The performance flagship of BMW’s 3 Series, built by BMW’s in-house motorsport division since 1986 and produced for every 3 Series generation since.[1] The first M3 existed for one reason: Group A touring car homologation demanded 5,000 road cars, so BMW built them, and the model line the rule required has outlived the rule itself by four decades.
This entry covers the original E30 of 1986 (a four-cylinder homologation special that never officially reached six figures of annual production and was never meant to) and its six-cylinder successor, the E36 of 1992, the first M3 sold as a saloon and a convertible as well as a coupé. Every generation after the E36 (E46, E9X, F80, G80 and beyond) is a gap in this catalogue, not an omission from the car’s history.