It was pure luck that the sun decided to come out for the first time in November on the exact Sunday that we had chosen to conduct our road test of the BMW M Coupe and M Roadster. The Colorado air was chilly and some of the tree-shaded, twisty roads on our test route were still covered by a thin layer of ice, but these problems were child's play for the German sportsters we were testing. And the bright sunshine glinting off the silver and blue paint of our test cars made the drive all the more fun.
Not that it wouldn't have been fun, anyway. We knew how much fun these cars were the second we hit their accelerators for the first time and catapulted forward with what felt like the power of a rocket. With stunning thrust and a potent revving capability, the cars wowed us with their vibrant performance and dreamy handling. The gear shifter feels tight, the torque band is wide and the brakes are confidence-inspiring with a progressive feel to the pedal. Rack-and-pinion steering is razor sharp and responds more crisply than the steering of the Chevrolet Corvette or the Acura NSX, and the BMW's steering wheel is perfectly sized.
The M Roadster debuted last year as a fine-tuned version of the BMW Z3 Roadster that was designed to compete with sports cars like the Porsche Boxster. This year, BMW unleashed its newest weapon, the M Coupe, as another competitor with more structural rigidity, thanks to a fixed roof, that results in better seat-of-the-pants performance. Built on the chassis that debuted on the Z3 Roadster and powered by the engines found in the M3 cars, both the M Roadster and M Coupe share a mechanical platform and front-end sheetmetal. Horsepower has been raised to 240 from the 189-pony output offered by the Z3 2.8.
Both M cars come with a standard 3.2-liter, DOHC six-cylinder engine that spouts 240 horsepower @ 6,000 rpm and makes 236 foot-pounds of torque, peaking @ 3,800 rpm. The engines are nestled into the front ends of the cars and utilize rear-wheel drive with a limited slip differential, which helps to achieve stable cornering. BMW's ZF type C five-speed manual transmission with direct fifth gear shifts into the right place like magic and makes for a perfect engine/transmission combination.
Before we get into driving specifics, though, let's talk looks. BMW caused quite a stir with the controversial styling of its new M Coupe. Daring to be different and hoping to generate emotional responses, BMW launched its M Coupe this year with a completely new shape from the A-pillars back. The roof blends into the top of a rear hatch with spoiler, a third brake light and new taillights. With chrome-trimmed gills, four exhaust tips, and a huge rear-end that arches and swells out to house nine-inch wide rear wheels, the M Coupe has achieved a modern, beefy look, especially when considering its flanks.
The M Coupe's bold styling has car people talking-heatedly-and the Edmund's editors are no exception. There were some that loved the car's design at first glance, and others who were immediately impressed by BMW's audacity, if not by the vehicle's styling itself. Then there were the naysayers, who took a gander at the car's distinctive yet wagon-like lines and claimed that it looked like a tennis shoe. It didn't take more than a few minutes behind the wheel of the coupe, however, for the vehicle to grow on them-styling and all. By the end of our time with the funky-looking car, almost everyone was singing its praises and the design skeptics in our midst were sheepishly admitting that the styling was unique and pretty darned attractive.
Managing Editor Grant Whitmore said, "I hated the way this car looked when I first saw it, but after driving it for a few days, I thought it looked quite daring and dashing." Editor Karl Brauer had a similar change of heart, stating, "I found the exterior to be less troubling as I spent more time with the car." Still, Senior Features Editor Greg Anderson maintains that the car looks like a cross between a Honda Civic Hatchback, a VW New Beetle and a Toyota Land Cruiser. "Sure it grows on you," he quipped sarcastically, "Like a wart." And the debate rages on…
Garnering more attention than the M Roadster due to its garish styling, our M Coupe looked like a silver bullet as it skimmed along the road. Designers at BMW's high-performance M division in Garching, Germany, obviously didn't want anyone who might be driving or admiring the coupe to mistake it for anything but an M car, so they plastered the rainbow-shaded telltale "M" all over it. We counted a total of 14 M's on the vehicle-one on each wheel, one on each floor mat, one on each side of the hood behind the gills, one on each door sill, one on the rear hatch, one on the steering wheel, one on the shifter knob and one on the instrument panel. They must have been trying to spell Mmmmmmmmmmmmmm! It is a tasty little coupe, after all.
Just as tasty, however, is the M Roadster, with its more conservative, yet swoopy, styling. Open-air travel is always a pleasure, but few convertibles are as entertaining as the BMW M Roadster on a twisty two-lane or a flat stretch of deserted highway. A combination of refinement and performance, the roadster engine feels smooth, silky and strung. And, as Editor-in-Chief Chris Wardlaw found out, styling is sumptuous enough to make a car-full of women scream and chase you, as if you were a celebrity.
Inside the cars' capsules is seating for two in comfortable, sporty, two-toned leather bucket seats with integrated headrests. Instrument gauges on the dash and center console are ringed in classy chrome and there are enough of them to tell you what the car is doing or thinking at any given moment.
The cockpit of the coupe feels cozy and intimate, due to its close but comfortable quarters and quiet sound level. Wind and road noises are well-damped, though at speeds above 70 mph, the wind does whistle a bit, especially around the A-pillar. Build quality on our test cars wasn't perfect, either. On the M Coupe, we found that the driver's side rubber door seal was coming off and the rear hatch was misaligned. And the plastic used on both cars' center consoles felt cheap and hard.
Visibility is adequate in the M Coupe, despite the wide C-pillars, and it is much improved over the roadster with the top up. Changing lanes to the left in the covered roadster is like playing Russian roulette, due to the major blind spot created by the roll bars, the tiny side mirrors and the softtop. The coupe's rear window is outfitted with a window wiper to encourage driving in nasty weather, but one editor found that the wipers had a tendency to streak.
Width and length are identical on the two cars, at 68.5 and 158.5 inches, respectively, but the M Coupe's roofline is almost a full inch higher. The coupe offers a decent amount of cargo space in its rear hatch-14 cubic feet total. We know that there is at least enough room for a few duffel bags, two sets of golf clubs or for two small women and a dachshund, if you happen to encounter an unplanned seating crisis. Interestingly, the same space is less usable in the M Roadster, which offers a tiny trunk that barely holds the boot cover.
The roadster's cabin is comparable to that of the coupe, with the same dashboard setup and two-toned leather seats. Instead of the M Coupe's cargo area, you'll find two huge roll bars behind the roadster's two seats, as well as a mesh wind net that significantly quells wind buffeting. Our M Roadster test car was painted bright blue with a matching blue softtop that was easy to raise and lower, thanks to the electric controls. The only labor you have to endure is latching the front of the roof into place when closing the top or snapping the storage cover into place after lowering it. We would've liked the softtop to come with a rear glass window instead of a plastic one, but you have to spring for the roadster's optional hardtop to get that.
Controls inside the cars are driver-centered and precise. The climate and radio buttons are well-marked and easy to operate, though the gauge markings are difficult to decipher. The cruise control stalk is hidden behind the steering wheel spokes, but is intuitive and easy to operate. However, it is impossible to tell which setting controls the driver's side mirror until you test it out.
The coupe's Harman Kardon sound system is superior to the roadster's because it has a subwoofer and nine speakers, some of which are mounted high in the rear compartment for improved acoustics. The bass coming through the roadster's sound system was still a bit muffed. Speed-compensated volume kicks in when the vehicle senses a substantial increase in speed.
Both cars come with two small, basic cupholders, which are deemed unnecessary by most of our staff and considered an affront to true driving enthusiasts. "No one should be consuming a beverage in a sports car, anyway," says our editor-in-chief, but those cupholders would come in handy if this vehicle were one's sole means of transportation. Even so, they are in a hard-to-reach location, nestled far back between the two seats.
For safety, side airbags and seat-belt pretensioners come standard. Both 1999 M models come with standard traction control that can be turned off by drivers who want to up the ante in terms of fun and/or danger. Our 1998 test roadster, however, did not offer traction control. The only options for 1999 available on the coupe are an in-dash CD player and power tilt moonroof while roadster connoisseurs can choose between an optional CD radio and a hardtop roof.
We tested the two vehicles on a loop that incorporated highway, city and mountain road driving to test all-around performance, and came away breathless, but with copious notes outlining the similarities and differences exhibited by BMW's swanky M cars.
Compared to some of my lead-foot-laden, life insurance-carrying colleagues, my reputation is that of one of the more conservative drivers in our group. Even so, the raw power of the M Roadster's engine coupled with rear-wheel drive on loose gravel propelled me into a hair-raising spin-out about halfway through our test loop. Without traction control on our test roadster, there were some slippery, breath-holding moments on icy turns along steep, mountain cliffs. I wasn't all that worried, though, since I had full confidence in the convertible's ability to stop on a dime-even an icy one. This is due to the ventilated disc brakes, which measure 12.4 inches in front and 12.3 inches in back and are accompanied by a quick-responding vacuum booster and an antilock braking system. The instant brake response can feel a bit touchy until you've become acclimated to the brake pedal, but when you need to stop in a hurry, it won't let you down.
Riding on two Dunlop SP Sport 8080E 225/45ZR17 front tires and two 245/40ZR17 rear tires, both roadster and coupe stick to the ground like Velcro. BMW's new Asymmetric Hump / Safe Stop concept, which uses a ridge around the wheel's tire-mounting surface, keeps the tire on the wheel in the event of a flat. In lieu of maximum trunk and cargo space, neither car is equipped with a spare tire; instead, a container of fast-acting sealer and a micro-compressor with tubing is on board.
With the 3.2-liter, 24-valve inline six-cylinder engine that is shared with BMW's M Roadster and M3 cars, the M Coupe can go from zero to 60 in 5.2 seconds, according to BMW. We have no reason to doubt the validity of this number, especially when, on howling takeoffs, our bodies are thrust into the driver's seat with so much authority that one suspects the car could drive itself. U.S. cars receive a 137-mph speed limiter, but our friends across the pond are able to drive their M cars at speeds up to 155 mph.
Reaching 60 mph from zero in 5.3 seconds, the M Roadster blows away competition like the Porsche Boxster and Mercedes-Benz SLK in straight-line acceleration. The roadster's closest competitor, the Boxster, makes 201 horsepower @ 6,000 rpm and 181 foot-pounds of torque @ 4,500 rpm. Priced within two thousand dollars of each other, the Boxster and M Roadster are true rivals. We'd choose the BMW roadster for a drag race due to its impressive acceleration, but we prefer the Porsche's handling in the twisties. Because the Boxster's engine is placed in the center of the car, it feels better-balanced in curves and, like the BMW M Coupe, is perfectly distributed over each axle.
Another contender, the Chevrolet Corvette, is priced competitively with a base MSRP of $38,777 (including destination charge). But the Corvette is powered by a mammoth 5.7-liter V8 engine making 345 horsepower and 350 foot-pounds of torque. With that kind of power, it's no wonder the 'Vette reaches 60 mph ahead of the BMW M cars.
Ride and handling are superb. While the M Roadster's frame was stiffened up a bit from that of its Z3 predecessor, the M Coupe-with its hardtop roof-offers the stiffest BMW platform to date, according to BMW engineers. In fact, it is a full 2.6 times stiffer than its roadster sibling and its wheelbase is half an inch longer.
Stellar performance comes by way of the immense structural rigidity of the coupe, which is a result of the close-coupled fixed-roof body. The M Coupe's suspension is similar to the roadster's, with struts and arc-shaped lower arms in the front and semi-trailing arms in the rear, but the coupe boasts stiffer springs and a larger anti-roll bar. The link from the MacPherson struts to the anti-roll bars is lighter than that found in the Z3, though just as strong. And with the coupe's perfectly balanced 50/50-percent weight distribution, its body feels solid-even around the sharpest corners.
Before installing the Z3's suspension in the M Roadster, it received a tuning that included lowering the ride height, firming up the shock absorbers and re-sizing the front and rear stabilizer bars. The front suspension was taken from the larger M3 models, with strengthened spring pads. Throughout our test loop, the M Roadster's suspension worked blissfully, filtering harshness without numbing communication. Though the current model's overall ride is still excellent, the roadster's body tends to shimmy more than the coupe's over potholes and road corrosion.
Performance-wise, the M Coupe has it all over the M Roadster. It feels more tightly screwed together with less noise, vibration and body flex. One editor said it is the closest thing he's ever driven to a street-legal go-kart in the sense that it responds instantly to even the smallest driver input and it feels as if it's been magically bonded to the road surface.
While the M Coupe is considered to be in competition with legendary sports cars like the Porsche 911, the performance of the car borders on mystical. It has all of the balance and poise of the 911 with none of the Porsche's rear-engined drawbacks. The M turns on a dime without the spooky oversteer administered by the 911, and its growling engine is delightful and can blow the doors off of damn near anything on the road.
One of our editors once said, "BMW doesn't try to compete in the market segment; they try to dominate it." In the case of the M cars, they will dominate it … unless Porsche comes up with something, like a U.S. version of their Boxster S, and fast.
If this was a comparison test and a winner had to be declared, the majority of our staff would choose the M Coupe for the number-one slot. This may have something to do with the fact that we drove the cars in November in Colorado (a strike against open-air cruising), but it also has to do with the coupe's stiffer handling, usable cargo space, lack of blind spots and superior sound system. One editor dubbed the M Coupe a "mini-Viper" because of its single-minded purpose in life: to offer high-performance driving.
However, our 6-foot-5-inch tall driver contends that he would buy the roadster over the coupe due to the cramped legroom in the M Coupe's cabin. M Coupe seats did not travel back as far as the seats in the M Roadster because the built-in speakers were taking up room behind both seats. This forced him to tilt the seat up into a less comfortable driving position. With the top down in the M Roadster and no speakers behind the seats, he doesn't have to fold himself into a ball to fit inside the car. If he were to buy a sports coupe, the Corvette Coupe would suit his height requirements just fine. And, though I prefer the driving experience of BMW's coupe over the roadster, if I were to lay out in excess of $40,000 on a luxury item (perhaps in another lifetime), I'd have to choose the M Roadster for the wind-in-your-hair euphoria that can be achieved only in a convertible.
True sporting enthusiasts will probably agree with most of our staff and hail BMW's M Coupe as one of the best sports cars on the road. Just take a test drive on a bright, sunny day and watch that grip on your wallet melt away.
Not that it wouldn't have been fun, anyway. We knew how much fun these cars were the second we hit their accelerators for the first time and catapulted forward with what felt like the power of a rocket. With stunning thrust and a potent revving capability, the cars wowed us with their vibrant performance and dreamy handling. The gear shifter feels tight, the torque band is wide and the brakes are confidence-inspiring with a progressive feel to the pedal. Rack-and-pinion steering is razor sharp and responds more crisply than the steering of the Chevrolet Corvette or the Acura NSX, and the BMW's steering wheel is perfectly sized.
The M Roadster debuted last year as a fine-tuned version of the BMW Z3 Roadster that was designed to compete with sports cars like the Porsche Boxster. This year, BMW unleashed its newest weapon, the M Coupe, as another competitor with more structural rigidity, thanks to a fixed roof, that results in better seat-of-the-pants performance. Built on the chassis that debuted on the Z3 Roadster and powered by the engines found in the M3 cars, both the M Roadster and M Coupe share a mechanical platform and front-end sheetmetal. Horsepower has been raised to 240 from the 189-pony output offered by the Z3 2.8.
Both M cars come with a standard 3.2-liter, DOHC six-cylinder engine that spouts 240 horsepower @ 6,000 rpm and makes 236 foot-pounds of torque, peaking @ 3,800 rpm. The engines are nestled into the front ends of the cars and utilize rear-wheel drive with a limited slip differential, which helps to achieve stable cornering. BMW's ZF type C five-speed manual transmission with direct fifth gear shifts into the right place like magic and makes for a perfect engine/transmission combination.
Before we get into driving specifics, though, let's talk looks. BMW caused quite a stir with the controversial styling of its new M Coupe. Daring to be different and hoping to generate emotional responses, BMW launched its M Coupe this year with a completely new shape from the A-pillars back. The roof blends into the top of a rear hatch with spoiler, a third brake light and new taillights. With chrome-trimmed gills, four exhaust tips, and a huge rear-end that arches and swells out to house nine-inch wide rear wheels, the M Coupe has achieved a modern, beefy look, especially when considering its flanks.
The M Coupe's bold styling has car people talking-heatedly-and the Edmund's editors are no exception. There were some that loved the car's design at first glance, and others who were immediately impressed by BMW's audacity, if not by the vehicle's styling itself. Then there were the naysayers, who took a gander at the car's distinctive yet wagon-like lines and claimed that it looked like a tennis shoe. It didn't take more than a few minutes behind the wheel of the coupe, however, for the vehicle to grow on them-styling and all. By the end of our time with the funky-looking car, almost everyone was singing its praises and the design skeptics in our midst were sheepishly admitting that the styling was unique and pretty darned attractive.
Managing Editor Grant Whitmore said, "I hated the way this car looked when I first saw it, but after driving it for a few days, I thought it looked quite daring and dashing." Editor Karl Brauer had a similar change of heart, stating, "I found the exterior to be less troubling as I spent more time with the car." Still, Senior Features Editor Greg Anderson maintains that the car looks like a cross between a Honda Civic Hatchback, a VW New Beetle and a Toyota Land Cruiser. "Sure it grows on you," he quipped sarcastically, "Like a wart." And the debate rages on…
Garnering more attention than the M Roadster due to its garish styling, our M Coupe looked like a silver bullet as it skimmed along the road. Designers at BMW's high-performance M division in Garching, Germany, obviously didn't want anyone who might be driving or admiring the coupe to mistake it for anything but an M car, so they plastered the rainbow-shaded telltale "M" all over it. We counted a total of 14 M's on the vehicle-one on each wheel, one on each floor mat, one on each side of the hood behind the gills, one on each door sill, one on the rear hatch, one on the steering wheel, one on the shifter knob and one on the instrument panel. They must have been trying to spell Mmmmmmmmmmmmmm! It is a tasty little coupe, after all.
Just as tasty, however, is the M Roadster, with its more conservative, yet swoopy, styling. Open-air travel is always a pleasure, but few convertibles are as entertaining as the BMW M Roadster on a twisty two-lane or a flat stretch of deserted highway. A combination of refinement and performance, the roadster engine feels smooth, silky and strung. And, as Editor-in-Chief Chris Wardlaw found out, styling is sumptuous enough to make a car-full of women scream and chase you, as if you were a celebrity.
Inside the cars' capsules is seating for two in comfortable, sporty, two-toned leather bucket seats with integrated headrests. Instrument gauges on the dash and center console are ringed in classy chrome and there are enough of them to tell you what the car is doing or thinking at any given moment.
The cockpit of the coupe feels cozy and intimate, due to its close but comfortable quarters and quiet sound level. Wind and road noises are well-damped, though at speeds above 70 mph, the wind does whistle a bit, especially around the A-pillar. Build quality on our test cars wasn't perfect, either. On the M Coupe, we found that the driver's side rubber door seal was coming off and the rear hatch was misaligned. And the plastic used on both cars' center consoles felt cheap and hard.
Visibility is adequate in the M Coupe, despite the wide C-pillars, and it is much improved over the roadster with the top up. Changing lanes to the left in the covered roadster is like playing Russian roulette, due to the major blind spot created by the roll bars, the tiny side mirrors and the softtop. The coupe's rear window is outfitted with a window wiper to encourage driving in nasty weather, but one editor found that the wipers had a tendency to streak.
Width and length are identical on the two cars, at 68.5 and 158.5 inches, respectively, but the M Coupe's roofline is almost a full inch higher. The coupe offers a decent amount of cargo space in its rear hatch-14 cubic feet total. We know that there is at least enough room for a few duffel bags, two sets of golf clubs or for two small women and a dachshund, if you happen to encounter an unplanned seating crisis. Interestingly, the same space is less usable in the M Roadster, which offers a tiny trunk that barely holds the boot cover.
The roadster's cabin is comparable to that of the coupe, with the same dashboard setup and two-toned leather seats. Instead of the M Coupe's cargo area, you'll find two huge roll bars behind the roadster's two seats, as well as a mesh wind net that significantly quells wind buffeting. Our M Roadster test car was painted bright blue with a matching blue softtop that was easy to raise and lower, thanks to the electric controls. The only labor you have to endure is latching the front of the roof into place when closing the top or snapping the storage cover into place after lowering it. We would've liked the softtop to come with a rear glass window instead of a plastic one, but you have to spring for the roadster's optional hardtop to get that.
Controls inside the cars are driver-centered and precise. The climate and radio buttons are well-marked and easy to operate, though the gauge markings are difficult to decipher. The cruise control stalk is hidden behind the steering wheel spokes, but is intuitive and easy to operate. However, it is impossible to tell which setting controls the driver's side mirror until you test it out.
The coupe's Harman Kardon sound system is superior to the roadster's because it has a subwoofer and nine speakers, some of which are mounted high in the rear compartment for improved acoustics. The bass coming through the roadster's sound system was still a bit muffed. Speed-compensated volume kicks in when the vehicle senses a substantial increase in speed.
Both cars come with two small, basic cupholders, which are deemed unnecessary by most of our staff and considered an affront to true driving enthusiasts. "No one should be consuming a beverage in a sports car, anyway," says our editor-in-chief, but those cupholders would come in handy if this vehicle were one's sole means of transportation. Even so, they are in a hard-to-reach location, nestled far back between the two seats.
For safety, side airbags and seat-belt pretensioners come standard. Both 1999 M models come with standard traction control that can be turned off by drivers who want to up the ante in terms of fun and/or danger. Our 1998 test roadster, however, did not offer traction control. The only options for 1999 available on the coupe are an in-dash CD player and power tilt moonroof while roadster connoisseurs can choose between an optional CD radio and a hardtop roof.
We tested the two vehicles on a loop that incorporated highway, city and mountain road driving to test all-around performance, and came away breathless, but with copious notes outlining the similarities and differences exhibited by BMW's swanky M cars.
Compared to some of my lead-foot-laden, life insurance-carrying colleagues, my reputation is that of one of the more conservative drivers in our group. Even so, the raw power of the M Roadster's engine coupled with rear-wheel drive on loose gravel propelled me into a hair-raising spin-out about halfway through our test loop. Without traction control on our test roadster, there were some slippery, breath-holding moments on icy turns along steep, mountain cliffs. I wasn't all that worried, though, since I had full confidence in the convertible's ability to stop on a dime-even an icy one. This is due to the ventilated disc brakes, which measure 12.4 inches in front and 12.3 inches in back and are accompanied by a quick-responding vacuum booster and an antilock braking system. The instant brake response can feel a bit touchy until you've become acclimated to the brake pedal, but when you need to stop in a hurry, it won't let you down.
Riding on two Dunlop SP Sport 8080E 225/45ZR17 front tires and two 245/40ZR17 rear tires, both roadster and coupe stick to the ground like Velcro. BMW's new Asymmetric Hump / Safe Stop concept, which uses a ridge around the wheel's tire-mounting surface, keeps the tire on the wheel in the event of a flat. In lieu of maximum trunk and cargo space, neither car is equipped with a spare tire; instead, a container of fast-acting sealer and a micro-compressor with tubing is on board.
With the 3.2-liter, 24-valve inline six-cylinder engine that is shared with BMW's M Roadster and M3 cars, the M Coupe can go from zero to 60 in 5.2 seconds, according to BMW. We have no reason to doubt the validity of this number, especially when, on howling takeoffs, our bodies are thrust into the driver's seat with so much authority that one suspects the car could drive itself. U.S. cars receive a 137-mph speed limiter, but our friends across the pond are able to drive their M cars at speeds up to 155 mph.
Reaching 60 mph from zero in 5.3 seconds, the M Roadster blows away competition like the Porsche Boxster and Mercedes-Benz SLK in straight-line acceleration. The roadster's closest competitor, the Boxster, makes 201 horsepower @ 6,000 rpm and 181 foot-pounds of torque @ 4,500 rpm. Priced within two thousand dollars of each other, the Boxster and M Roadster are true rivals. We'd choose the BMW roadster for a drag race due to its impressive acceleration, but we prefer the Porsche's handling in the twisties. Because the Boxster's engine is placed in the center of the car, it feels better-balanced in curves and, like the BMW M Coupe, is perfectly distributed over each axle.
Another contender, the Chevrolet Corvette, is priced competitively with a base MSRP of $38,777 (including destination charge). But the Corvette is powered by a mammoth 5.7-liter V8 engine making 345 horsepower and 350 foot-pounds of torque. With that kind of power, it's no wonder the 'Vette reaches 60 mph ahead of the BMW M cars.
Ride and handling are superb. While the M Roadster's frame was stiffened up a bit from that of its Z3 predecessor, the M Coupe-with its hardtop roof-offers the stiffest BMW platform to date, according to BMW engineers. In fact, it is a full 2.6 times stiffer than its roadster sibling and its wheelbase is half an inch longer.
Stellar performance comes by way of the immense structural rigidity of the coupe, which is a result of the close-coupled fixed-roof body. The M Coupe's suspension is similar to the roadster's, with struts and arc-shaped lower arms in the front and semi-trailing arms in the rear, but the coupe boasts stiffer springs and a larger anti-roll bar. The link from the MacPherson struts to the anti-roll bars is lighter than that found in the Z3, though just as strong. And with the coupe's perfectly balanced 50/50-percent weight distribution, its body feels solid-even around the sharpest corners.
Before installing the Z3's suspension in the M Roadster, it received a tuning that included lowering the ride height, firming up the shock absorbers and re-sizing the front and rear stabilizer bars. The front suspension was taken from the larger M3 models, with strengthened spring pads. Throughout our test loop, the M Roadster's suspension worked blissfully, filtering harshness without numbing communication. Though the current model's overall ride is still excellent, the roadster's body tends to shimmy more than the coupe's over potholes and road corrosion.
Performance-wise, the M Coupe has it all over the M Roadster. It feels more tightly screwed together with less noise, vibration and body flex. One editor said it is the closest thing he's ever driven to a street-legal go-kart in the sense that it responds instantly to even the smallest driver input and it feels as if it's been magically bonded to the road surface.
While the M Coupe is considered to be in competition with legendary sports cars like the Porsche 911, the performance of the car borders on mystical. It has all of the balance and poise of the 911 with none of the Porsche's rear-engined drawbacks. The M turns on a dime without the spooky oversteer administered by the 911, and its growling engine is delightful and can blow the doors off of damn near anything on the road.
One of our editors once said, "BMW doesn't try to compete in the market segment; they try to dominate it." In the case of the M cars, they will dominate it … unless Porsche comes up with something, like a U.S. version of their Boxster S, and fast.
If this was a comparison test and a winner had to be declared, the majority of our staff would choose the M Coupe for the number-one slot. This may have something to do with the fact that we drove the cars in November in Colorado (a strike against open-air cruising), but it also has to do with the coupe's stiffer handling, usable cargo space, lack of blind spots and superior sound system. One editor dubbed the M Coupe a "mini-Viper" because of its single-minded purpose in life: to offer high-performance driving.
However, our 6-foot-5-inch tall driver contends that he would buy the roadster over the coupe due to the cramped legroom in the M Coupe's cabin. M Coupe seats did not travel back as far as the seats in the M Roadster because the built-in speakers were taking up room behind both seats. This forced him to tilt the seat up into a less comfortable driving position. With the top down in the M Roadster and no speakers behind the seats, he doesn't have to fold himself into a ball to fit inside the car. If he were to buy a sports coupe, the Corvette Coupe would suit his height requirements just fine. And, though I prefer the driving experience of BMW's coupe over the roadster, if I were to lay out in excess of $40,000 on a luxury item (perhaps in another lifetime), I'd have to choose the M Roadster for the wind-in-your-hair euphoria that can be achieved only in a convertible.
True sporting enthusiasts will probably agree with most of our staff and hail BMW's M Coupe as one of the best sports cars on the road. Just take a test drive on a bright, sunny day and watch that grip on your wallet melt away.
Add A Comment »