BMW has confirmed that the upcoming M3 Touring will have its public unveiling at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in June.
The BMW M3 has never been available as an estate before and the new car will provide direct competition to performance estates like the Mercedes-AMG C 63 Estate and Audi RS 4 Avant. It’s unclear whether the new Touring will be showcased as a static display or entertain showgoers with a blast up Goodwood’s hill climb route.
BMW recently confirmed our spy images were correct with an official teaser video showing the rear of the car. A quad-exit exhaust system taken from the M3 saloon is shown, along with an aggressive diffuser, a new rear spoiler and a set of BMW’s trademark “snowflake” alloy wheels.
The new BMW M3 Touring will also feature the same vertical kidney grilles used to controversial effect on the new M3 and M4. There’ll be the same range of aggressive styling cues found on the new M3, including a deep front splitter, flared wheel arches and broader side skirts. A new rear spoiler has been developed especially for the Touring.
New 2022 BMW M3 Touring: engine and drivetrain
Power will come from a twin-turbocharged six-cylinder petrol engine. It’ll be the same 3.0-litre powertrain found in the X3 M and X4 M performance SUVs – which should give the hot M3 estate an output of 375kW and 600Nm. Just like the M3 and M4, we’re likely to only see the Competition version offered in Australia with an eight-speed automatic torque converter gearbox with paddle shifters.
The M3 Touring will also feature the same selectable four-wheel drive system as the M3 sedan, which will allow the driver to send 100 per cent of the engine’s power to the rear wheels. We could eventually see a four-wheel drive xDrive variant, too. BMW also confirmed that the hot estate will have a wider track than the standard model, which will be complemented by an uprated suspension system.
To cope with the power, the Touring will feature an enormous set of drilled and vented brake rotors, gripped by beefy six-piston calipers. Like all performance BMWs, the car’s alloys will be wrapped in sticky Michelin Pilot Sport 4S tyres.
The upcoming M3 version of the 3 Series estate will be the spiritual successor to BMW’s prototype E46 generation M3 Touring, which made its debut in 2000 and also makes an appearance in the latest video. The fully functioning one-off model was powered by the same 252kW straight-six engine as the M3 Coupe of the day, but due to production costs BMW never brought the model to market.
Alastair Crooks