BMW M3 Touring revealed

It’s time to circle (work) your wagons, with BMW M revealing first official images of its long-teased 2022 BMW M3 Touring on the eve of its world debut at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in the UK this weekend – and confirmation of the first BMW M3 wagon's Australian arrival in the first quarter of 2023.

All three German go-faster brands now produce high-performance mid-size wagons, with the first-ever BMW M3 Touring joining battle with the Audi RS 4 Avant and the Mercedes-AMG C 63 Estate long-roof models.

The all-wheel drive BMW M3 Touring will blast from 0-100km/h in a claimed 3.6 seconds – just a tenth off the M3 sedan – and will take just 12.9sec to run from 0-200km/h.

With 375kW of power from its 3.0-litre inline turbocharged six-cylinder engine, the M3 Touring will run to a top speed of either 250km/h or, with higher-performance tyres and the M Driver’s Package fitted, 280km/h.

It’s not a limited-edition model, either, with the full-line M3 Touring production run due to start in November, with European deliveries beginning in December and Australian and New Zealand showrooms hosting it from the first quarter of next year.

It will only be available in all-wheel drive, with an eight-speed automatic transmission, and it will only be available with the Competition-spec powertrain and power outputs of the BMW M3 sedan.

There are three driving modes for drivers to choose from, ranging from 4WD to 4WD Sport and 2WD, with all 650Nm of torque being pumped through the rear Active M differential, but only when the stability control has been deactivated.

The M3 Touring will come with BMW’s M Drive Professional package as standard equipment, so it will have 10 stages of drift angles in its 2WD mode.

It will also have a drift analyser and a lap timer, though those two things seem diametrically opposed.

Either way, it’s an expensive way to eat up 285/30ZR20 rear Michelin Pilot Sport 4S tyres, though it’s easier on the 275/35ZR19 front rubber. There will not be a plus-one wheel and tyre option.

There should be plenty of BMW M3 Touring production available for Australia because BMW M has decided not to send the high-performance wagon to China or the US.

That leaves the M3 Touring production to be split between the expected biggest markets of Germany and the UK, plus Australia, New Zealand, Belgium, Switzerland, South Korea and Japan.

And BMW Australia is keen, confirming its introduction here but stopping short of providing local pricing and specs – and exact launch timing – this far out.

A key part of BMW M’s 50th birthday celebrations, the M3 Touring will come with a standard drift mode and will inherit the new instrument cluster display from the BMW i4, albeit with its own M graphics.

The 12.3-inch instrument cluster has shift lights as well as M-specific car set-up and tyre condition widgets, while M content is also available on the head-up display.

The interior and exterior colour palates will mirror the standard M3’s range (the studio car we had was Chalk, with a red interior), with two solid paints, six metallic options, three Individual colours and five ‘shimmering matt’ Frozen colours.

There are another 165 Individual colours that can be ordered by special request.

Standard interior gear includes three-zone climate control, ambient lighting, BMW’s Live Cockpit Plus and full LED lighting, though optional Laser headlights stretch the night vision out to 550 metres in front of the car.

It will carry all the same options as the M3, and the wagon’s 1865kg dry weight is 85kg heavier than the M3 Competition AWD model.

It’s bigger than the standard BMW 3 Series Touring, too, with the 4794mm overall length adding 85mm, the boosted track widths adding 76mm to the width (1903mm) and it’s 4mm lower (1436mm).

BMW is keen to emphasise that the M3 Touring will be just as happy on the road or the track, and has taken all the M3’s underbody reinforcements and added even more beneath the luggage area’s floor.

The adaptive M suspension, with its active electronically-controlled dampers and variable-ratio power steering, mate with a five-link rear suspension system.

Options include carbon-fibre bucket seats, a carbon package, a track pack, track tyres, carbon-ceramic brakes and six-piston fixed front brake callipers.

There will be no sunroof option, and the roof can be specified in high-gloss black or in the body colour, though there is an extra small lip spoiler on the trailing edge of the roof.

With a 2857mm wheelbase, the M3 Touring has 500 litres of luggage capacity, though dropping the 40/20/40-split folding rear seat can boost that to 1510 litres.

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