Wednesday, October 8, 2008

BMW M3 Sedan

BMW has unveiled the sedan body variant of the new BMW M3 which has made it’s return after a decade-long hiatus. From the front, the BMW M3 Sedan looks nothing like it’s lesser E90 Sedan brother, instead from A-pillar forward onwards it uses the BMW M3 Coupe’s nose which is actually longer than the sedan.
The rear of the M3 Sedan is similiar to the normal E90 sedan (this means those ugly rear brake lights too unfortunately) except for a different rear bumper which incorporates a diffuser and four exhaust tips, and a little bootlid spoiler on the top. The M3 sedan also lacks the M3 coupe’s exposed carbon fibre roof, but the press release doesn’t really say if the sedan lacks it or it is just painted over.


Under the bulging hood is the same 4.0 liter high compression double-VANOS V8 in the M3 coupe which makes 414 hosepower (SAE) at 8,300rpm and 400Nm of torque at 3,900rpm, with 340Nm available consistently up to 6,500rpm. More details on the engine available by clicking here. Mechanically, the chassis of the new BMW M3 Sedan is also identical to the M3 Coupe - the same suspension, differential, brakes, aluminium chassis, and a 50:50 weight balance body.

While the new M3 Coupe does not look all that outrageous like say, a Lancer Evo, but it still has very obvious sporty intentions. The M3 Sedan however looks more like a sleeper car - except for the M badge and the bumpers of course. BMW even chose a rather conservative color for the M3 Sedan used for these product shots. It’s obvious the M3 Sedan was designed to discretely hide it’s potential until the driver decides to open wide all eight individual throttles.

Look at more photos after the jump, or read more about the new M3 in my posts on the coupe body model and it’s V8 engine below.

source: BMW

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