Gallery: A closer look at the BMW M3 Touring’s debut at FOS

They did in fact come quite close in 2002, with the E46 generation M3. A prototype exists with the iconic 3.2-litre naturally-aspirated engine up front, blistered M arches and those distinctive quad pipes in a wagon shell, but it wasn’t to be.

Of course, today’s M3 is very different to the E46 and indeed, the last estate M car, the E61 M5 Touring. This M3 outguns even the old M5’s 5.0-litre V10 with its 510PS (375kW) twin-turbo straight-six, putting power to all four wheels for a 0-62mph time of 3.6 seconds. On the inside, the latest M-powered wagon with its new BMW Curved display also far outstrips the old M5 in terms of tech, hobbled as it was by one of the original iDrive systems. The high-def 12.3- and 14.9-inch information displays would have looked otherworldly in 2009 when the last M-powered Touring went off sale. 

Of course, being an M car, there are a number of things the new M3 Touring shares with its predecessors. It’s got the bulging haunches, the incredibly special looking multi-spoke alloys, the booming quad pipes, the Hoffmeister kink and – don’t we just know it – the kidneys, which these days are more like lungs. Even the new M3 nose looks better on the Touring. For £80,000 – or around £20,000 less than an Audi RS6 – an M3 Touring sounds and looks like near-enough the perfect do-it-all car.

You'll be able to catch the new BMW M3 Touring and so much more in action at the 2022 Festival of Speed by clicking here for our live stream!

Photography by Phil Hay.