The BMW game-changer that monopolised the tin-top world

By:

Gary Watkins

Dec 1, 2020, 3:59 PM

The rival Ford RS500 was more spectacular and almost claimed its place as Autosport's greatest touring car. But the original BMW M3 E30 was too good and too important to be ignored, as its drivers explain

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A BMW 635CSi Group A car trundled slowly around Misano with a black flag fluttering above it. This symbolic act early in December 1986 brought down the curtain on the career of a successful machine that had triumphed in that year's European Touring Car Championship. The flag indicated that the German manufacturer now understood it had a new contender, and the results of the test at the Italian track confirmed that it could challenge for outright honours.

That car was the BMW M3, a machine that would go on to win all the big championships - World, European, German and British included - over the course of the six seasons of the front-line career that followed. Factor in multiple victories at the major tin-top enduros - the Spa and the Nurburgring 24-hour races - and it's easy to understand why Autosport has named it the greatest touring car.

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Gary Watkins

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Gary Watkins has, for reasons best known to himself, devoted all his working life to covering sportscar racing. This season is his 33rd as a motorsport journalist, during which time he has reported on major long-distance events on four continents and approaching 80 24-hour races. He reckons a degree in political philosophy makes him well qualified for covering the sometimes Machiavellian world of international sportscars.

Gary, who also writes for Motor Sport, Autocourse, RACER and others, lives in Surbiton close to the former workshops of the Cooper Formula 1 team but spends more time on the road than at home for most of the year.