25th Anniversary of the BMW M3 – Four Generations on the Track

Car and Driver published a special feature on the 25th anniversary of the BMW M3 held at the Ascari Race track in Spain. Four generations of the BMW M3 were driven on the race track and each one reveals their own unbelievable features. Here’s and excerpt from the article:

“To mark a quarter-century of M3s and to let journalists drive the new, not-for-U.S.-sale M3 GTS, BMW gathered a trove of coupes and convertibles representing all four generations—including the original moxie-stuffed E30, the six-cylinder E36 and E46, and the current E90-series—at the private,  3.4-mile Ascari Race Resort in Spain.

You could spend a lifetime combing the classifieds and never assemble a dream collection like this. Culled from various departments within the company, including its own BMW Classic collection, every car is a cream puff with fewer than 10,000 miles (although all were wearing modern rubber).

The Motorsports unit was entering unknown territory. It had opened in 1972 as a separately incorporated subsidiary to manage BMW’s racing exploits. Up to that point, it was most famous for producing 1200-plus-hp Formula 1 engines and the mid-engine M1 (from 1978 to 1981), a haphazard project that involved a misfired development deal with Lamborghini.

But in 1985, then BMW CEO Eberhard von Kuenheim, who lorded over the company’s ascension to its modern form from 1970 to 1993, wanted to expand M’s public persona, so he reorganized the group and staffed it with 400 engineers. Ammerschläger remembers it as a time of singular vision and blitzkrieg strokes.”

Source: Car & Driver