2013 Bmw M3 Lime Rock Park Edition Review

Driven: 2013 BMW M3 Lime Rock Park Edition

By Brandon Turkus

June 04, 2013

—Lake Orion, Michigan

Ignore information technology all. Ignore the styling. Ignore the dated trim. Ignore the HVAC. Ignore the iDrive system. Ignore everything about the 2013 BMW M3 except for the way it drives and you'll find a vehicle that is nonetheless a competitive and lust-worthy driving instrument 6 years afterward information technology went on auction.

As the current M3 approaches the end of its life, we thought information technology apt to do one terminal review of a Winding Road favorite, and boy, did BMW hook us upward with this ane.

What yous're looking at is one of simply 200 M3 Lime Rock Park Editions. Adding the limited edition trim adds $10,000 to the M3's $threescore,000 cost tag, which nets a few exclusivities not available to the general riff-raff.

The Flame Orange paint is the aforementioned shade used on the Europe-merely M3 GTS. Information technology's a deep, sleeky color that wouldn't look out of place on a racecar. The other LRP sectional is the seating—they're the aforementioned chairs y'all get in a standard M3, merely they've been wrapped in black Nappa leather.

That $10,000 doesn't just add some funky pigment and blackness leather. For the LRP M3, BMW raided its M Functioning accessories catalog, plucking some of the best items out. This is swell news, because if you lot missed out on one of the 200 Lime Stone Park Edition M3s or you only aren't crazy about that orange paint, yous tin can essentially build your own version with the accessories listed beneath.

The cabin is adorned with the best steering wheel in the BMW range, an Alcantara-wrapped, apartment-bottom number that wouldn't look out of place on an M3 GT2 racer. If at that place's one item nosotros'd propose anybody add to their own M3, it'southward this beauty.

The rest of the bits from the accompaniment catalog can be found on the outside of the car. The front end fascia sports a pair of carbon-cobweb aero pieces, while a meaty, CF spoiler sits out back. The sole performance mod is the lightweight, iconel-titanium frazzle.

Finally, the Lime Rock Park'southward toll includes the $2500 Competition Package, which if you're buying an M3, this is an option yous should already want. The Competition Pack adds BMW'southward Dynamic Damper Control, a system that uses magnetorhelogical dampers and allows drivers to fix the suspension firmness in one of 3 settings (Sport, Normal, Comfort).

The Competition Pack also lowers the M3's suspension near half an inch. A set of 19-inch, Y-spoke wheels, wrapped in sticky Pirelli tires is the terminal piece of kit.

The rest of the M3 formula is largely unchanged. A fantastic 4.0-liter 5-8 sits in front of the driver, turning out 414 horsepower and 295 pound-feet of torque. Both of those are low numbers in today's world, but when paired with an 8400-rpm redline, the M3 feels far more eager to go than its contest.

What we've always respected is the way the V-eight M3 makes its commuter work. The 3900-rpm torque peak is attainable enough, cheers to the way the S65 5-viii revs, and the torque curve is as level every bit a billiards table, just 295 pound-feet is simply not a lot of shove.

This is an easy automobile to get caught out in. Bleed too much speed through a bend or leave a corner in the incorrect gear, and those 295 pound-feet just aren't enough to rescue you. The M3 demands your attention if you want to go quick.

Go it right, and this engine will sing and dance like few others on sale today. The 8400-rpm redline is so addicting information technology should be a controlled substance. From 5000 rpm and upwardly, the ability of the Five-8 seems endless, with the accompanying redline gear change putting you right back on the boil.

If the M3's engine is its beating eye, the bones are its splendid aluminum suspension. As nosotros mentioned, our tester was outfitted with the Competition Pack as part of the Lime Rock Park trim, which ways the standard suspension is complemented by a fix of electronic dampers. Don't let the three settings of the DDC organization fool y'all—the M3's ride is firm no affair what. This is a sporty car, and it's not inclined to allow its driver forget that fact.

You feel everything. Bumps, divots, potholes, expansion joints, ants, pebbles, bird poop, the lines on the road—if the M3's tires become over it, yous're going to know. It'due south non uncomfortable, though. There's not an glut of vertical motion, and while impacts are clearly transmitted to the cabin, they're not disruptive to the driving experience.

The balance between comfy and sporty is only fine for around-town driving. If you lot want the M3's full potential, though, you lot need to select Sport. With the dampers fix to their firmest setting, this still isn't a motorcar that will batter its driver. The ride is planted and hunkered down. Throw the car into a hard corner and it just bites downward, grips, and goes. There's not a lot of body roll to get in the way of the fun. Overall, it's just a very level, confidence-inspiring driving experience.

Some enthusiasts have pleasure in criticizing BMW for fitting electronics and aids to its Yard cars that volition improve lap times at the expense of the driving experience. Those enthusiasts have probably never driven an E92 M3.

The vibrations coming off this crawly steering bicycle are ever present. Whether driving an pointer-straight route at a reasonable speed or blasting downwards your favorite stretch of twisties, the steering is constantly communicating with its driver about road conditions through subtle quivering and pulsation.

Diving into the restriction pedal is like sticking a fork in an electrical outlet. Feedback but floods in near how much grip the front end tires take, and merely how much more than stopping power you tin afford to feed in before the ABS activates. Meanwhile, working the gas pedal hard tunes you lot into the ongoing debate between the road and the rear tires, regarding who'll be giving it upwards to whom.

As talkative as the steering and pedals are, the vast bulk of the feedback comes from the M3's sculpted leather seats. Sports seats like these are designed to make as much surface contact with the driver as possible, therefore allowing more feedback to be delivered.

With the M3, this level of churr cues the driver in to everything from lateral grip levels when turning, to the sensations listed in a higher place.

The E92 M3 has a weight distribution of 51/49, making it almost perfectly balanced. That's just a number, though. The seats are the real informer of residue, constantly letting the driver know when accelerating, braking, or turning just where the M3's 3700 pounds is existence shifted.

The steering, pedals, and virtually chiefly, the seats are what make the M3 such a pleasurable driver's car. You know what's going on with the vehicle considering you feel it on a deep level.

At the get-go of this piece, nosotros implored you lot to ignore the M3's historic period-related problems, but in that location's one particular detail we didn't mention. Our tester'south seven-speed, M dual-clutch transmission was a bit of a double-edged sword.

Drive this cars every bit difficult every bit you lot can with the seven-speed in manual and on its fiercest setting, and the gearbox is very proficient to use, with wide-open throttle, redline upshifts eliciting a racecar-like bark from the rear pipes. Pull the left paddle a couple times, and the transmission volition happily drop multiple cogs, serving upwards merely the correct gear and engine speed for its driver to exploit. It's fun.

In every other way, the DCT is a product of the times information technology was adult in. It debuted in the infancy of dual-clutch transmissions, and that shows through if you try to drive the M3 civilly. Yous need to dig a scrap farther into the throttle than is comfortable to get moving, with the DCT almost impersonating a manual in the way it feeds power in. If you don't give information technology enough gas, information technology simply won't move at all.

Parking the M3 requires the driver to put the DCT in Neutral, pull the handbrake, and turn the car off. So and just so, will you encounter a little "P" displayed in the instrument cluster.

It's not exactly off-white to criticize the M3 in this respect. DCTs have improved by leaps and premises since 2007, with the Thou cars featuring some of the finest twin-clutch setups on the market place.

Information technology's a testament to what BMW did with this fourth-generation M3 that it's all the same competitive against genuinely excellent entries like the Audi RS5 and Mercedes-Benz C63 AMG, years afterward it debuted. The Audi and Mercedes are fast, technologically impressive powerhouses. Both are cars that anyone on the Winding Road staff would exist happy to take. Only if yous enquire the members of our team which vehicle they'd want to shell out their own money for, yous'd be hard pressed to discover someone that didn't answer, "The M3."

2013 BMW M3 Lime Stone Park Edition 7AT

Engine: V-8, 4.0 liters, 32v

Output: 414 hp/295 lb-ft

0-lx MPH: four.v sec

Peak Speed: 155 mph*

Weight: 3704 lb

Fuel Economy, Metropolis/Hwy: 14/20 mpg

Base Cost: $70,995

Every bit Tested: $80,295

*electronically limited

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Source: https://www.windingroad.com/articles/reviews/driven-2013-bmw-m3-lime-rock-park-edition/

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