Motor Mouth: BMW M3 performs on roads and race tracks

<Caption>With a higher price that reflects its enhanced performance and augmented styling, the limited-production BMW M3 attracts serious drivers who exercise their cars' abilities at rallies and other driving events. </Caption>

BMW's corporate tag line boasts that the German car company makes "the ultimate driving machine." That's not one driving machine, mind you. Every car wearing the BMW label aims to elevate driving from mundane transportation to engaging and exhilarating entertainment. Providing superior power, zip, road grip and dynamic management, BMW vehicles attract people who like to drive with gusto.

That's why so many BMWs are still sold with manual transmissions. A lot of their drivers covet the maximum control that only manual shifting provides.

But even a luxury brand like BMW must compromise to keep its models from getting too pricey. And it must tune them for a large enough audience to keep the company financially fit. BMW must sell cars not just to hard drivers, but also to people who want only the hard driving image. Those shoppers will take the automatic transmissions, thank you very much.

BMW M models drop the compromises. The M cars are limited-edition, performance-enhanced versions of the company's standard models. They cost more, because the auto maker adds equipment and features to make the cars sizzle. It makes them sparkle, too, with stand-out styling changes that distinguish M cars from standard models.

BMW changes the mix of M models it sells from year to year. Right now, the company offers an M3, based on its 3 Series sedan, coupe and convertible, an M5 built from the 5-Series sedan, an M6 from the 6 Series coupe and convertible, and the two-seat Z4 M convertible and coupe.

Each wears a sizable markup. For example, the M3 sedan starts at $54,625. That's $21,100 more than the $33,525 sticker price on an entry-level 3 Series, the 328i sedan.

A week ago I test-drove an M3 sedan. I felt conspicuously attired in the dramatically shaped car, thanks to features like the large power dome centered in its outstretched hood, the three big air inlets under the grille, prominent lower side sills and spoiler pointing from the trunk lid. The menacing growl from the M3's 414-horsepower, 4.0-liter V8 engine helped the model stand out more.

But I also felt frustration because I couldn't push the car to any level approaching the limits of its performance. Some furtive, extra-legal dashes on highways, and swift, aggressive maneuvers on road bends, didn't seem enough.

So I asked Brian Flanagan of BMW of Stratham, in Stratham, N.H., why people pay so much more for models with more abilities than their drivers can employ in ordinary driving.

His answer was that most M buyers use the cars for more than just on-road, ordinary travel. They pit their Ms against the clock and against other drivers at rallies and track events sponsored by enthusiast groups.

For perspective, keep in mind we're not talking about an excessively large population. Flanagan, a client advisor with a special interest in the M3, estimates that the enhanced model accounts for a little more than 10 percent of the total 3 Series models sold at Stratham. BMW gives each dealer an allotment of the limited-edition cars, based on the number it expects a particular dealer to sell.

Jan Ehlen, spokesman for BMW of North America, puts overall M sales across the U.S. at no more than 5 percent of the company's total vehicle sales. Through August, BMW has sold about 82,000 3 Series cars in the United States so far this year. Ehlen's 5 percent share for M models points to no more than 4,000 M3s sold across the land in 2008.

The people who buy them are an active bunch, reports Flanagan. He estimates that as many as 70 percent of M buyers from BMW of Stratham participate in driving events. They join clubs and fan groups to ensure their admission to programs and share their enthusiasm for their cars.

"BMW has its own car club, the BMW Car Club of America," which conducts local driving contests at the former Hanscom air base and the New Hampshire Motor Speedway, said Flanagan. Other, private BMW clubs solicit members and coordinate activities using the Internet.

"A lot of times they offer instructional tutorials from professionals, while you're out there with your own car," he noted. M buyers also get a shot a some professional training is they accept BMW's Performance Center Delivery, a free, half-day of instruction at the company's facility in Spartanburg, S.C., where BMW operates a car plant.

After feeling restrained while street cruising in an M3, I can understand the allure of track events. But I asked Flanagan why M3 enthusiasts choose it over a small, sprite sports car that would also be a blast to pace around closed courses.

His answer: "The M3 provides daily livability. You can put more than two people in the car. You have room to sit people in the back seat. You still have a ton of trunk space if you want to go away on a road trip," he said.

"At the end of the day, it has all the functionality of a standard 3 Series, with additional enhancements in acceleration, handling and braking." Those enhancements can prove irresistible for people who enjoy motoring with authority.

"The M3 is a great blend of street performance and phenomenal track authority, in the same package," Flanagan concluded

Photos

Courtesy photo With a higher price that reflects its enhanced performance and augmented styling, the limited-production BMW M3 attracts serious drivers who exercise their cars' abilities at rallies and other driving events.