The 10 Best BMW M Cars Ever

BMW M cars. Since 1978, they’ve come in all shapes and sizes: mid-engined supercars, coupes, saloons, estates, SUVs; and packed everything from zingy four-pot engines to howling V10s. They’ve even started the inevitable march towards electrification, most recently with the new hybrid M5 and its big-booted Touring sibling.

There’s never really been a bad M car (assuming you ignore the fact that the XM exists, which BMW probably wants you to), but some have undoubtedly stood out more than others. There’s nothing like a good, highly scientific top 10 list to try and separate the good from the great, so that’s just what we’ve done here.

It certainly caused some arguments in the CT Slack channel, and we suspect it’ll cause even more in the social comments. These, though, are our picks for the 10 finest machines to emerge from BMW’s performance division.

It was tricky nailing this down to just 10, so we also wanted to get a few honourable mentions out: the E28 M5 for being the first ‘normal’ M car; the E36 M3 for still being the most accessible way into one; and the current M2, for being one of the very last rear-drive, manual sports cars on sale. Now, though, on with the list.

10. E92 M3 GTS

The E9x generation M3 stands out as the only one to use a V8, and what a firecracker it was: a rev-happy, 4.0-litre naturally aspirated unit that sat in the nose of something that’s fast becoming a modern classic.

Our favourite of this generation, though, was the hardcore GTS. With power up to 444bhp thanks to a bigger, 4.4-litre engine, tweaked suspension, and a healthy 136kg shed from its weight, it’s one of a small handful of cars that’s ever usefully challenged the supremacy of the Porsche 911 GT3 in the lightweight sports coupe game. Also, it was very orange.

9. F87 M2 Competition

The original M2 was very good, but it became truly great once it morphed into the Competition in 2018. It’s such a brilliantly simple but effective recipe: small coupe, beefy 405bhp S55 twin-turbo straight-six from the F80 M3/F82 M4 (replacing the more run-of-the-mill N55), rear-drive, standard manual gearbox. If we had our way, every car company would make a car like this.

The later CS didn’t really move the game on as much again, and the Competition is far more widely available and cheaper second hand, which is why it takes this spot.

8. Z3 M Coupe

Whatever BMW was having in the ’90s, we want some. Not only did it decide to make the fixed-roof version of the Z3 a slightly mad-looking ‘clown shoe’ shooting brake rather than a trad coupe, it then stuffed the 3.2-litre straight-six from the E36 M3 under the bonnet of the little sports car.

One of the rarer M cars, it’s also an undeniable cult classic, and always a delight to spot out and about. In short, bring back shooting brakes. And naturally aspirated straight-sixes. And jazzy ’90s colours. And…

7. E61 M5 Touring

If the Z3 M was a product of the ’90s, the E6x M5 could only have come from the ’00s, when car companies had seemingly unlimited money to throw at ridiculously ambitious, incredibly niche engineering products.

That’s how BMW’s mid-size exec saloon and estate came to have a screaming, naturally aspirated 5.0-litre V10 with 500bhp under its bonnet. Hugely complicated and infamously trouble-prone, it’s nevertheless a recipe we’re never going to see repeated, especially in capacious E61 Touring form, which is why it deserves a spot on this list.

6. F90 M5 CS

This is quite possibly the most devastatingly complete car the M division has ever produced. Taking the already excellent F90 Competition, the M5 CS bumped power from its 4.4-litre twin-turbo V8 from 617 to 626bhp, knocked some 116kg off its kerbweight, all wrapped in a practical saloon body.

Yes, it was four-wheel drive and auto only, but it’s the very embodiment of M at its best: taking a relatively normal BMW, and transforming it into something magical. And how could you say no to those yellow running lights?

5. E30 M3

A quite simply legendary car, this. It only existed so BMW had something to race in the DTM touring car championship, but thank goodness it did. It’s the embodiment of ’80s homologation special cool with its boxy silhouette and flared arches.

It may have only had an atmospheric four-cylinder, but in its final 2.5-litre Sport Evolution guise, it was kicking out 235bhp – plenty in a 1200kg, rear-drive car. No matter the version, though, the E30 is one of those cars you can use the word ‘icon’ to describe without it seeming glib and hollow.

4. M1

The M1 wasn’t just the first ever M car, it remains totally unique among them. The next time BMW made a mid-engined car, it was the future-facing hybrid i8, and the next time it made an M car that wasn’t based on a regular Beemer, it was the XM, and the less said about that the better.

Then there’s that fantastic Giugiaro-penned wedge styling, the turbofan alloys, the wonderful Procar racing version. It’s remarkable it was ever built in the first place, given its troubled birth (which involves a bankrupt Lamborghini), but as Alex Gassman found out earlier this year on the CT YouTube channel, we’re very, very glad it was.

3. 1-Series M Coupe

At face value, the 1M – as everyone calls it – has no right to be this high. It was based on the most pedestrian BMW at the time, the 1-series, and other than a couple of SUVs, it was the first M car to forego a snarling naturally aspirated engine in favour of turbocharging.

But the M Division sprinkled all the magic it could on the little 1M, and created an utterly beguiling package. It crammed a 335bhp, 3.0-litre turbo straight-six into a little coupe with pumped-up streetfighter looks, and bestowed it with wonderfully balanced handling, all of which gave this baby M an irresistible personality. In fact, at least half of the CT editorial team would have this at number one, but we have to consider the popular vote…

2. E39 M5

Has there ever been a more perfect take on the super saloon formula? Barrel-chested, naturally aspirated V8. Manual gearbox, without even the option of an auto. Rear-wheel drive. Handsome, understated looks that just give a few signals to those in the know that this isn't a 520d.

It could have been underwhelming to drive and it still would have been a fantastic package, but it wasn’t. It was phenomenal, and arguably one of the very last truly analogue performance cars, landing right at the tail end of the 20th century before everything went completely tech mad. We’ll have it Oxford Green with tan leather, please and thank you.

1. E46 M3 CSL

Picture an archetypal M car, and it’s probably a coupe. It’s almost certainly rear-wheel drive, and probably has a raucous atmospheric inline-six up front. The bodywork is likely handsome, but subtly menacing in the way it takes a regular BMW and amplifies and exaggerates its proportions, and it’s probably filled with engineering solutions that mark it out as a serious performance car.

Picture an archetypal M car, then, and you picture the E46 M3 CSL. Shedding 110kg from the regular E46 M3 Coupe, it weighed a scant 1385kg, and packed 355bhp from its 3.2-litre S54 motor – unquestionably in with a shout of the ‘Greatest Six-Cylinder Ever’ gong.

It was hardcore, it was uncompromising, it was infamously lairy out of the factory thanks to its barely-legal rubber, and it was utterly wonderful. And we know what you’re thinking: ‘but it had that rubbish automated manual gearbox’. Well, you’d be right. Thankfully, there’s now a company – Everything M3s – that’ll do a perfectly sympathetic manual swap, throwing the only reason not to crown it the greatest M car of all out of the window.