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I finally wrote a book. Well, actually, I wrote a third of a book. My co-authors, Roundel editor-in-chief Travis Okulski and Hagerty alumnus Sam Smith, deserve their flowers. And a barrel of medals for dragging my sorry carcass across the finish line to meet our deadline for the BMW Car Club of America.
Completing the book felt more like relief than triumph. I guess I expected something else; years ago, as a much younger writer, producing a book felt vital to my career. But then I got older, and more comfortable, and in turn demanded less of myself. I gave up on penning a book until one fell in my lap. Aging is a fine cure for ambition.
Unless you’re the BMW M3.
With successive generations, Germany’s greatest automotive namesake got hungrier and hungrier. Each iteration of the M3 has gone faster, accelerated quicker, and found its way past the finish line in meaningfully shorter intervals than its predecessors. (Note: If you’re caught up on that “Germany’s greatest” bit, please register your complaints at the next PCA Cars ‘n’ Coffee; I won’t be there.)
The author’s second M3, an ’88 with wrinkled fenders and 220,000 on the odometer.Kyle Kinard
Of course, such progress is the natural order of automotive things. Every car must stop quicker, corner faster, and cost more than the last, whether that’s an M3 or a Toyota RAV4. And yet, the M3 has proved unnaturally consistent in its execution. As the M3’s various competitors—the Mercedes C63, the Audi RS4, the Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio—have risen and fallen in our esteem like sine waves, they’ve always been alternatives to the benchmark. Never was the M3’s crown in danger.
BMW
BMW
They’re not perfect cars—far from it—but M3s are so generally good that owners and critics must split hairs to identify real weaknesses. And those weaknesses are usually exposed only when you compare one M3 to another.
That conversation is akin to draping roadkill on your shoulders and diving headlong into a pack of feral rats. I’m not here to litigate such contentious questions (neither the Greatest M3 nor this country’s next great reckoning: The Feral Rat Epidemic). We may quibble about which M3 is best (it’s the E30), but unlike so many other legacy automotive nameplates, there’s a legitimate case to be made for every M3 generation.
A fine day at work: Every M3 generation, assembled and driven back-to-back at Mid-Ohio.Kyle Kinard
Before I wrote one-third of a book, I wouldn’t have come to that conclusion.
The work was commissioned by the BMW Car Club of America (BMW CCA) Foundation as part of its celebration called “BMW M3: 40 Years of Evolution.” To pair with an in-person museum exhibit at its South Carolina headquarters, the Foundation wanted a tome. The vision was for a mix of essays, driving impressions of legendary BMW race cars, and well-penned profiles to tell the story of those members who’d graciously loaned their M3s to the exhibit. We divvied up the owners between us, turning their stories (and a few of our own) into the story of the BMW M3 in America, 1986–2026.
Kyle Kinard
It was a profound, fulfilling experience. As a car enthusiast, yes, but especially as a person. I’m so used to interviewing people who either have an agenda or can’t stand journalists by reflex. Usually both. I’m thinking specifically about the many racing drivers who act as if they’d rather be licking Vegemite from their sister’s ear than talking to a writer. The owners who spoke to me for the book were simply great people, without exception. Brimming with enthusiasm. Not a hint of cynicism or irony in their bones.
During the interviews, I sensed a common thread but couldn’t put my finger on it in the moment. There isn’t an authentic mechanical throughline that ties these machines together. The moth-wing buzz of that first inline-four car gave way to sonorous free-breathing sixes, then a stormcloud V-8, and now twin-turbo mills with enough torque to bowline the Bay Bridge. The first and last M3s are chalk and cheese.
A bone-stock E30, a heavily modded 2.5, and the E92 Lime Rock. The best trio since Pippen, Jordan, and Rodman.Kyle Kinard
So it’s something fuzzier than nuts and bolts that binds them. Something entirely more romantic than a shared engineering philosophy, MacPherson struts up front, or the Bavarian-flag roundel on the nose.
BMW
After maybe two months of turning the question over in my craw, what finally struck me was how American the M3’s story seemed; we really love this car. Over 40 years, we’ve built a legacy that’s separate and distinct from Europe’s.
With each story I prized from the experiences of M3 owners, they painted a scene of pure Americana: courting their spouses in the car, hauling their friends cross-country, raising a family, riding shotgun with dad. Norman Rockwell brushstrokes.
BMW
BMW
The numbers tell a similar tale. To date, BMW has sold more M3s to the North American market than any other region. We’re awash in the things here, and if you ask me, prolific volume and the ensuing whale fall of heavily depreciated M3s have nourished the cult status of M3s and M4s in the country.
The M3 belongs to everyone: American drifters, scenesters, influencers, stance bros, turbo freaks, track addicts, and pure racers have all laid claim to the car. Most generations have served as a kind of ‘32 Ford for their era, among the right crowds, propping up a vast aftermarket to fuel enthusiasts’ flames.
This E36 M3 GT was intended for Europe only, but time and America’s gravity pulled her stateside. What a marvelous machine.Kyle Kinard
We get away with a lot here on America’s roads: side pipes, hellraisin’ in the canyons, stop-light showdowns. That’s how this versatile, robust car made its bones on our soil: as a willing accomplice with plenty of room to haul people and things.
Sportsfile via Getty Images
The M3 has always balanced purpose, practicality, and brawn in a way that struck a chord on this side of the Atlantic. Like the hot dog, the M3 may have been born far away, but there’s no doubt where it belongs. Just recently, BMW announced the special-edition 2027 M3 CS Handschalter, an exclusive North America-only sendoff for the current G80-generation M3. It has four doors, three pedals, six speeds, 473 horses, and a big old trunk.
It’s an appropriate send-off for today’s car, a love letter to the culture that’s embraced the M3 unlike any other. “We love you too, M3,” America replies. “Here’s to another 40 years.”
Maybe, if I’m still around then, I’ll write a whole book to mark the occasion. But probably not.
***
The only car writer dumb brave enough to flip a grain truck on its roof, Kyle Kinard once plied his trade at America’s greatest car magazines. He now lives near Seattle and enjoys the rain. His column, Kinardi Line, runs monthly, as does the Camaro vs. World project-car series.