The most powerful and sporty Serie 3 in the range is already running. Broadly camouflaged inside and out, BMW has already begun testing one of its most prized crown jewels: the M3.
Little is known about the mid-range sports car in the Bavara range, particularly with regard to engine architecture and maximum power. Will it keep the V8 atmospheric or will it follow the brand's trend? Blocks downsizing and turbos to maintain power levels.We bet on the second option. The future M3 should, like what happened with its older brother – the BMW M5 – lose a pair of cylinders and gain a pair of turbos. Sorry for the redundancy...
I know that for sporty driving puritans, nothing comes close to the heels of an atmospheric car: riding high revs, in a ballet of lightness synchronized to the thousandth, between the engine's response and the demands of the right foot. The apotheotic lightness and joy of an atmospheric engine!
I don't think (no matter how romantic and beautiful what I've said…) that these arguments are picked up by the bureaucrats in Brussels. The watchword is lower emissions, lower emissions and lower emissions. Did I say lower emissions? No?! So, download emissions…
So what awaits us must be a return to origins. We will go back to living with a 6-cylinder under the hood of the M3 as in the past, but now with a turbo to accompany. I remind you that only the version that now ceases to function used an 8-cylinder engine. The tradition is to use mechanics with six cylinders. Except for a very specific version: the BMW M3 CLS.
But it's not all bad, the fact that we now have a car equipped with a turbo also has its advantages: the next M3 – thanks to the turbo – will certainly have a torque capable of moving tankers. And is it possible that due to the existence of turbos, driving purity will be lost? The ill-fated “turbo-lag” effect. What more is nothing more than a time delay between pressing the accelerator pedal and the reaction of the engine translated into acceleration.
Maybe not. The evolution of metallic alloys in recent years has allowed gasoline engines to take advantage of the same technologies that a decade ago were democratized in diesel engines. As you might have guessed, I'm talking about variable geometry turbos.
As with everything in life, “it’s all about money”, and only now the cost of these technologies applied to gasoline engines are low enough to be commercially viable. As you know, the temperature of gases resulting from combustion in gasoline engines – and which later give life to turbos – are higher than in diesel engines. This implies that the heat resistance of turbos in gasoline engines has to be higher. Which, of course, entails costs in the use of more “nobler” metal alloys. No wonder that the first gasoline car to use this technology was the little affordable Porsche 911 Turbo (997).
Basically, the great advantage of these turbos - those with variable geometry - is to allow a greater range of operation of the device throughout the rotation range, varying the turbine blades as a function of the gas flow, thus disguising the entry into operation ( sudden) of the turbo, which we all know from cars of the late 80s, early 90s and allowing a more rapid “filling of the same, resulting in a more immediate response to the requests of the right foot.
If we associate two turbos to the block, even better: A bigger one for the higher rev ranges and that needs more gas flow to turn; and another, smaller, that starts operating earlier and needs less flow to work.
So we have a round engine available, with a wide range of usable rpm's aided by massive torque. And yet… less sharp than an atmospheric one and equally smoother than a normal turbocharged, which either gives everything or nothing.
Watch this video:
But back to our M3… as I said we believe that the solution will be a bi-turbo engine.
As for the other solutions to be adopted in the new model, they are more predictable: rear wheel drive; active suspension; mechanical rear differential; 8-speed dual-clutch gearbox, etc.
But what really matters is the sum of all the parts. And then BMW shines. It has been able to lend its creations a driving tact and an insolvency that is not experienced in other cars, which may even have higher power numbers and more developed chassis, but which do not know how to communicate as well with the driver.
And it is in this field that BMW has made a difference. It is in this field that we hope the new M3 will stand out. In 2014 we will have the answer.