Innholdsfortegnelse for May 2023 i TOTAL BMW

The arrival of the new G81 M3 Touring is kind of a big deal. It's the first M3 Touring ever and only the third-ever M Touring of any sort, so, understandably, we've got fast wagons on the brain for this issue. Not only do we have a first drive of the new M3 Touring, but we've also got retrospectives on the E34 and E61 M5 Tourings, plus we take a little look at the two M Tourings that never were, the E39 M5 and the E46 M3 versions. Growing up, it felt like estates were the family car of choice. Throughout my whole life, I was always surrounded by estates, nothing sexy, mind, but looking around, it seems like estates gave way to MPVs, and these days it's SUVs that…

BMW has reached the latest stage of development with its iDrive system. A new home screen with clearly arranged functions offers greater ease of use on the BMW Curved Display. The system's QuickSelect concept additionally brings an improved menu structure that takes its cues from consumer electronics devices. The new iDrive plays a unique role in delivering a focused, assured driving experience by showing the right information in the right place. The new iDrive system will be gradually introduced in current models over the course of 2023. With its new graphical interface and optimised menu structure, iDrive will in future focus even more squarely on interaction by using the touchscreen and natural language. The BMW Curved Display will continue to serve as the point of interaction for the multi-sensory iDrive…

2.5 E30 M3 You're probably bored of us gushing about E30 M3s every time we feature one, but can you blame us? This is such an incredibly iconic car. It's a living legend, such an important part of BMW history, and when you're passionate about the brand, you can't ignore that. It's a car that so many of us would love to own, but not so many can afford to. The funny thing is that David Raese never expected that he'd end up owning an E30 M3, it wasn't an ultimate dream car for him, he just sort of fell into one. But he's turned that unexpected M3 into an absolute masterpiece. First things first, let us reassure you that David is very much a BMW fan. “I have been…

E61 M5 TOURING Finally, it's happened. An M3 Touring, a car that many enthusiasts have been demanding for decades. It does seem faintly ridiculous that BMW has produced six generations of M3 and M5, yet over the best part of four decades, fewer than 2000 of those cars have been estates or Tourings, if you insist on BMW parlance. Yes, that was just 891 E34 M5 Tourings and 1025 E61 M5 Tourings, both manufactured in small production runs, leaving the door open for Audi and Mercedes-AMG to corner the market. Both the M5s looked to be like a little bit of an afterthought, being introduced halfway through their respective saloon siblings’ production runs, but that shouldn't take anything away from these iconic machines as they were both sublime cars, albeit…

E82 1M At some point in history, way back through the swirling mists of time when everything was sepia-tinted, and all this was fields, some artistic mastermind invented the concept of the join-the-dots picture. This is a work of simple genius, which has always been overlooked by posterity. After all, about 99% of the world's population has tried one of these at least once, and for most of us, it's something we did pretty regularly as children. There's a certain magic to it, watching a swarm of spots on a page morph into a recognisable image as you follow the number scheme and add little lines here and there. But more than that, this technique mirrors the very essence of life itself. For our entire existence upon this lonely rock,…

A relatively rare sight on UK roads, BMW's stylish F31 340i M Sport Touring isn't just an exclusive loadlugger – these days it's pretty good value too. Capacious, stylish and possessing a wonderful-sounding B58 six-cylinder engine, the rear-wheel-drive 340i is very easy to live with, claims a smooth flexible gearbox and makes a canny used buy, neatly sidestepping any potential worries over long-term diesel reliability or emissions. Most 3 Series estate buyers opt for a default diesel, of course, but with 40mpg potentially possible on longer runs, the lusty 326hp 340i offers an altogether more rewarding take on the Touring theme, with plenty of appeal to the heart as well as the head. Wellequipped as standard, the five-door's 3.0-litre straight-six twin-scroll singleturbo engine packs a hefty 332lb ft of torque…

OUR CARS Having recently taken collection of my F06 640i SE, there were a couple of issues that the car was booked in for to be rectified with the selling dealer, Sytner BMW Leicester. Firstly, the diamond-cut wheels. The style 423 wheels fitted to the car are a stunning design. While they would be/were a nightmare to wash, nevertheless, they are stunning, and suit the F06 SE lines of the car well. However, it was clear that the wheels had a poor refurbishment in the past since they were flaking and peeling, and in some areas of the spokes, they were very sharp to the touch. So, the car was booked in with my local dealer for them to be refurbished again. The work itself was subcontracted out to a…

The 8 Series is an achingly cool car these days. It went from being ahead of its time, to looking outdated, to becoming a bit of a modern classic. Rapidly rising prices show that enthusiasts are starting to appreciate the retro GT in a big way. Of the BMW offerings, it is the 850CSi that is the most sought-after, and then you've got the ultra-rare beasts in the shape of the Alpina B12 duo. But even those cars are 10 a penny when compared to the rarest of the rare E31s, the mythical, wide-body Koenig Specials KS8. And the car you see here was not only tucked away from the world for eight years, but it also has a fascinating and somewhat sinister past… But before we delve into the…

In just a few months’ time, the eighth generation of the 5 Series will make its debut. The new model is more dynamic and more comfortable than ever and boasts a fresh interpretation of its signature elegantly sporting design, not to mention BMW Operating System 8.5 with BMW Curved Display, innovative digital services and, for the first time, a purely electric drive system in the guise of the i5. The flexible powertrain architecture means the new 5 Series Saloon can be offered in all-electric and plug-in hybrid variants as well as powered by petrol and diesel engines with 48V mild hybrid technology. At the BMW Group Annual Conference 2023, Oliver Zipse, Chairman of the Board of Management, announced further details of the new 5 Series model range, indicating that the…

E38 750iL It turned out that it was all a dream.’ A lazy plot device that's been irritating people for generations. Dallas famously undid a whole season's storyline by retroactively saying it had all been a dream, while the movie Vanilla Sky has a massive ‘Oh, wait, he was in a coma the whole time’ twist. It's the kind of halfassed deus ex machina that schoolchildren come up with. But let's not write off the power of dreams entirely. If it wasn't for the Happy Days episode in which Richie Cunningham had a dream about Mork, we wouldn't have had the whole Mork & Mindy spin-off series. American Psycho is basically one long mental struggle to figure out whether Patrick Bateman's just imagining everything. And for Mark (@marks_e38), owner of…

M TOURINGS E39 M5 Touring While the short-lived E34 M5 Touring was a success, BMW was keen to examine whether an E39 version was feasible, and, given the relatively low production numbers, a V8-engined model was going to have to be financially viable. A one-off example was made, based on a 540i Touring, and this was the personal transport for a while of Gerhard Richter, who was head of BMW M at the time. It was finished in Titanium silver with a black Exclusive leather interior, but eventually, it was decided that M wasn't entirely happy with the rear suspension setup and redeveloping it for the Touring would have been financially unviable. E46 M3 Touring The E46 M3 Touring prototype was made in 2000, as a production model was under…

Out of the box, the G8x M3 and M4 are absolutely awesome machines, but as always, there is room for improvement, and when it comes to modifying the latest M3 and M4, you're spoilt for choice. Whether you're looking for more power, handling upgrades or some extra styling flair, our guide will help you get the most from your G8x. Engine The S58 that sits beneath the G8x's bonnet is an absolute powerhouse. With 510hp and 479lb ft of torque in Competition trim (standard in the UK), it's the most powerful M3/4 ever made, and its performance is simply awesome. However, as with all of BMW's turbocharged offerings, there is plenty of scope for more, and extracting additional power from the twin-turbo straight-six is relatively easy. As the S58 ECU…

I seemed to have spent much of the month beating a path to BMSport's (www.bmsport.com, 020 8304 9797) door as the fleet needed a bit of titivation, and I'm pleased to announce that the vast majority of the cars are currently in fine fettle. I'll make a brief mention of a machine that doesn't usually feature in these pages, but my son's MINI One was the first machine to sally forth to BMSport as it required its annual MOT. We've owned it for coming up to six years now, and I must say it's been an absolutely brilliant second-hand purchase. It was my son's 18th birthday present, a 2006 model, one of the last R50 generation cars. It was a little bit rough around the edges with scratched bumpers and…

The BMW M Team WRT made a striking impression at round one of the 2023 Intercontinental GT Challenge staged at the iconic Bathurst circuit in Australia at the annual 12-hour marathon. This was the first round of five for the 2023 series and marked the first official outing of the factory BMW M Motorsport team linking up with WRT and came within a whisker of a podium finish for car number 32 while the second BMW M4 GT3 came home in sixth place. Legendary two-wheel racer, Valentino Rossi, on his debut at the Mount Panorama Bathurst circuit, was fastest in the second practice on the Friday and could have fared better in the marathon except for a technical issue. The 3.81-mile circuit, some 125 miles west of Sydney, combines high-speed…

FIRST DRIVE This is it: the car we've all been waiting for. More than 20 years after BMW secretly built a one-off E46 M3 Touring, and after years of shameless badgering from fans of the brand, the M division has finally put an M3 estate on sale. And it couldn't have chosen a riskier moment. At a time when internal combustion is under attack, and we're all plumbing the depths of a cost-of-living crisis, BMW has unleashed a twin-turbo straight-six M3 wagon that costs almost £100,000. Maybe it was a question of now or never for the BMW bigwigs, so amid our joy at the M3 Touring's arrival, we're willing to ignore the business reasons behind it. What we probably shouldn't ignore, though, is the nagging doubt in the back…

E34 M5 TOURING The motoring landscape is littered with ‘What if?’ and Sliding Doors moments, but in BMW's case, it's quite often a case of asking what took it so long? That's particularly true of the slow introduction of the estate car, or Touring in BMW speak, to the range. The Touring is now an intrinsic part of the lineup, and despite the inexorable rise of the SUV, it's unthinkable that BMW would leave the Touring out of the 3 or 5 Series ranges. The first Touring was the ‘02 back in the early 1970s, and while it was only a three-door and was perhaps more of a hatchback than an estate, it demonstrated that there was definitely a market for such a car. True, the Touring only accounted for…

G29 Z4 M40i The G29 Z4 is not a car we've seen much of on the modded BM scene. Indeed, the Z4 has never been a big hitter among the modifying crowd, but it feels like the G29 has really been ignored. And that feels like a shame because it's a great car. The styling is clean and aggressive, and the grille is a reasonable size… It's loaded with tech, it's good to drive, and in M40i form, with the B58 under the bonnet, it's a seriously quick car. Honestly, it feels like people are missing out, but perhaps Roval Waithe (@lreckz) and his Z4 can show people the true potential of the G29. Roval is a content creator and competitive Call of Duty player/streamer, quite possibly the firstever pro…

Q Motor oil seems to be getting thinner and thinner, but why is this, and can all engines use it? A: The trend is towards ever thinner motor oils in order to reduce fuel consumption and emissions, but the engine must also be designed for such an oil, otherwise, there is a risk of expensive damage. However, motor oil cannot become arbitrarily thin – at least not if it is based on oil. Q So, what kind of oils are there for car engines? A: Motor oils can be roughly divided into two categories: mineral-based and synthetic oils. Mineral oils are becoming less and less important for cars because they do not offer such high performance. Modern engines demand much more from the oil than old engines. Only synthetic oils…

OUR CARS @abcarpix I've always been a sucker for a Nürburgring trip. I've lost count of how many times I have visited, but it's in the double figures. It's not a difficult or particularly expensive one to tick off the bucket list, either, as I often tell people who wistfully talk of ‘one day I'll go there’! Two and a half hours from Glasgow sees me at the Newcastle ferry for a relaxed (or party-spec, depending on your mood) overnight crossing to Amsterdam. Then it's a four-hour drive down to Adenau, where you'll find a multitude of places to sleep, eat and drink near the legendary circuit. Before all of that, though, the E36 needed a little bit of attention. Simple stuff first. A post-Brexit UK-branded plate instead of the…