1988 BMW M3

When the era of the M1 drew to an end, the BMW M3 entered the scene in 1986. With the launch of this compact two-door car, BMW followed for the first time a consistent path of parallel development of production and motor sport cars: The road version, 5,000 units of which had to be made available within one year to gain approval as a touring car, was designed, right from scratch, in such a way as to meet racing car requirements. It was tailor-made to A group specifications.

All this resulted in a triumph for BMW. Right from the beginning, the snow-white racing car in the typical BMW Motorsport colours scooped huge numbers of trophies, victories and titles: Driving the M3, Roberto Ravaglia from Italy won the Touring Car World Championship in 1987. This was the first and only world title bestowed in this vehicle category.

The high-performance saloon, whose four-cylinder four-valve engine produced a maximum output of 195 bhp, featured a catalytic converter as standard. It set the course of future motor sport. In the following five years the M3 dominated the touring car racing scene and became one of the most successful touring cars. Also, the road version achieved undreamt-of sales figures, with more than 17,100 units of the first M3 sold. Due to this outstanding success of the most sporting BMW 3 Series car, it did not come as a surprise that the M3 interpretation recurred in later generations of the BMW 3 Series.