A few days ago, the last two-door model wearing the legendary “M3” badge rolled out from the assembly line in BMW’s Regensburg plant. While the production of the BMW M3 E92 Coupe is discontinued, the convertible version will be manufactured until September.
Not that there was something wrong with the BMW M3 E92 Coupe, on the contrary. With more than 40,000 models sold, it proved to be the most successful model in the E9X generation M3 (E90 Sedan, E92 Coupe and E93 Convertible). Introduced in 2007, this generation is the first to have a V8 engine under the bonnet.
BMW fans consider the E9X generation M3 to be among the most desirable series to own; the coupe version being a favorite especially among those who actually want to take their M3 to the race track on a regular basis.
The reason behind the decision is that there are significant changes in the BMW offering these days: the family oriented compact executive models will continue to have the traditional “3-Series” badge, while the sportier models will be named the “4-Series”.
A brand new M4 will be introduced soon, but there will be no more coupes in the offering. The new M4 will be built based on the four-door sedan. Apart from the name, the M4 is likely to return to a straight-six engine fitted with two or three turbochargers.
Over the years, BMW released a number of special editions for the E9X M3 series. The GTS Coupe had a more powerful engine delivering 444HP (450PS), a number of aerodynamic improvements and a special, two-seat cockpit. 135 GTS Coupes left the assembly line altogether.
Speaking about rare M3 E9X’s, the M3 CRT (Carbon Racing Technology) is even rarer: only 67 examples were made. The M3 DTM Champion Edition is also a collector’s piece: only 54 cars were made, one for each DTM race victory for BMW between 1987 and 2012.
2 Comments