First Drive: 2011 BMW M3 with Competition Package
Our eyebrows arched when we read BMW‘s introductory press pamphlet. One line in particular warranted another read: “The M3 with Competition Package is the best-handling production M car ever built.” Now that’s a bold statement.
A run-of-the-mill BMW M3 crafted by M GmbH is a machine that’ll have you drawing up plans for an expanded dream car garage. It holds the underlying pavement with falcon-like grip, pushes like a Caterpillar hopped up on NOS, and brakes as if it has a pair of General Electric reverse thrusters perched atop its sculpted trunk.
Two years ago we put the sedan against its top rivals, the Mercedes-Benz C63 AMG and the Lexus IS F. After driving each, executive editor Ed Loh opined that the “Lexus and Mercedes are great hot-rod sedans. The M3 is a race car with four doors.” MT testing mastermind Kim Reynolds said, “The Lexus and the Mercedes feel like performance versions created out of something else. The M3 feels like it was born this way.”
Most recently, editor-at-large Arthur St. Antoine summed it up best when he labeled the M3 “The World’s Greatest All-Around Car” for its “speed, handling, good looks, roominess, and practicality.”
Now in its fourth generation, the M3 has proved itself a performance titan forged from the brand’s 50-plus years of racing. The thought of it evolving into something better — at the mere cost of $2500 for a Competition Package — is, plainly and simply, mind-blowing. Tack on the setup and you’ll get the hardest-core M3 available in North America.
Walk up to an M3 Comp and it’s hard to miss the package-specific 19-inch alloys. They’re wider by a half-inch and pushed to the outermost extremities of the inner fender wells for a stance best suited for the circuit. Their bright silver finish beautifully complements our tester’s Melbourne Red Metallic paintjob, while the multi-spoke form matches naturally with the M’s muscular physique. A 0.4-inch lower ride height finishes the exterior additions, making it clear that this particular roundel-bearer is of a different, meaner variety.
A 414-horsepower 4.0-liter V-8 sits comfortably in the engine bay as it does in garden-variety M3s. Peak horsepower arrives at its usual 8300 rpm mark, as do all 295 pound-foot of torque at 3900 rpm. A close-ratio six-speed manual or seven-speed M dual-clutch transmission (DCT) with 11-mode Drivelogic programming handles distribution to the rear wheels.
More about BMW cars in worldcarfans:
+ BMW Gran Coupe Concept design studio photos released
+ First Drive: 2011 BMW X5 xDrive35i proves ‘new’ is a relative term
+ All-wheel-drive BMW Alpina B7 xDrive slated for New York debut
