Has anyone heard whether or not BMW is going to produce a street version of the M3 with the V8? I read in Bimmer magazine that they might build a special edition (limited production, like the E36 Lightweight, or GT) model with the V8. Are there any websites with any info on this?

:confused:

This is true, though i don't know where the web sites I read it on are. It will be a true ultimate driving machine

I've heard there won't necessarily be an M3 V8 - the ALMS rules just say they have to make a V8 E46 to 'homologate' the engine.

They'll probably make a 340i with the 4.4L V8 from the 540i and 740i. That car will nicely fill the gap between the 330i and the M3.

BMW likes to have roughly 50bhp gaps between various models in a 3 series so you'd have the 330i with 231hp, the 340i with 286hp and the M3 with 333hp.

If they made an M3 with M5 engine in it then lots of potential M5 customers would go for the M3 instead which is not what BMW would want. If you want that then Hartge can do that for you (can't remember what they call that model).

OTOH I have heard that a handful of M3 GTR V8 race cars will be sold as customer cars but these won't be street legal. If they made a street legal M3 GTR it would only be in extremely small numbers.

Michael.

I read that BMW isn't going to make (on a large scale anyway) a V8 M3 because the accountants at bmw don't think it will sell well. The Hartge's one is called an H50 and costs $120k and they are only making a few each year. Although if you were going to spend that much money for one I'd wait because Hartge is going to put an even more powerful m5 motor in it.



<p><img border="0" src="http://www.k8xu.com/aaron/bmw/H50.jpg" width="443" height="238"></p>

Side note, originally bmw was going to put a v8 in the m3 but not anymore.

opps, that image is from "Bimmer" june 2001

Yes, but I do believe they will release a very limited production V8 e-46. If this will be a M3 from the start, I do not know. But they need to produce these cars in order to be eligible for ALMS. Prety much what mike said, just wanted to clarify

I heard somewhere that the rules state that they only need to make 10 'street legal' version of the V8 M3. I also heard that the US will never see any of these, and that most are already accounted for in Europe and the mid-east...

just rumors...