Filed under: Coupe, Performance, BMW, New Car Reviews, Luxury
Sic Transit Gloria
I like difficult cars. I like turbo “moments,” dramatic weight distribution, low-grip, peaky power delivery, and overly quick steering, along with ultra-short wheelbases and any number of other non-racecar-perfect dynamic foibles. I love the newest generation of BMW cars and engines – all turbo’d up with tons of torque and power everywhere in the rev range, too. But what I think the enthusiast community will miss when this 2013 M3 Coupe becomes the 2014 M4 Coupe – replacing its idiosyncratic, small-displacement, revvy V8 for something like a triple-turbo, directly injected, inline six-cylinder powerhouse in the process – is the work it takes to drive the car fast and perfectly. Sometimes small flaws just make things better; my mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun, and all that.
The idea of this E92 M3 going away then, magnified by the loss of the M3 badge for the coupe, is at best bittersweet for me. This generation of M car is already surpassed in terms of raw thrills by the better-than-ever Mercedes-Benz C63, a car that doesn’t ask its driver to sacrifice low-end grunt or the very latest in amenities in return for stellar backroad performance. Yet any time I’ve been lucky enough to lap a track in the M3, it has quickly become clear that the Bimmer is the better on-edge tool. With the freedom to wring the neck of the 4.0-liter V8 and room to exercise the lovely balance of the car, the E92 is hard to match (even six years after its debut).
Still, when the 2013 BMW M3 Coupe Lime Rock Park Edition rolled into my driveway, its Fire Orange bodywork flashing over gloss-black 19-inch rolling stock, the car had me a little crossed up. BMW has been tossing out special edition M3s for the last few years now, all asking thousands of dollars extra for the limited production-run vehicles. I knew that the LRP was more than a mere trim and tape package, but would it be an appropriate send off for a spectacularly departing sports car legend, or just $10,000 down the drain where a stock M3 Coupe would have happily sufficed?
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2013 BMW M3 Coupe Lime Rock Park Edition originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 25 Jul 2013 11:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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This monster motor home features a Mercedes-Benz truck chassis, a massive, luxurious cabin that includes a real kitchen, dining with seating for five, a master bedroom with a king bed plus a shower, toilet and sky light. Actually, the main bedroom features a bath tub, too, so you can soak after a hard day of… whatever it is that the wealthy do when they’re “camping.”
