Vital Stats
- Engine:
- 4.0L V8
- Power:
- 414 HP / 295 LB-FT
- Transmission:
- 7-Speed DCT
- 0-60 Time:
- 4.5 Seconds
- Top Speed:
- 155 MPH
- Drivetrain:
- Rear-Wheel Drive
- Curb Weight:
- 3,704 LBS (est.)
- Seating:
- 2+2
- Cargo:
- 11.0 CU-FT
- MPG:
- 14 City / 20 HWY
- Base Price:
- $70,100
- As-Tested Price:
- $82,295
I like difficult cars. I like turbo "moments," dramatic weight
distribution, low-grip, peaky power delivery, and overly quick steering,
along with ultra-short wheelbases and any number of other
non-racecar-perfect dynamic foibles. I love the newest generation of
BMW
cars and engines – all turbo'd up with tons of torque and power
everywhere in the rev range, too. But what I think the enthusiast
community will miss when this 2013
M3 Coupe becomes the 2014
M4 Coupe – replacing its idiosyncratic, small-displacement, revvy V8 for
something like a triple-turbo, directly injected, inline six-cylinder
powerhouse in the process – is the work it takes to drive the car fast
and perfectly. Sometimes small flaws just make things better; my
mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun, and all that.
The idea of this E92 M3 going away then, magnified by the loss of the M3
badge for the coupe, is at best bittersweet for me. This generation of M
car is already surpassed in terms of raw thrills by the
better-than-ever
Mercedes-Benz C63,
a car that doesn't ask its driver to sacrifice low-end grunt or the
very latest in amenities in return for stellar backroad performance. Yet
any time I've been lucky enough to lap a track in the M3, it has
quickly become clear that the Bimmer is the better on-edge tool. With
the freedom to wring the neck of the 4.0-liter V8 and room to exercise
the lovely balance of the car, the E92 is hard to match (even six years
after its debut).
Still, when the 2013 BMW M3 Coupe
Lime Rock Park Edition
rolled into my driveway, its Fire Orange bodywork flashing over
gloss-black 19-inch rolling stock, the car had me a little crossed up.
BMW has been tossing out special edition M3s for the last few years now,
all asking thousands of dollars extra for the limited production-run
vehicles. I knew that the LRP was more than a mere trim and tape
package, but would it be an appropriate send off for a spectacularly
departing sports car legend, or just $10,000 down the drain where a
stock M3 Coupe would have happily sufficed?
The Sport setup makes the LRP M3 a stabbing weapon with which to stick curvy roads.
It's helpful to understand at the start just what your ten large buys,
over and above the typical M3. Perhaps the most important component of
the LRP suite is BMW's
Competition Package,
which lowers the suspension by 0.4 inches, includes 19-inch Y-spoke
wheels and electronic damping control. That EDC system ("Dynamic Damper
Control" in the BMW options catalog), offers three settings: Comfort,
Normal and Sport. The three settings give the car a truly malleable
range of ride characters, with the Sport button doing the automotive
equivalent of a boxer bouncing up onto the balls of his feet. Engaged at
speed, the sporting damper setting is immediately palpable, and allows
for heightened mid-corner response from an already very good suspension
setup. Combined with the hyper-sticky Pirelli P-Zero rubber (245-section
tires in front, and 265 in the rear), the Sport setup makes the LRP M3 a
stabbing weapon with which to stick curvy roads.
Of course, one of the beautiful things about the M3 is that is doesn't
always have to be completely punishing. I put a fair few hundred of
highway miles on the coupe while I had it, and I'm not ashamed to admit
that a lot of them were spent with the Comfort setting selected (as well
as having the shift speed turned down, and the rather plebian "D"
engaged... more on that later). That tamest suspension setting doesn't
magically transmute the ride of the car to that of a
7 Series, but it does tame the otherwise chatty road feel via the floorboards.
Like Yo-Yo Ma Pete Townshending his cello across the back of your head.
The Lime Rock Park Edition also offers a lightweight exhaust made from
the comic-book-sounding "Inconel-titanium," from M Performance. The
pipes shave an impressive 20 pounds from the undercarriage of the car. M
says they also reduce backpressure and optimize exhaust flow, but makes
no claims to increasing output past the standard 414 horsepower and 295
pound-feet of torque. (Bimmerfiles with the Inconel kit fitted and a
penchant for dyno runs should tell us in comments if power increases
have been found... we have our suspicions.) In any event, the resultant
exhaust sound is brutally, wonderfully lurid. Like Yo-Yo Ma Pete
Townshending his cello across the back of your head – loud and a bit
weird, but special all the same.
The potent heart of the M3 imperfection that I love so much is, of
course, the high-strung S54 V8 engine. This motor, specifically its
relatively short torque output, has been earning qualified praise since
its introduction in 2007. Kept on boil, the engine is downright
spectacular, with throttle response razor sharp as long at the V8 is
spinning over 5,000 rpm and the driver at the helm is keeping close
attention to the task at hand. The lower torque output means that the M3
never does feel rocketship quick out of the gate, but rather must be
approached like the proverbial "momentum car," albeit one that can
maintain spectacular velocities through even very twisty bits of road.
I've driven standard M3 coupes on racetracks and seen how the car and
motor come absolutely alive in those settings; I only drove the LRP car
on public roads, but I got the sense there's even more goodness here.
Road and track experiences also codify the optional DCT transmission.
The Lime Rock car can be had with either the dual clutch or BMW's
six-speed manual, but my test car was optioned with the former. I found
that, as ever with this 'box, it punishes low-speed driving with jerky
shifts, whether you've chosen to shift yourself or let the computer
select the ratio. Creeping around in city traffic is far from smooth.
There are few cars that have such a gulf between what they're like at their best and at their worst.
Turn up the pace quite a lot, however, and the DCT comes into its own
with ultra snappy shifts via the steering wheel-mounted paddles, or even
by letting the system pick its own gear. In a way then, the dual-clutch
trans is well-matched for the lovely 4.0-liter, with both pieces of
hardware asking the driver to fully commit to have the very best
experience.
If it sounds like I'm overselling the bitchiness of the M3 as a daily
driver, I might be a little guilty. Dostoevsky said "Man is a creature
who can get used to anything..." and I think even old Fyodor could have
swallowed a bit of herk-and-jerk around town for the reward of driving
the magical M3 on country roads outside of Moscow. It's just that there
are few cars that have such a gulf between what they're like at their
best and at their worst, which is yet another little piece of character
that makes this coupe one of my all-time favorites, even with a
less-than-perfect transmission.
A special car, in perhaps its best ever specification, that's leaving us all too soon.
Skip Barber is the current owner of
Lime Rock Park,
the jewel of a track in Connecticut that lent its name to this end-days
M3, as well as being the first place that the car was evaluated. The
LRP M3 did some shakedown laps at the track before being offered to the
public, and the result was (and is) a BMW that suits the high standards
of the racing guru, as well as the undulations of one of our country's
best circuits. I've got to guess that the extra money spent on this
limited edition car is well worth it, if the owner has any intention at
all of doing track days or otherwise participate in motorsport.
(Besides, being 1 of just 200, it's likely to make up the difference in
long-term residual values as a collector's piece). The tuning may not
show as dramatic a change over the base car as, say, a
Boss 302 over a
Mustang GT,
but a lot of that comes down to just how competent the M3 is right out
of the box. But I suspect that anyone tracking the LRP will find it
quicker and more competent on a lap-by-lap basis. In other words: this
is a really good car for the M3 Coupe to go out on.
BMW's own 335i is almost a perfect car, if you like to drive but don't
care to work at it mile after mile. It's still very fast and
sweet-handling and offers a better big-picture balance of ride and
handling than does the very firm M3. The 335i is also a lot less
expensive to start, never mind how much more of a value it is versus
this $71k-and-up Lime Rock Park Edition. But... in the moments where
road and engine speed and steering feel and suspension response come
together just perfectly, there's hardly a car on the planet that can
reward as richly as the M3. That's the God's honest truth. A special
car, in perhaps its best-ever specification, that's leaving us all too
soon – the Lime Rock M3 is an imperfect car for the ages. Glory fades,
but the memory of this car will hang with me for a while.
General Motors has today unveiled its new family of fullsize SUVs, including the 2015 Chevy Tahoe, its longer Suburban sibling, and their GMC Yukon,
Yukon XL and Yukon Denali cousins. More efficient powertrains, improved
aerodynamics, increased connectivity and better overall refinement are
what Chevy and GMC say will separate their new SUVs from the current generation.
