A Tyred Dads Racing Club Blog

My opinion on the first turbo powered BMW M3

I’ve been lucky enough to experience every generation of BMWs most prolific M car. I actually own an E46 M3 currently (see below, be kind) and will probably replace it with the later V8 powered E9x variant come the new year. The ability to experience all the generations has allowed me to see an overwhelming essence of numbness grow through each generation.

Now that is not to say I don’t like the more modern M3s, in fact quite the opposite! They certainly have their place in the current car market and in the current ‘car culture’. I hate that term. What is car culture? How can you blanket everyone who has a passion for cars…anyway!

If you’re here reading this then I assume you know what an M3 is, and what an M3 represents. Its the working mans attainable sports car. If the Director of the printing firm in Middlesbrough drove a 911, his right hand man, that all the girls in the office had a thing for, drove an M3. I wasn’t very old at the point of the E46 m3 being released but I can vividly remember the car magazines in the local corner shop all had it on the front cover usually in pheonix yellow in the time served low front corner angle shot with slow shutter motion blur as if the car was cornering super hard! Ahh the good memories I have of reading performance BMW or fast ford eating a curly wurly as a kid in my dads office.

The original M3, the E30 was built for motorsport. Rough around the edges and built for a purpose. Come the mid 90’s the E36 M3 arrives with a big straight 6 and some more mod cons, my personal favourite generation. Still, early cars had no TC and just a very mediocre LSD at the back to try to keep things in check. Later cars did come with TC but a single push of a button and everything was off.

I have always felt like the E46 and the E36 were quite similar in how they felt. The E46 out of the box is a different machine to drive but the overall feel and ethos is more raw and engaging, similar to the earlier 2 generations. The V8 powered E9x generation is when things really started to change.

The first and only V8 M3 and what a machine. My dad had a monte carlo blue E92 coupe and I would borrow it at any opportunity. I adored that car and I have loved the e92 M3 since. You probably think it strange I haven’t owned one then, well my car habits make no sense. At some point I’ll try to list all the cars I’ve had over the years and you can judge me for yourself.

If you couldn’t tell, the M3 is a personal favourite subject of mine. I could type for hours about all of my little thoughts on each variant but were here to talk F80. The 5th generation of BMWs M3 and the first to be turbo charged.

My first F80 interaction was when my dad bought his. It was a white, competition pack and as with all of my dads cars low mileage and with full service history. Initially I really liked the car, it ticked all the boxes apart from the noise coming from those now famous quad tail pipes, but the instant torque from that turbo charged engine and the punch as soon as you pushed the throttle made up for it to an extent.

I’d long moved out of his house by this point and had my own just as capable cars to play with so I never got to drive it too much unless I was roped into fixing it. My main exposure to the F80 came through customers cars. It was around 2018-19 that tuning for these and the other fast BMWs really took off in a crazy way. I had maybe 20 F80s on my customer list all with different levels of tuning. From stock cars at 450 odd bhp to one of my best friends pushing nearly 1000 bhp. And after a while I started to question why. Why did I have so many people constantly calling me to work on these cars but I constantly read posts online, from people I respected, that they were getting rid of theirs to go back to earlier generations.

I think BMW made a mistake. Not with how the designed the car or the divisive choice of a turbocharged power plant. In fact I think they made the exact choice they should have, with options limited by governing bodies and emissions regulations and a need to keep up with the other manufactures a turbo straight 6 is the perfect choice. However I think the rest of the driving experience felt forced.

I always felt the stock ride was very harsh, crashy even and unnecessary. Small bumps felt like caverns across the road surface and road noise was transferred into the cabin in a way that I could never fathom. It also seemed vague when cornering hard at speed. Now that sentence makes it seem like you were unaware of what the front of the car was doing but that’s not it at all. I could turn in hard and I knew exactly what was happening with the front end but it had a strange fluffyness. I did manage to solve this on a number of cars by changing certain shiny bits underneath but that isn’t what I expect to be doing to an M3. Of course if its a through and through track car or something then yes, change components to tighten things up but I always felt the stock out of the box setup felt aggressively stiff and lacking some finesse.

I think that view was echoed quite a lot by numerous people across the interweb back then which if anything made me feel quite clever and special because the big boys agreed with me. I also think the power delivery was overly aggressive. 2nd gear from almost anywhere in the rev range, if you plant the throttle the traction control light will flash and power will be limited by the car. Run through the menus and manage to turn DSC entirely off and you’ll be leaving big black 11s up the road without much trouble. The slightest dampness on the road? Be ready to collect your car from a tree if you fancy tickling the loud pedal. This was even more accentuated if the cars were tuned or larger turbos were fitted, that most good maps would limit torque substantially in 1st and 2nd gear.

Not only this the usual BMW design flaws began to show through. The E46 had head gasket issues, Vanos problems and the boot floor would quite literally fall off. The E92 had big end bearings, throttle actuators and injectors failing and now the F80 has come up with a new way to extract the owners cold hard cash. The crank hub slips. Why on earth BMW thought it was a good idea to use a friction washer and the most ridiculous torque setting I’ve ever seen to try and hold the timed chain gears in place I will never know. But drilling into you crank to add a pinned hub that can’t spin is great fun so thanks for that BMW.

But regardless of all the faults, the F80 is yet another brilliant M car. I’m sure you read this thinking I’d say it was crap and honestly I think at some point I did think it was crap. But the more I drive them and the more I really think about them I can’t help but appreciate how good they are. The ride is harsh but its easily sorted if you find it too much. The strange unequal length exhaust tone can be sorted easily enough with off the shelf items and power delivery can be sorted by not pushing your foot all the way down if the conditions aren’t great. I still struggle with that last one but I’m doing my best!

But where the F80 really comes into its own is as a usable daily driver! I use my E46 every day to and from work which is exactly what M3s do so well and the F80 only improves on previous generations. Spacious for 4 regular sized adults, a decent boot space. Quiet enough that you don’t have to shout to converse with passengers and the sound system is more than adequate.

In fact its that brilliant that it has entered my radar as replacement for the E46. I have a son now and a 3 door isn’t cutting it. There was no doubt in my mine that an E90 4 door M3 would replace it but the more I look and consider the options the F80 creeps closer and closer to top of the list.

I can’t believe I’m saying this but I think I may end up with an F80 over my dream E90 just because it makes so much sense. Despite its faults it really is the obvious choice for a fast saloon in the £20-30k price range. Is there a better choice? You tell me!

Not how I imagined I’d feel about the F80 a few years ago but it really is just a great car. The G80 however….My opinion of that will be very very different. Keep an eye out and when I can get my hands on one for a photoshoot I’ll scribble down my thoughts and see who agrees!

All my love

Jake