The BMW M3 Touring sets a track record before its show

Almost two years after its official announcement, the first BMW M3 Touring to bear the name is finally about to be revealed. The station wagon will make its public debut on June 23, 2022 at 10am at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, England. Visitors to the event will then be able to see the vehicle in action on the track that runs through the venue. It won’t be its standard version alone as the variant is equipped with a full range of M Performance parts There will also be, as well as a safety car version dedicated to motorcycles.

Best station wagon on the Nürburgring

BMW didn’t wait for Goodwood to show off the capabilities of its sports box on the track. M3 Touring just set the station wagon record time on the Nordschleife (North Ring) of the Nürburgring With a time of 7’35”060 over a full 20,832 km. Admittedly, there aren’t a lot of breaks to contend for records on this famous circuit. But at the 20.6 km old used in these shows up to 2019, the Bavarian still beats the record-breaking 612 hp Mercedes-AMG E 63 S 4Matic+ there by about 15 seconds. In 2017 with a 7’45”19 . The M3 Touring is offered there for 7’30”30, slightly slower than the previous generation M4 GTS (7’28”). In the big ring, this performance puts the BMW M3 Touring ahead of the Porsche Cayenne Turbo GT (7’38”925) or the Audi RS3 Sedan (7’40”748), but behind the Mercedes-AMG GT 63 S Coupe. 4 Ports (7’27”800) eg.

510 HP to get the job done

BMW has announced 510 horsepower to break it, a cavalry already offered by the competition versions of the M4 and M3 sedan, and therefore likely derived from the same 3-liter twin-turbo engine. An eight-speed automatic transmission should be standard, as is the latter. Two-door and four-door models can optionally be equipped with all-wheel drive. Given the diverse career of the station wagon, it could also benefit from it, which has yet to be confirmed. “It’s clearly more of a racehorse than a workhorse,” asserts Hagen Franke, project manager. Over the past two years, M3 Touring prototypes have been tested on several circuits, from the Nürburgring to the Nardo oval via the Sachsenring, as well as on the road and in particular in the Alps. See you in a few days to see the result.