Best BMW M cars – the ultimate driving machines
M is one of the fastest letters in the motoring alphabet. We pick our favourites from over 50 years of BMW M icons
M is one of the most revered letters in the performance car alphabet. Once upon a time, all of the products BMW applied it to were at its cutting edge; the very best performance cars that a company that once called itself the proprietor of ‘the ultimate driving machine’ could muster.
Even though it’s been around for more than five decades, it is within evo’s history that BMW M seems to have reached its zenith most frequently. BMW M and evo are inexorably linked, so picking a selection of the very best M cars is for us like picking between some of your oldest friends. But looking at the selection below, there can be no doubt these are some of BMW M’s most objectively excellent creations – plus some of their flawed yet still richly lovable models, and intense moments of genius.
Best BMW M cars
- 2007 BMW M3 (E9X)
- 2020 BMW M2 CS (F87)
- 2021 BMW M5 CS (F90)
- 2016 BMW M4 GTS (F82)
- 2010 BMW M3 GTS (E92)
- 2001 BMW M3
- 2003 MMW M3 CSL (E46)
- 2025 BMW M3 CS Touring (G80)
- 2005 BMW M6 (E63)
- 1998 BMW M5 (E39)
- 1978 BMW M1
- 2011 BMW 1M (E82)
- 1990 BMW M3 Evolution (E30)
- 2011 BMW M5 (F10)
- 2006 BMW Z4 M Coupe
2007 BMW M3 (E90)
- evo rating: 5 stars
It’s difficult to pin down exactly what a BMW M3 is, based purely on its history. Over the years it’s taken the form of coupes, saloons, convertibles and estates, and has been powered by four-, six-, and eight-cylinder engines. The E9X M3, in coupe and saloon form, is one of our favourite combinations, worthy of the full five stars: a sharp-looking four-door (a coupe, dubbed the E92, was also available) with a 414bhp V8 at its disposal and a rev limiter that doesn’t cut in until a VTEC-like 8400rpm.
The noise it emits is, as things should be, mostly intake roar, but the power it delivers to the rear axle is easy to meter out. It’s engaging and well-balanced both above and below the limit. The V8 and smart cabin also make it a composed long-distance cruiser.
2020 BMW M2 CS (F87)
- evo rating: 5 stars
With such a rich history of great driver’s cars it comes as a surprise that it took until 2020 for an M car to claim victory in evo Car of the Year. But what a victory it was. Scoring ahead of the 992-generation Porsche 911 Turbo S, Lamborghini Huracán Evo RWD, Ferrari F8 Tributo and McLaren 765LT, BMW M’s battle-hardened finely honed baby punched upwards past exotica twice or even thrice its price, to claim the top step.
With the excellent S55 engine already in the M2 Competition, it was bumped to M3 Competition spec for 444bhp. That could have made the BMW M2 CS an unruly hot rod but it didn’t, for the supporting dynamic addenda the CS was shod with made it an all-rounder for the ages. Adaptive damping, a revised active M differential, tweaked suspension geometry and the option of ceramic brakes combined to enhance an already talented package.
2021 BMW M5 CS (F90)
- evo rating: 5 stars
If the M2’s was a steady rise to exceptionality in the M2 CS, the BMW M5 CS came totally out of the blue. The F90 BMW M5 Competition was a car with ballistic capability if not one shot through with granular interactivity. In spite of its close relation, it only takes ten feet in the M5 CS for the insistent suspicion to creep in that the two are totally unrelated. How it managed to beat the Lamborghini Hurácan STO and Ferrari SF90 Stradale in eCoty 2021 becomes crystal clear.
The way the steering fizzes in your hands, the way the body glides across even the most belligerent of British road surfaces at ever increasing speeds, the almost immediate attunement with the chassis and the viscerality of the twin-turbo V8 – you can’t help but wonder, how on Earth they came up with this? But they did. Indeed the parts bin that comprises the M5 CS feels like it shouldn’t add up to what it does, exceptional and serious though it is. It’s lower, with revised adaptive dampers and stiffer springs and tighter bushings. The 4.4-litre twin-turbo V8 is bumped to 626bhp too but the numbers don’t tell the story – it’s the urgency of the V8 that enthrals, bringing to life a platform as rich in talent as any we’ve experienced in recent years.
2016 BMW M4 GTS (F82)
- evo rating: 5 stars
The BMW M4 GTS split opinions like few cars before it during eCoty 2016. Some absolutely revelled in its enthralling intensity, some found it uncouth, brash even, in its jagged-edged execution. It’s all M can be, good or bad; the highs and the lows in one. On the right road, in the right conditions, the M4 GTS absorbs you – its 493bhp water-injected S55 twin-turbo straight-six and track-honed adjustable KW-suspended chassis contorting with a road like raw carbon composite to a mould.
On the wrong road, in the wrong conditions, you despair. But so addictive are the highs, representative as they are of the M experience in its purest form, it’s easy to fall under its spell. The GTS found vindication on a back to back test in the Pyrenees.
2010 BMW M3 GTS (E92)
The ‘old car’ referenced above, is the BMW M3 GTS that the M4 GTS was up against on that mountain drive. Like the M4, the M3 GTS found itself suffering from scrutiny when new, with questions about its authenticity, its price position and exactly what it offered in exchange for the increased money. But hindsight is 20:20. Little did we know at the time, the M3 GTS was the last of many breeds; of those truly exceptional E-coded M cars, of the voluminous, layered naturally-aspirated engines. It’s arguably the sum total of all M had achieved in the decade previous – which started with the E39 M5 and E46 M3 – into one car, triple-distilled, glazed in Fire Orange paint, stroked out to 4.4 litres for 444bhp, caged and shod with Pirelli P Zero Corsa rubber. If the cage and wing are a bit much but the bigger lungs and chassis appeal, there’s the four-door M3 CRT too.
BMW M3 (E46)
- evo rating: 5 stars
The E46 M3 was effectively a refinement of the formula applied to the previous E36 generation M3, but what a refinement it was. The E46’s blistered arches gave the two-door E46 body real attitude but the changes under the skin are what made it a five-star sports car – the centrepiece being a 338bhp, 8000rpm version of BMW’s straight six, now designated S54.
Development included 80,000 miles at the Nurburgring, but this was an M-car that worked brilliantly on normal roads, with a characterful and tack-sharp engine, and finely-balanced handling that, while grippy, doesn’t steamroller itself down the road. It might still be the best standard M3 ever.
2003 BMW M3 CSL (E46)
- evo rating: 5 stars
The E46 M3 above perhaps typifies what most miss about M, combining deft engineering and a truly exotic powertrain with understated, handsome aesthetics. It was a car that had very little to prove visually, that did all its talking when you got behind the wheel. Then the CSL version compounded that winning formula, upping the intensity and inherent brilliance of the regular car two-fold. Like the GTS variants though, it’s a car that’s matured into its finest form over time with its SMG gearbox especially, as divisive now as it was then.
The 3.2-litre S54 straight-six engine was a masterpiece in its standard guise, but the carbon airbox of the 338bhp CSL only brought further to the fore its true democratised exotic character: that of an engine that’s near as makes no difference, a McLaren F1’s V12 shorn at the crank. Any car with that engine could get by as being a one-trick pony but such is the joy of M at its best, that in the E46 M3 CSL it found a chassis that drivers of all talents could relish in between bouts of clapping open those six sonorous throttle bodies.
BMW M3 CS Touring
- evo rating: 5 stars
The 503bhp BMW M3 Touring represented a return to that arena; a proper M car that you could (in theory) fit into family home life. It’s everything we hoped it would be without perhaps the last-tenth intensity of an M5 CS but a level of maturity and competence that marks a high point for this generation of M3. It should come as a welcome surprise that the M3 CS Touring retained those qualities, while upping the aggression to become the best CS we’ve seen since the eCoty-winning M5, new M2 CS included.
It might be (switchable) all-wheel-drive, and it might be a little chunky but between the tuning of the xDrive system and chassis, it’s an almighty achievement. The standard car is a little rowdy ride-wise, so Cup 2s, carbon seats and a full 543bhp punch give an intensity that better matches that more ragged edge. A do-it-all performance car, and a proper M car.
2005 BMW M6 (E63)
Opinion is mixed on these infamous V10 M cars. Were those glorious, heady multi-cylinder engines a bit brittle and a bit breathless in their unsuitability for a big heavy saloon or coupe? Quite possibly. But there’s a glorious absurdity to BMW M’s hubris at the time installing such exotic, operatic engines in its M5 and M6. These cars really were an unrepeatable moment in time.
Forgotten though it is by comparison to the M5, the M6 coupe is a sweet spot that’s stuck in the minds of long-standing members of the evo team. It’s a big GT car quite outside the mould of what we’d become used to from M at the time and as such, doesn’t have anything like the focus of some of the cars on this list. Yet still it’s good enough for facets other than that 5-litre, 507bhp V10 to shine.
1998 BMW M5 (E39)
Many will argue the E39 BMW M5 has a claim to the title of the greatest BMW M car of all time. Certainly its recipe is something of a Goldilocks zone: 394bhp courtesy of a 5-litre naturally-aspirated V8, propelling 1795kg via a six-speed manual gearbox, all contained within relatively compact proportions – 1801mm at its widest and 4783mm at its longest. It’s also one of the most handsome M cars, with the chiselled good looks of the E39 5-series only enhanced by a lower, deeper chin inlet at the front and those iconic quad pipes at the back.
But as ever with M, the execution expands on the raw ingredients. It’s just one of the best-balanced, most satisfying performance saloons out there. As intense a rocketship as the M5 CS of two decades later? Not even slightly. The beauty of it is more subtle than that; the way it carries itself is as flowing and natural as its looks, and unlikely to be repeated in this day and age.
1978 BMW M1
evo rating: 5 stars
Genesis. That’s what the M1 was for BMW M even though it resembles in no way any M car that’s come since. But the ethos is there. Motorsport levels of engineering, a singing six-cylinder individual-throttle-bodied engine to stir the soul, combined with unlikely tactility and usability. Given it’s counted among the ranks of 1970s and ’80s supercars, the BMW M1 is a surprisingly usable car. It’s such a shame M has yet to channel its spirit with a successor. Hold back the chunks, the only other car bespoke to M of which there isn’t a version in ‘lower’ specs, is the XM. It’s remarkable how varied the BMW M copybook really is…
Just 453 M1s were made with most gilding private collections these days rather than gracing mountain roads. It’s the most inaccessible M car but it’s where it all began.
2011 BMW 1M (E82)
- evo rating: 5 stars
Swap the number and letter around of the original M car and you get the BMW 1M, a car with appropriate skunkworks energy and a pugnacious attitude quite unlike anything we’d seen from BMW M up to this point. That’s because boiling beneath its bulging bonnet, unlike any M car that had come before it, were turbochargers. While the 335bhp was potent, it was the 369lb ft of torque, from 1500-4500rpm, that filled the M3 rear-axle with mid-rev range rotational force in a way the bigger, revvier V8 car never did.
The boosted M cars that followed obviously made turbocharging the norm but the 1M was the opening gambit for this new era. And to think it was never supposed to happen. The car was a result of after-hours work from a selection of dedicated engineers. It’s a miracle then that it turned out to be such a fun little thing. We voted the 1M as one of the most significant cars to evo of the last 25 years.
1990 BMW M3 Evolution II (E30)
- evo rating: 5 stars
The motorsport throughline for M has grown evermore tenuous over the years, but go back almost to the beginning and you’ll find the E30 M3, a road car that only existed to permit its racing equivalent to compete. After all M has done over the years, the spec sheet of the original M3 is slightly out of sorts: a gruff, angry four-cylinder, good for just 212bhp even in Evolution II spec, and tacked-on bodywork – look closely at the boot lid and back window of an E30 M3 by comparison to an E30 328 and you’ll never look at the M3 the same way again.
But to this day, it has an alacrity, a driver focus and a lightness to it at speed that utterly betrays its slightly aged feel when not pressing on. On the right road, in the right moment, it comes alive – something we’ve come to establish over the course of this list, that is a distinctly M car trait.
2011 BMW M5 (F10)
- evo rating: 5 stars
2011’s F10 BMW M5 returned the M5 to top form, doing so by returning to the well-trodden formula of being rampantly quick but also packing a chassis that dealt out ability and comfort in equal measure – even if it wasn’t as intense, or as much of a pleasure to listen to as its V10 predecessor.
The new 4.4-litre twin-turbo V8 still had the legs though, a seven-speed dual-clutch gearbox helping it from 0-62mph in a scant 4.3 seconds, and up to 190mph if you ticked the M Driver’s Package box. Competition and 30 Jahre models were even juicier, but as a mark of the standard car’s talents, we preferred it to its F90 M5 successor, until the CS came along.
BMW Z4 M Coupe
- evo rating: 5 stars
We’ve had a difficult relationship with BMW’s Z4 M over the years. The recipe is mouthwatering: the hopped-up, rasping S54 from the M3 CSL, a manual gearbox, and a long bonnetted, backside on the rear axle form factor like a shrunken Dodge Viper GTS. Flaws were present in the reality however. The ride was unnecessarily harsh and the rear axle at times difficult to trust.
The quality of the manual shift wasn’t what you’d hope for in what should be a thoroughbred sports car. These flaws are still present some 20 years on from its introduction but as ever, time and hindsight heal. You learn to appreciate what we no longer have in current models – that glorious engine, a compact presence, a manual gearbox, however flawed. For all it could do better, the Z4 is an easy car to love.
