For OE fitment to its new M3 Coupe, BMW has chosen Michelin's Pilot Sport tire. The new M3 has a 414bhp V-8 engine and is promoted by BMW M GmbH as a racecar tire for daily use. It can be deduced that Michelin selects its ultimate sports tire, developed in consonance with engineers from BMW M, as a rational option.
Michelin stated BMW M GmbH has selected a racing tire made for the street to ensure that its new coupe tightly grips the road and feels like a Formula 1 race car. The tire manufacturer equipped the cars which won both the Driver and the Constructors championships two years in a row. Since the release of the first generation model, Michelin tires have equipped the BMW M3. The manufacturer also fitted other cars produced by BMW M, including the M5 and M6.
What's the fourth generation M3?
The E92 model is a car that first arrived in 1986. It had a four-cylinder engine with around 200bhp back then. But now, the new car doubles that with a V8 and 414bhp, but the basic ingredients are retained: rear-wheel drive, a limited slip differential and a motorsport-inspired engine that revs to a gigantic 8400rpm.
The M3 will cost ?50,625 when it starts its sales early September in the UK. A BMW reset tool may come with it.
At first, it will be available only as a two-door coupe. Expected to follow next year is a convertible and four-door saloon. The broaden range is hoped to help break the 100,000-unit barrier for the first time. However, the last M3 - 2000's six-cylinder E46 - is a tough act to follow.
The M3 gets two more cylinders. And some auto journalists view the move as a brave one and something that transformed the M3 from a motorsport product to the international icon it is today.
The last car's 3.2-litre six-cylinder wouldn't meet forthcoming emissions regulations and rivals upped the game with V8s, leaving Munich with no other option but to match them. The American market has been a big consideration too. Fifty percent of all cars expected to go on the Stateside.
Therefore, this is the first time the M3 has largely changed since 1992.
And just like in 1992, the E92 will leave the hardcore craving more. Now, a nice woo fly warble under lighter throttle loads precedes a hard-edged charge for the red line. The spine-tingling zinginess of the E46 car is also gone. It is now replaced by a more mature but still exhilarating, progression.
The quest for a high-revving engine has not surprisingly left a hole in the torque low down, so you need to be able to stir that six-speed manual, which is the only option for now though SMG will follow, to really get moving. The box is carried over from the E46 and obviously shares its characteristics: direct but a bit stiff.
