On Christmas Eve, a BMW and MINI dealer from The Netherlands pitted the BMW M3 Competition against the i4 M50. The showdown between the substantially different M cars took place at Circuit Zandvoort where the EV was the undisputed winner. Many people – including yours truly – complained they should’ve gotten a hold of an M3 xDrive to level the playing field.
Guess what? Van Poelgeest BMW has done just that. A new video posted on their YouTube account shows a drag race between the AWD-equipped M3 and the i4 M50. On paper, the gasoline-fueled sedan should be substantially quicker than its electric in-house rival. After all, the first-ever M3 with xDrive hits 62 mph (100 km/h) in three and a half seconds. The zero-emission gran coupe from Bavaria needs an extra 0.4s to get the job done.
Once again, the M cars duked it out at one of Europe’s oldest circuits where the best out of three claimed the win. To our surprise, the first electric M car from BMW was the overall winner as it triumphed in the first and last race. By the looks of it, the M3’s driver didn’t turn out the launch control system, thus giving the i4 M50 a clear advantage.
Room For Improvements?
Some folks are wondering whether it was a deliberate move from the dealer to make the i4 M50 look good. Disappointingly, the M3 hit 100 km/h from a standstill in just over four seconds in the first and last drag races. The quad-pipe sedan’s performance was vastly better in the second duel considering it was clocked in at 3.68 seconds.
We’ll leave it up to you to decide whether the inline-six sedan was at its full potential or not. In real-life tests, the M3 xDrive is known to complete the sprint well below BMW’s official 3.5-second time. Nevertheless, the i4 M50 is undoubtedly a force to be reckoned with, even though it weighs roughly 500 kg more.
[Source: Van Poelgeest BMW / YouTube]
