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[extract] We should have all seen the new BMW M4 Concept by now and be awed by how handsome it is. We are sure it is going to be a great driver

A couple of years back, BMW announced that they will return to the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters racing series in 2012, after a nearly 20 year absence. And in just its first season after its comeback, BMW had won a hat trick of titles (driver, manufacturer and team titles). To commemorate these incredible accomplishments, BMW is releasing a limited production M3 known as the DTM Champion Edition. The car is designed to look like Canadian driver, Bruno Spengler's M3 DTM racing car. Spengler won the driver's title for the 2012 season. The car is available exclusively in a frozen black metallic finish. The stealthy look is extended to other parts of the car too. The wheels are finished in matte black and the front grille is given a dark chrome finish. A BMW M stripe covers the carbon fibre reinforced polymer (CFRP) roof and boot lid. BMW M logos are placed on the rear portion of the front fenders and a DTM Champions 2012 decal together with a Canada flag are fixed on the rear side windows. Interior wise, the door sill strip features the same design from Spengler's racing helmet. Carbon fibre is used to trim the interior's dashboard and centre console. On the dashboard at the front passenger

[extract] The BMW M3 is one fine performance vehicle and ever since its release, there have been numerous limited editions of the model. Some of these limited editions are market specific while some offer extra bits and parts. And not it seems that the model will get another variant. BMW of North America today announced the 2013 M3 Coupe Lime Rock Park Edition, of which 200 copies will be built. The car is built in conjunction with Skip Barber, owner of the infamous New England circuit, this M3 features the best of BMW's performance catalogue (although there won

This piece of news is pretty interesting if you're a BMW M3 enthusiast. The people at Sport Auto magazine in Germany had recently published (in their September issue) their lap time results for their run around the Nurburgring and Hockenheim circuit for the BMW M3 GTS. The M3 GTS is a limited to 99 units Uber-M3 specified with bright orange paintwork, a half roll cage instead of rear seats, bespoke suspension and a 444bhp 4.4liter V8 instead of the usual 414bhp 4.0liter V8. The 99 people who bought the car coughed up $170,000 for what is considered to be the ultimate M3 that anyone could buy in this day and age. Anyway, the Sport Auto people managed to make the M3 GTS lap the 'Ring with a time of 7minutes 48seconds. This 'unofficial' time is only 2seconds slower than a Lamborghini Gallardo Superleggera and a second slower than the mighty Ferrari 599GTB. It is however faster than a Porsche 911 Carrera S with full ceramic brakes, dual clutch gearbox, sport chrono plus kit and sticky Michelin Cup tires. Pretty impressive until you notice that the 2003-04 E46 M3 CSL (pictured below)lapped the same circuit in about 7minutes 50 seconds. They also tested the M3 GTS at Hockenheim, which is a a normal few kilometers long circuit unlike the epic 20 over kilometers long Nurburgring. Here, they found out that the M3 GTS does a lap time of 1minute 12.5seconds, which is only a second faster than the M3 CSL. What we now can tell is that for $170,000, you get a car that is only a second or two faster than a car that is $70,000 cheaper. It also tells us that after 5 years of tuning and so called progress, the latest and most ultimate M3 is only 2 seconds faster than the older car. 444bhp over 360bhp and about 1,660kg over 1,385kg. When you get down to the details, the power to weight ratio of the GTS is 267bhp/ton compared to 264bhp per ton. So the extra power has been negated by the weight in the GTS. The one or two seconds gained must have been from handling improvements instead of actual power gain over the older car. Whatever it is, the $70,000 extra that someone had to fork out over the older car isn't that justified. So much for actual progress, it seems the older car could still be the best M3 ever made. So if anyone is interested in getting the ultimate M3, the E46 M3 CSL could still be the one to get. Source and main pic:bimmerpost/m3post via jalopnik

BMW is preparing to release a special edition of the high performance 3-Series for the Chinese market. The BMW M3 Tiger celebrates the 25th anniversary of the car in this Chinese Year of the Tiger. The car is painted in Fire Orange Metallic, a color only seen on the M3 GTS. It rides on 19-inch blacked out 359M wheels, which match similar accents around the car. The air intake, chrome tailpipes, kindey grilles, rear spoiler and roof are also in black. Inside, the driver will find Novilla black leather stitched with orange thread. The orange color is also used on the tiger logo seen on the door sills. Many to be divided on the tiger logo on the headrests, a gaudy touch on an otherwise nice looking car. Unfortunately no official photos have been released yet. With the dedicated M division showroom in Singapore, perhaps BMW should also consider a customized version for us. How does a blood red M3 for the Lion city sound?

I have a soft spot for the current model BMW M3. It is the first M3 with a V8 engine and one that was made to put up a fight against the Mercedes AMG C63 and the Audi RS4 B7 chassis. It is actually the fastest around a race track compared to the other two due to its balanced chassis (even for a car with a big V8 up front) resulting in masterful handling. The C63 was basically an axe murderer running around in a Hugo Boss suit. It sounded stupendous, looked its part with the flaired arches and rims but it often tried to kill its driver if driven hard. The Audi RS4 somehow looked too plain even with those fatter wheel arches, drove well but was somehow a little too clinical for some. But it sounded great anyway. So the M3 fills up a slot in between the two. Its 4 liter V8 may not be as sonorous as the other two but it could pull its weight with its 414bhp yet able to waft along at city speeds easily. The body work was also an exercise in self restraint, with everything pulled tight around its chassis and around those wheels. But for those who want a little more flair, BMW North America has recently launched some authorized carbon fiber parts that should be made available globally soon (or at the very least, copied by all those accessory shops that sell BMW upgrades very soon). The aerodynamic parts are a new rear deck lid spoiler, mirror caps, and front splitters. All of these are constructed of carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP) composite material and matchs the standard CFRP roof panel that you get on the M3 Coupe. Each component is wind tunnel shaped which ensures compatibility with the overall aerodynamic "signature" of the M3, serving to reduce lift and minimize drag. Like the CFRP roof panels on the M3 Coupe and M6 Coupe, BMW Performance components made of carbon fiber. Each component is finished in a special clear coat laminate to reflect ultraviolet radiation and have been climate and durability tested during development to ensure long-term quality. However, do not expect these parts to be cheap, as they are factory approved items. These are usually never cheap if you know what I mean.

Companies that deal with performance tuning have to ensure that their products fill a certain niche nowadays in order to differentiate their products from others. This is confirmed by the folks at APP Automotive Europewhen they previewed their tuned BMW M3 called the StopTech Trackday Edition. The car is meant for those motoring enthusiasts who frequent track days. As you guys know, open track days are for the general public to drive around race tracks in order to get their craving for speed, handling and overall motorsport excitement satisfied. Noted track day sessions are like those held at the Nurburgring in Germany or for a closer example, at Sepang, up north in Malaysia. Of course, this would mean a car that has to have enough brakes to slow down after a long straight, enough horsepower to pull at car out of corners and precise handling to actually take the corners. So a car like the APP Automotive BMW M3 is supposedly to sort this all out. The car is fitted with high performance brakes from StopTech, the brake specialists where the name of this track day special is derived from. APP chose the STR braking system for this with its forged aluminum and anodized 6-piston calipers coupled with two-piece 380mm diameter discs up front and four-piston calipers with 355mm diameter discs in the rear. The APP M3 has a deceleration rate of -13.4 meters per second. This is serious eye-popping, kidney mashing, chest hurting due to the seatbelts deceleration. This would take serious getting used to as the person with this sort of braking power may have to re-adjust his braking point to compensate for this extra bite. For ample cornering speeds and handling, APP has installed suspension from KW, specifying their Club Sport suspension. For less weight and to free some extra horses, a titanium exhaust weighing 23kg less than the stock unit is installed. For less weight, less rolling inertia as well as for looks, ATS 19in rims replace the stock rim as it weighs 1.5kg less per wheel. As for power, which would be fully utilized for those wide open throttle applications like storming down a track straight, the engine is tweaked to produce 444 hp and 440 Nm. The stock M3 only makes 414bhp and 400Nm of torque. 'Stoptech'. If read on its own would mean the technology to stop. Not very interesting for a performance car. But even though APP had named the car after something that slows a car down, which is actually not as much fun as gunning a car at full throttle all the time, it is still a total package that any BMW trackday or B-road enthusiast would want for their M3. APP have not mentioned any details on price and its availability as yet.

[extract] Performance tuners are here for a reason. The reason is that people who have extra money lying around can have fun in making performance cars have even more performance. Now whether that is a good thing is another question as the same people with money that wanted more power in their already powerful performance car may not actually be able to drive even their performance car when it was stock. But this does not stop enterprising tuners from adding even more obscene power to already fast rides. As if it were so, the world will actually be a boring place and enthusiasts who think they can improve on a standard car