BMW Celebrates 30 Years of M3 with Special Edition

One could argue that they don’t make cars – especially performance cars – like they used to. If you fall into that mindset, the past few years has had to be hell for you. We’ve come across anniversary editions of the Mustang, the Camaro, the Ford GT, the BMW M5, and now the BMW M3. That’s right, 30 years ago the M3 hit the streets, and to mark the special occasion BMW is making a special edition of the car for sale.

Only 500 of the “30 Jahre M3” cars will be made, and – of course – they’ll be individually numbered. The M3 was originally constructed for homologation purposes because BMW wanted to take the car racing. Unbeknownst to them at the time, the car would be a performance icon and the model of future sports cars to this day.

The package includes a bump in power, up to 444 horsepower and 406 lb-ft. of torque. The car will be available with either a 6-speed manual transmission or the company’s 7-speed DCT dual clutch. The Competition Package is also standard, and includes all sorts of go-fast goodies.

For the U.S. market, which will only receive 150 of these cars, the special M3 has additional safety features and cameras, a full-color heads-up display, and even the adaptive LED headlights.

A select number of dealerships in the United States will have the car available. The manual transmission version is $83,250 (US) and the automated-manual DCT version is $86,150 (US) – both prices before destination and handling.

Some have lamented that the current-generation M3 has lost its way, so it’ll be interesting how this BMW stacks up, assuming owners even drive the thing and not just put it in the garage under a cover.