BMW M3 E46 TOURING CONCEPT.

The BMW M3 E46 Touring Concept progressed from the drawing board to the road. There were several important aspects: the ideal chassis design as well as matching the rear doors with the transition to the wide wheel housings. One of the technical challenges was to harmonize the complicated rear axle construction of the BMW M3 with the useful loading space of a Touring model. On top of that, the whole vehicle had to be rigid enough to meet the standards of a true M automobile. And they were high even back then: The precision couldn’t suffer when the full power of the straight six-cylinder engine tugged at the power train.

This engine clearly stood out: Insiders know it as the S54B32 or just S54, since it was the later version of the S50B32 from the BMW M3 E36. At 252 kW (343 hp) it was – apart from the optimized version of the later M3 CSL – the most powerful version of the BMW M 6-cylinder normally aspirated engine for series vehicles. The high torque of 365 Nm was also thanks to the generous 3.2-litre capacity. Thus equipped, the high-rev engine was able to take the BMW M3 Coupé to 100 km/h in 5.2 seconds. On top of that, the BMW M3 E46 was known for its roadholding and highly developed sporting character. The developers were very interested in transferring these driving dynamics to the M3 Touring Concept.