Listen To The BMW M3 Mature... And Then Rot

There has been a lot of noise being made around the new BMW M3 and M4 recently. This is of course because their predecessors are such good cars, so you would just assume the new car is going to be one hell of a machine.

And sure enough, the two cars have been receiving much praise across the world's auto reviewers. Car Throttle even went as far as saying it's the most perfect car they have ever driven. But we have to address the elephant in the room; the new F80 M3 sounds awful.

I know, that is a pretty bold claim to make. I think the issue we have is that all of the previous cars sound so good; so the new car has a burden put onto it. Which it can't deliver. Read on for some eargasms from the yesteryear M3s.

E30

This is where it all began. Powered by a 2.3L inline-four, it gave out around 190bhp. That doesn't sound that radical, but the lightness of the E30 meant it was properly nippy. And, for a four cylinder engine, it sounded great.

E36

Shortly afterwards, the E36 arrived with a more potent 3.0L I6, but this was later increased to the more favourable 3.2L I6. The higher output engine gave 316bhp, and a noise to match the speed.

E46

This one is my personal favourite. It keeps the same 3.2L-sized engine (although the block itself was new) with a slightly higher output of power. But why is it my personal best? Hit play...

E90

The E90 gave the M3 a new muscle car feel to it, with a new 4.0L V8 producing 414bhp. Though this was no lazy V8, oh no, this thing could rev to 8300rpm. As a result, the soundtrack is pretty addictive.

F80

The new M3 (joined with the M4) has received its smallest engine for some 18 years. Don't let that fool you though; this new beast is the quickest M3 yet. However, with the downsizing and turbocharging, the sound is not very good. In fact, BMW have had to fake sounds through the audio system. Oh dear...