realised with the one-off development of an M3 ute using a convertible body as basis.

With the bracing required for the topless convertible body providing a good starting point for a ute, the team originally built the workhorse M3 using a 143kW 2.0-litre engine but switched eventually to the correct 2.3-litre version.

Remarkably, the M3 ute was in regular use for more than 26 years before it was retired in 2012.

BMW M3 Compact (1996)
Described by many as the precursor to the current M2, the M3 Compact was a mix of light weight (it tipped the scales at just 1.3 tonnes) and a sizzling 239kW. It was described as "even more uncompromising" than the regular M3 by the German motoring magazine Auto Motor Und Sport when tested in 1996.

BMW M3 Touring (2000)
The idea of a wagon version of the M3 in the late 1990s led to the development of the M3 Touring in 2000 and, although it was merely a prototype, it was made available for journalists to drive.

"This prototype allowed us to show that, from a purely technical standpoint at least, it was possible to integrate an M3 Touring into the ongoing production of the standard BMW 3 Series Touring with very little difficulty," said Jakob Polschak, head of vehicle prototype building and workshops at BMW M Division and an employee at the company for more than 40 years.

"One important thing we needed to demonstrate was that the rear doors of the standard production model could be reworked to adapt them to the rear wheel arches without the need for new and expensive tools."

Of course the M3 Touring never made it past the flight of fancy stage.

BMW M3 Pickup (2011)
BMW had some fun when the Motorsport team started to investigate the building of a one-off M3 ute to replace the retired original from 1986.

An official press release was published on April 1, 2011, suggesting an M3 ute was under serious consideration for volume production by BMW and arrangements were made to unveil "spy" photos of calibration runs on the Nurburgring Nordschleife circuit. Later in the press release, it was revealed that the M3 ute was a one-off that was built, like the original, for use around BMW's premises only – although this time it was actually registered for on-road use.