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While its official presentation is only scheduled for June 23 at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, the first family station wagon from BMW Motorsport has already set the best time in its class on the northern loop of the Nürburgring. The M3 Touring thus scratches the Mercedes-AMG E 63 S from the shelves.
The first BMW M3 station wagon in history has no right to disappoint. To ensure that its chassis meets expectations, BMW has therefore made it spend a lot of time on one of the most prestigious and demanding proving grounds on the planet: the North Loop of the Nürburgring. One of the latest videos teasing before the official presentation, which will take place on June 22 at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, chose to dwell in detail on this aspect of development. She reveals in passing a chrono which gives an overview of the performance and efficiency of this muscular mover.
The beaten Mercedes-AMG E 63 S
The twenty kilometers of the Nordschleife was indeed devoured by this M3 Touring in just 7’35”060. This is almost 10 seconds better than the previous record in the station wagon category, owned since 2017 by the Mercedes-AMG E 63 S. A performance all the more remarkable as the BMW suffers from a deficit of more than 100 hp compared to this distant competitor to the star. But this handicap is partially compensated by its more compact size and by a probably more reasonable weight. In addition, the times are now recorded on a slightly longer route than a few years ago: 20.832 km instead of 20.6 km. Note however that the two lap times were not achieved under the same conditions, that of the E-Class having been carried out by the German magazine Motorsportwithout the support of the manufacturer, which generally leads to slower times.
TO READ. Nürburgring: the fastest cars by category
510 hp for the first production M3 Break
However, this should not lead to denigrating the performance of this M3 break, which is still on a par with a Tesla Model S Plaid of more than 1,000 hp, the record holder for production electric cars. The BMW, it will have to be “satisfied” with 510 hp, like the sedan from which it derives. Power still extracted from a 3.0 biturbo inline six-cylinder, associated with an eight-speed automatic transmission. It remains to be seen whether the xDrive all-wheel drive will still be optional, as is the case on the four-door. For this Touring variant intended for a smaller distribution, the brand could also decide to offer it as standard. Especially since the main rival, the Audi RS4, now at the end of her career, has always been a fervent fan of four-wheel drive. Including with the new Competition Pack that it has recently offered, as if it had wanted to polish its weapons before the arrival of this new competitor.
