带你体验新款宝马

音频下载[点击右键另存为]
Hi, I'm Sue Callaway, car columnist with Fortune magazine. Twenty years ago, BMW thrilled the performance world with the introduction of the first M3, the E30. The company called the car a 3-series variant, but in reality it was a teenager on testosterone, a rebel with a cause: pure performance. Two decades later, here comes the 2008 M3. The car's grown up. It's better educated, it's well-rounded, it's worldly. Purists are worried it's gone soft, but I disagree. This is the boy racer who's finally gone pro.

Everything on the new M3 is purpose-built, from the Gurney spoiler lip on the rear deck to increase down-force of high speeds to the flat floorpan underneath to increase aerodynamics. The car's lost a lot of weight, too. Aluminum suspension parts and aluminum hood help. But the biggest piece is right here, the trick carbon fiber roof. It weighs 11 pounds less than the traditional steel roof and 45 pounds less than the steel roof with a moonroof in it.

Let's have a look at the heart of this beast, the engine. BMW has literally doubled the engine since the original M3, which was a four-cylinder 195-horsepower car, today 414-horsepower V8 with a gut-wrenching 295 foot-pounds of torque.

No amount of data can explain just how great the new M3 is. For that you have to do what it does best -- drive, and then you'll see just how far in the dust it leaves the old car.

BMW has created a more usable M3 with this latest edition, but it hasn't lost the purity of its performance roots. Like Porsche with the 911, BMW has refined and refined and refined this car over the years until it's one step shy of perfection. Hey, the company makes a lot of great cars, but to my mind, this truly is the ultimate driving machine.