BMW F80 M3 Sedan Spotted with Manual Transmission

[the infamous...]

[Apolonios]

Wasn't the powerdome to specifically to fit the larger v8 on the e9x's?? Wouldn't a turbo 6 be roughly the same size as the other 3 series??

Overall I'm liking the aggressive look on the car but they need to do something about the rearview mirrors, they stick out too much.

[M3ryder55]

Maybe the M4 has a point to it. Like the M3 era is over of the naturally aspirated M's. Future's looking like all turbo M cars.

I'm loving the front end already as a test mule. Imagine the final product. Hood will definitely have a dome, flared wheel arches front and back.. that thing looks mean

but I think its worth getting rid of my E90 for it. Something about the S65 and DCT makes me feel like it can't get any better.

[advantage20]

Well now it becomes clear that the M3 will get the 3 Series' and not the 4 Series' front end as some speculated at the beginning. The grilles are from the F30, they are just partially covered in camo which makes them look sleeker.

Well this is crystal clear anyway, since BMW decided to separate the 3 and 4 ranges, meaning a more upmarket placement for the 4 Series, thus resulting in a different fascia and of course a significantly higher price (although, I hope, not the same leap as the 5 & 6 Series). How then could the M 3 Series sedan get the front end of the 4 Series??

For the same reason, I firmly believe that BMW will stick to the logic of its new range classification and dub the M version of the 4 Series Coupe M4 and not M3. Otherwise, how could they justify the more upmarket positioning of the 4 Series and still name the M 4 Series the same as the M3 sedan??

[Justin Spelman]

Originally Posted by advantage20

Well now it becomes clear that the M3 will get the 3 Series' and not the 4 Series' front end as some speculated at the beginning. The grilles are from the F30, they are just partially covered in camo which makes them look sleeker.

Have you read through this thread and seen the comparison photos? The kidney grilles are clearly different shapes, it's not just the camouflage. These were posted earlier in the thread:


F80 M3 grille:



F30 3-series grille:

[Justin Spelman]

Originally Posted by Apolonios

Overall I'm liking the aggressive look on the car but they need to do something about the rearview mirrors, they stick out too much.

I think the site admins or mods have written about this. The final mirrors will be sportier... like how the new M5 test cars all had regular F10 mirrors but the production model ended up with sportier mirrors.

[Pej Diddy]

oh man....my next car!!!

[M-Power111]

Originally Posted by V8Killer

All this whining about a name "M4" they can call it whatever the hell they want as long as it performs

+1, its just a name, when this things beats out the E92 M3 performance wise i think everyone will forget about names.

[advantage20]

Originally Posted by Justin Spelman

Have you read through this thread and seen the comparison photos? The kidney grilles are clearly different shapes, it's not just the camouflage. These were posted earlier in the thread:


F80 M3 grille:



F30 3-series grille:

Sure, but how about this pic?




Plus, if the M3 was wearing the 4 Series front end, wouldn't they camo it much more heavily, like the 4 Series prototypes recently spied?

[Justin Spelman]

Originally Posted by advantage20

Sure, but how about this pic?

Plus, if the M3 was wearing the 4 Series front end, wouldn't they camo it much for heavily, like the 4 Series prototypes recently spied?

Take a look again closely at that pic, the grilles are still different than the F30 pics.. they are thinner and the bottom part curves up more, just like the F80 M3 pic.

The M3 is ahead of the 4 series in terms of public testing so it wears less camo. It was first spotted in August but the 4 series just started testing this week.

[M ETT]

Very nice indeed...
I must agree with most of you guys - this is one mean lookin' car, and I love the wide stance.
No power dome though.. But I still like what I see so far

[M-Power111]

Originally Posted by MCMLXXXIX

looking really good!

I may have missed this somewhere but can someone explain why this is an F80 and not an F30?

the new M versions of the F30 and F32 will given different model names: F80 M3 and F82 M4.

[stefan]

What's this?? An end to the broomstick shift knob! FINALLY! I will have to retrofit this.

[advantage20]

Originally Posted by Justin Spelman

Take a look again closely at that pic, the grilles are still different than the F30 pics.. they are thinner and the bottom part curves up more, just like the F80 M3 pic.

The M3 is ahead of the 4 series in terms of public testing so it wears less camo. It was first spotted in August but the 4 series just started testing this week.

Remember the early spyshots of the F30 sedan, it also had those kidneys seemingly thinner to the sides (Z4 like), but that was only some camo padding and the final F30 kidneys came out to be more rectangular. By the way you can see on the last pic I posted that the left kindey still has some of that padding stuffed in between the kidney bars while the right kidney has less of that camo and already looks much more like the regular F30 grill.

So I still believe that the M3 will logically wear the F30 fascia in order to clearly differenciate the 4 Series range. We'll see

[JasonCSU]

Originally Posted by Apolonios

Wasn't the powerdome to specifically to fit the larger v8 on the e9x's?? Wouldn't a turbo 6 be roughly the same size as the other 3 series??

Yes, I believe it was in order to fit the V8 on the E9x models. Function over form in that case. It's funny that people keep screaming for it when they see these spy shots, while it's possible the new engine may no longer require the dome for clearance.

[mkoesel]

Originally Posted by advantage20

Plus, if the M3 was wearing the 4 Series front end, wouldn't they camo it much for heavily, like the 4 Series prototypes recently spied?

I doubt that the M3 is wearing the 4 Series front end since that would be arbitrary. The question, though, is whether the F80 will recieve an entirely unique front end from the F30, including kidneys and such (maybe even headlights). The same question could be posed for the F32 and F82 too. Logic says that there will be some parts shared somewhere, but maybe the front ends of the M models will be more similar to each other than either of them is to their normal series siblings.

[mkoesel]

Originally Posted by M-Power111

the new M versions of the F30 and F32 will given different model names: F80 M3 and F82 M4.

Right but I think his question was more about why that is the case this time around. As far as I know, we don't have any details of what has prompted the divergence of chassis codes yet.

[M-Power111]

Originally Posted by mkoesel

Right but I think his question was more about why that is the case this time around. As far as I know, we don't have any details of what has prompted the divergence of chassis codes yet.

ah ok, yeah im wondering that myself.

[Muffnbluff]

The ATS-V will have to be pretty dang awesome to steal my dollars away from this as my next car come 2014-2015.

[mapezzul]

Originally Posted by mkoesel

Right but I think his question was more about why that is the case this time around. As far as I know, we don't have any details of what has prompted the divergence of chassis codes yet.

With the F10M they realized they replaced over 85% or some crazy number like that of the standard Chassis so it is loosely based on the F10. Many if the suspension parts are stamped M, and others have it as part of the casting.

With the proposed F30M they just wanted to start from the ground up. If you are changing out all these parts isn't it easier to just start from scratch and see if something works rather than finding each parts' weakness and redesigning?That is the impression I was given.

The headlights are rumored to be different- possibly with bright yellow LED halos to show it racing roots, when final.

The rear diff will be the same as the M5, the supplier contract is supposedly already established. You can also expect the rear suspension advances to carry over and the gear boxes as well.

It is shaping up nicely. Exciting times, minus M won't be naturally aspirated ever again.

[ATX78703]

best reveal yet... nice pix

I'm all for the bi-turbo V6 - I think it will be better for reliability, cooling and physical engine size. If they shed 88 lbs off the f30, hopefully they can shave at least 100 lb off this m3. More power, less weight can't beat that.

2 questions:
1) What size rubber do you think will fit out back - 275s? or bigger?
2) What do you think about AWD? - should they do it for M cars given that the torque numbers are starting to get ridiculous.

[Red Bread]

Originally Posted by ATX78703

2) What do you think about AWD? - should they do it for M cars given that the torque numbers are starting to get ridiculous.

I don't mind if it's an option, but would never pay for it myself. If a Z06, GT2 and countless other cars can handle bigger torque, why would it need awd? There's a balance between magazine numbers and being fun to drive that awd tends to skew too much to the former, at least for those of us that live in decent climates or have multiple cars.

Again, if they offer it, fine, but if it's standard, I'd shop for something else, but also assume there's a 0% chance of that.