What's the news?
BMW has unveiled the special edition M3 '30 Jahre' to celebrate, you guessed it, the 30th anniversary of the model. The very first M3 was launched in 1986 in order to homologate the E30-generation BMW 3 Series for motorsport, but it was as successful on the road as it was on the track so here we are five generations and 30 years later. A specific version of this limited edition has been created for the UK and Ireland and it's limited to just 30 units.
Exterior
The M3 '30 Jahre' comes as standard with the Competition Package launched earlier this year, including forged 20-inch alloy wheels with mixed tyre sizes (265/30 front; 285/30 rear) and black chrome exhaust outlets for the M sports exhaust system. But the way to tell the new car apart is its paint colour. It's finished in BMW Individual Frozen Silver metallic paint (the '30 Years M3' car sold elsewhere in the world will be in Macao Blue metallic, which was apparently a special option on the first generation M3). Oh, and the gills in the front wings are uniquely branded.
Interior
On entering the car you'll see the 'M3 30 Jahre' logo on the door sills and the build number on a piece of carbon fibre trim in the dashboard. The Competition Package is obvious elsewhere, with gorgeous M sports seats and seatbelts with the BMW M stripes woven in. Other additions include the BMW M Performance Steering wheel and the Alcantara BMW M Performance Gear Selector trim and surround. For the '30 Jahre' there is full Merino leather trim in Black/Fjord with colour-matched contrasting seams and the '30 Jahre' logo embroidered into the front headrests.
Mechanicals
The mechanical upgrades found in the '30 Jahre' model are all as per the Competition Package, including a 19hp power hike to 450hp. More importantly, there are considerable changes to the chassis, starting with Adaptive M damping. But BMW M also tweaked the springs and anti-roll bars, along with the settings within the Comfort, Sport and Sport+ driving modes and, finally, the DSC stability control system and Active M rear differential.
We reckon how the car drives is more important than straight-line acceleration, but for the record, the '30 Jahre' does the 0 to 100km/h sprint 0.1 seconds faster than the standard car, regardless of transmission fitted.
Anything else?
At the time of writing we do not know how many of the 30 right-hand drive cars will make it to Ireland, or what the price would be. For reference, the standard BMW M3 starts at €100,780 on-the-road, or €106,210 with the Competition Package.