BMW M3

The BMW M3 is a German high-performance sports sedan and coupe built by BMW's M performance division, introduced in 1986 as a homologation model based on the BMW 3 Series, developed to qualify a competitive car for European Touring Car and other production-based racing categories. Built with a high-revving four-cylinder engine derived from BMW's motorsport program in its first generation, and with progressively larger and more powerful six-cylinder and, later, V8 engines in subsequent generations, the M3 built a reputation over successive decades as one of the benchmark performance sedans against which rivals from other manufacturers were routinely measured. Its dual identity as both a genuinely usable daily saloon and a formidable track and rally car helped establish the wider template that BMW's M division applied to other model lines in the years that followed.