2015 BMW M4

The M4 designation was new in the US for the 2015 model year at BMW. No longer would there be two- and four-door 3-series cars. Now the 4-series would be the name for the two-doors and their four-door siblings would retain the 3-series moniker... unless they had fastback hatches in which case they were "Gran Coupes" and badged as a 4-series. BMW's naming was getting a little incoherent if you ask me, but I don't have a degree in marketing so probably you shouldn't.

The F82 was the designation for the M coupe derived from the regular F32 4-series. Motorvated by BMW's S55 twin-turbo 3.0L DOHC inline six rated at 425 SAE net horsepower, the car could be had with the buyer's choice of a ZF six-speed manual or a seven-speed dual-clutch automatic.

When Car and Driver put a 2015 car with the dual-clutch gearbox through its testing procedure, the 3,615 pound coupe laid down a 3.7 second sprint to sixty and scorched the quarter in twelve flat at a buck nineteen. The governor shut off the fun at 163mph.

The base price for the M4 was $65,150 but options like the $8,150 carbon-ceramic brakes and $2,900 DCT box pushed the MSRP of the test car up to $86,225, which is about $121,500 in current coins.

The Yas Marina Blue example in the photos was snapped a couple times back in July of 2021 using a Sony RX100.

1987 BMW M6

Introduced in '83 and known in its home market as the M635CSi, for 1987 BMW of North America imported the Motorsport-tuned performance version of the E24 6-series coupe as the M6, keeping the name in line with the M3 and M5 already being sold in US showrooms.

This Henna Red example in my neighborhood is just crazy hot. Quite the rara avis, too, as only about 1,677 were imported to the North American market out of a global production run of 5.855.

It used a DOHC version of BMW's 3.5L inline six that put out a claimed 256bhp in US trim at the time, which isn't a lot by modern standards but back then the tuned-port 350 in a 'Vette was only rated at something like 245. The 150+ mph M6 was legitimately big iron in its time, the second fastest production car from BMW up to that point, second only to the M1.

In Car and Driver's testing, it laid down a 14.7 second quarter at 94mph and sprinted to sixty in 6.1 seconds. Slower than the Euro version, due to fewer ponies and big, clunky bumpers, top speed was measured at 144mph. Price as tested was $58,720 in 1987 dollars, which comes to $168k in current money.

The lower two photos were taken with a Nikon D7100 and a 16-80mm f/2.8-4E VR zoom lens in June of 2022, while the upper was snapped in May of 2025 using the same camera and lens.

2000 BMW M5

The first two iterations of BMW's high performance sedan built on the 5-series platform used the classic inline-six motors for which the manufacturer was famous. When the E39-based version of the M5 debuted for the 1999 model year, however, it packed a brawny V-8 under the hood.

The S62, displacing 4.9 liters, was an all-aluminum DOHC 32V V-8 that featured BMW's double-VANOS system, which gave variable valve timing on both the intake and exhaust valves. Each cylinder had its own throttle body and the compression ratio was 11.0:1. The result was a motor that wailed out 400 SAE net horsepower at 6,600 RPM.

In Car and Driver's testing, the 2000 M5 hurtled to sixty in only 4.8 seconds and dispatched the quarter mile in 13.3 seconds at 108mph through the traps. Top speed was measured at 156, it circled the skidpad at 0.90g, and the brakes hauled it to a stop from 70 in 156 feet. The car easily outperformed the Jag XJR and E55 AMG Benz against which it was pitted in the test and is one of the last times C/D reviewed an M5 without having to insert caveats.

Price as tested was $73,874, which is about $140k in current money.

This one was photographed in August of 2021 using a Hasselblad Lunar and a Sony Vario-Tessar T* 16-70mm f/4 zoom lens.

2023 BMW M2

Middle age bloat, it seems, can come for the best of us. Subaru's Forester started as a scrappy little tall wagon and now it's the size of an early Ford Explorer, the Ford Thunderbird began life as a close-coupled two seater on a wheelbase very deliberately the same length as the Corvette's and in twenty years was a bloated 5,000lb hardtop on the platform of the Lincoln Continental Mk.IV, and the Honda Accord's wheelbase has grown almost twenty inches since the mid 1970s.

Similarly, the BMW 3-series has gone from a compact little sports sedan to a plush near-midsize car, and this means the sporting cars spun off from it, the M3 and M4 have ballooned in size, weight, and price.

The 2-series coupe and convertible that showed up in 2014 was something of an antidote to that. Size-wise, it harked back to the now-classic E36 3-series coupes.

Like those coupes, there was an M-version and 2013 saw the second generation of the M2. The original North American market E36 M3 coupe of 1994 was powered by the S50B30US, a 240hp 3.0L DOHC straight six. The 2023 version of the M2 is also powered by a 3.0L DOHC straight six, but this one, the S55, has a pair of intercooled turbos bolted to it and belts out 453 ponies.

The result is eye-watering acceleration: in Car and Driver's testing of the 6-speed manual version, 3.9 seconds was all it took to sprint from a standstill to sixty and the quarter mile flashed past in 12.2 seconds at 118mph through the traps. The eight-speed automatic was even quicker. (The E36 M3 performed those same feats in 5.6 and 14.3 seconds, with a 98mph trap speed, for comparison's sake.)

Alas, the 2023 second generation of the M2 is following the seemingly inevitable trajectory of all things automotive, having gained an inch of wheelbase and a hundred pounds of avoirdupois over the outgoing generation.

This Alpine White one was photographed in August of 2024 using a Pentax K20D and a DA 18-135mm F3.5-5.6ED zoom lens. 

2002 BMW M3

The first BMW M3 debuted in the latter Eighties as a homologation special for touring car racing based on the E30 3-series coupes, powered by a gnarly DOHC 2.3L 4-banger.

The second generation, based on the E36, upped to an inline six and added a sedan version, the latter to supposedly cover a gap in the generations of M5 sedans.

The E46 third generation, like the Alpine White example in the photo, returned to being offered only as a coupe. Debuting as an '01 model, it was the first version where the US market and Euro cars used the same engine (although the NA imports were still down a couple ponies, 333 vs. 338, to their overseas counterparts.)

Car and Driver tested a 2001 sample and managed a 4.5 second sprint to sixty and a 13.1 second quarter at 107 miles per hour through the traps. On the skidpad it displayed 0.87g roadholding and stopped from seventy in a mere 160 feet. Just ten years earlier those were the sort of acceleration numbers returned by Vipers and 911 Turbos.

This one was photographed in May of 2021 using a Nikon D5000 and 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 VR II zoom lens.