The Bucket List: why you should drive an E46 BMW M3 before you die

Let’s face it: lockdown is hard work, and not being able to indulge in our favourite hobby makes it even tougher. But without a doubt, there are better days ahead, and we reckon looking forward to them is a surefire way to help ease the pain of being stuck indoors.

And what better way to aspire to better times than to dream about the cars we’d love to get behind the wheel of? The sorts of cars that should be on your bucket list, in other words. The life boxes you just have to tick when things get back to normal.

Just look at it. Standard. As it should be

Just look at it. Standard. As it should be

One such box-ticking car is a perennial favourite, and happily, it’s a car that isn’t so expensive or rare that it’s completely out-of-reach – for the time being, at least. It’s the E46 BMW M3.

It’s no exaggeration to describe the E46 M3 as a living legend. It arrived in 2000 as a follow-up to the E36 M3, the second car to wear the M3 badge and one which, while widely appreciated, was tinged with a slight sense of disappointment, having never quite lived up to the first-generation E30 model.

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The E46, therefore, had to be good. Thankfully, it was. It arrived equipped with a 3.2-litre straight-six engine codenamed the S54, which was good for 338bhp. That enabled it to hit 62mph from a standstill in just 5.1 seconds – a figure that’s still impressive today – and go on to a top speed electronically limited to 155mph.

But good as the bald performance figures are, they don’t really get under the skin of what made the E46 so special. Actually, one does: that power figure arrived at 7,900rpm – just 100rpm before the red line.

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Yes, the S54 was a rev monster, and that meant every blast of acceleration in the E46 entailed a moment’s anticipation while the revs built, then a soaring, frenetic spurt of power at the top end, daring you to hold each gear as long could to enjoy it all the more. And then there was the soundtrack; an addictive, electrifying, angry wail that filled your cranium and lit up your spine.

What really made the E46 M3 magical, though, was the way this frenetic, exhilarating engine was matched to a beautifully balanced chassis that danced beneath you, responding to every little input you made with a deftness and clarity that belied the weight and solidity of the car itself. And along with the steering, it chattered away to you about every little detail of the car’s attitude and the amount of grip you had left to play with.

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So you knew when you were about to run out, and in turn that made it easy to predict when the rear tyres would break traction, and just as easy to rein the M3 back in. But of course, while it could pull off lurid powerslides all day long, they weren’t its prime motivation. No, the M3 felt happiest sweeping from apex to apex, its engine singing in the top half of the rev range, that glorious engine note an electrifying backing track as, behind the wheel, you got to know it just a little better with each control input, grinning insanely as you managed to nail the right gear and the right line at the same time.

All this in a car that was benign in traffic, a pleasure to sit in, and even practical enough to carry four adults, at a push. It was, in other words, usable, accessible, and breathtakingly good fun. No wonder the E46 M3’s made it onto our bucket list.

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