Later today, BMW will disclose the official Nürburgring lap time of the hotly anticipated M3 Touring ahead of the super wagon’s debut next week at the Goodwood Festival of Speed. In the meantime, the belated AMG C63 Estate rival has been spied undergoing final testing at the very same Nordschleife. The prototype appears to have all the production bits in place, which makes sense since the reveal is right around the corner.
The comprehensive teaser campaign highlighted BMW’s efforts to make the G81 feel as sporty and nimble as the M3 Sedan despite the added bulk. It remains to be seen how the engineers have been able to offset the extra weight by making model-specific tuning. These prototypes were certainly being pushed hard around the Green Hell in an attempt to iron out any last-minute kinks.
If you’re wondering why the headlights are not camouflaged, there’s a perfectly good reason – the M3 Touring will not inherit the revised front lights that debuted with the 3 Series LCI. It will however borrow the iDrive 8 setup to follow the 2023 M3 Sedan. It will be a straightforward process to configure the muscular wagon since it’ll only come in Competition guise with xDrive and an automatic transmission.
long time coming. BMW built a one-off E46 M3 with a long roof back in 2000, but it remained purely a concept car. The German luxury brand hasn’t sold an M Touring for over a decade, having discontinued the bonkers V10-powered M5 E61 in 2010.
Based on early impressions, the G81 will have been well worth the wait. It is shaping up to be the ideal one-car garage by offering performance, practicality, and luxury in the same package. With the next AMG C63 downsizing to a four-cylinder, plug-in hybrid setup, the M3 Touring is already seen as a more exciting alternative.
Source: Automotive Mike / YouTube
