This new BMW M340i is just about all the car anyone needs from a daily driver, especially in Touring-spec. It’s F80 M3-fast (it’s actually faster, if the M3 is manual), just as capable on track and more comfortable on the road. Plus, it’s actually offered as a Touring model straight from the factory, whereas the F80 M3 never was. However, what if it did?
What if BMW actually developed an M3 Touring for the F80 generation? Well, some brilliant enthusiast decided to make one, by Frankensteining a F31 BMW 320d and F80 M3 sedan together. In this new video from Carwow, we see that Franken-M3 drag race an M340i Touring to see which is faster.
Admittedly, this isn’t the fairest of tests, as the F80 “M3” Touring has been tuned by Evolve and puts out 540 horsepower and 501 lb-ft of torque. So it’s far more powerful than the standard M3. While the BMW M340i Touring only makes 374 horsepower (Euro-spec) and 369 lb-ft of torque. However, the M340i is all-wheel drive while the Franken-M3 is rear-wheel drive and stock F80 M3’s are notoriously difficult to put power down to begin with. So it might not be the easiest car to launch with all of that extra power.
What’s interesting is that the Franken-M3 actually gets a good launch, without spinning its tires much, and the M340i still launches harder and takes an immediate lead. Its all-wheel drive grip just fires it out of the hole quicker than the M3’s two rear wheels can manage. The M3 does eventually take the lead and win, thanks to its extra power, but the M340i is a shockingly good stop-light, drag-race weapon. If you’re an F80 M3 owner and you pull up to a set of lights next to an M340i, don’t race it, you likely won’t win. This M3 was tuned to make far more power and still lost off the line. In the real world, the M340i is quicker.
