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
If you’re a car person, M is one of the most significant letters in the alphabet. Once upon a time, all of the products so-badged were the best BMW could muster – the ultimate expression of ‘the ultimate driving machine.’
Even though it’s been around for over five decades, it is within evo’s history that BMW M seems to have touched 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 BMW M’s richest, most intense moments of genius. It is to these ranks that we hope the new BMW M2 CS will deserve to be added and in which the new BMW M5, talented and technically impressive though it is, doesn’t quite fit – the very best BMW M cars.
Even though it’s been around for over five decades, it is within evo’s history that BMW M seems to have touched 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 BMW M’s richest, most intense moments of genius. It is to these ranks that BMW surely hopes the new hybridised BMW M5 and BMW M5 Touring will one day belong – the very best BMW M cars.
Best BMW M cars
- 2020 BMW M2 CS (F87)
- 2021 BMW M5 CS (F90)
- 2016 BMW M4 GTS (F82)
- 2010 BMW M3 GTS (E92)
- 2003 BMW M3 CSL (E46)
- 2025 BMW M3 Competition Touring (G80)
- 2005 BMW M6 (E63)
- 1998 BMW M5 (E39)
- 1978 BMW M1
- 2011 BMW 1M (E82)
- 1990 BMW M3 Evolution (E30)
2020 BMW M2 CS (F87)
With such a rich history of incredible driving machines, it comes as a surprise then 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, even thrice, its price, to claim the top step.
With the excellent S55 engine already in the arsenal of the M2 Competition, it was bumped to M3 Competition spec for 444bhp, which could have made the BMW M2 CS an unruly hot rod of a thing. It didn’t, for the supporting dynamic addenda the CS was shod with made for 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.It’s memories of this car that have us so excited for the new one though between its broader size, higher weight and being auto-only, it’ll surely be an altogether different proposition to the original.
‘The joy of the CS – unlike an F82 BMW M4 – is that it’s entirely on your side, its smaller dimensions and friendlier chassis balance making even third gear oversteer seem strangely natural, in the dry, at least.’ – Adam Towler, former evo deputy editor, who tested the M2 CS on road and track.
2021 BMW M5 CS (F90)
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, as what was previously the impossibility of how it managed to best 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 engine, 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 new 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 and rev-happy character of the V8 that enthrals, bringing to life a platform as rich in talent as any we’ve experienced in recent years. The way it hungers for gears and belches ever-increasing numbers onto the digital driver’s display, forcing its potency through the eight-speed automatic transmission and deftly-tuned xDrive system. It’s BMW M at its absolute best.
‘Quite simply the M5 CS is a bewitching, enthralling and captivating supersaloon. One of the very best there has been, and you can’t put a price on that.’ – Stuart Gallagher, evo editor-in-chief, who drove the M5 CS on evo Car of the Year and over the course of a long-term test.
2016 BMW M4 GTS (F82)
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. Perhaps then it encapsulates best within four wheels the intensity of M; the highs and the lows. 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.
‘I know the M4 GTS is a divisive beast but up here there’s no questioning the challenge it offers, or the rewards… Something of the purity of the old car with its hard-edged engine and delicate handling has been lost, but the brutally effective M4 GTS shows that the M division still understands.’ – Jethro Bovingdon, former evo contributor and columnist, who tested the M4 GTS on the road in the UK.
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.
‘There aren’t many significant cars that have slipped through my net in the last dozen or so years, but this car is one of them. The passage of so much time has only served to accentuate its brilliance. On the evidence of this encounter it deserves far greater recognition, for by any benchmark the M3 GTS is The Real Deal.’ – Richard Meaden, evo co-founder and editor-at-large, who tested the M3 GTS on the road in the UK.
2003 BMW M3 CSL (E46)
The E46 BMW M3 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 compounded that winning formula, upping the intensity and the inherent brilliance of the E46 M3 two-fold. Like the GTSs, 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.
‘There’s a real edge to the handsome CSL, an alluring grittiness that permeates almost every aspect, from the raw, gravelly voiced straight-six to the ride that sits, beautifully, just the right side of tough. The CSL brims with character and its six is properly potent too, with a thrilling top end. It’s a car I appreciate more now than then, and as the saying goes, quality is remembered long after the price is forgotten. The CSL is a thoroughly engineered and focused M-car, an M3 with all the fat taken out. If you can come to terms with the SMG gearbox and put up with the rumbly brakes, it’s damn near irresistible.’ – John Barker, evo co-founder and editor-at-large, who drove the M3 CSL on the road in the UK.
BMW M3 Competition Touring (G80)
Everything up to this point has been quite serious – cars with more of a track performance edge, than much deference to regular usability or comfort. But to fill a list of the best M cars with such cars would be to miss a big part of what they’ve always been good at: fast, fun, balanced but also accessible and in the case of some, ready for some of life’s more mundane challenges.
The 503bhp BMW M3 Touring represented a return to that arena; a proper M car that you could run a family home with. It’s everything we hoped it would be, without perhaps the last-tenth intensity of an M5 CS but happily, with that level of maturity and competence the M3 had to rediscover in this generation. It might have all-wheel-drive, it might be a little chunky but between the tuning of the xDrive system and chassis, it’s an almighty achievement. A little rowdy in terms of ride at low speeds it may be but it is at present the M car for all occasions. Needless to say, among all these, it’s the M car the new M5 Touring must be aspiring to best.
‘Overall the M3 Touring is deeply compelling and, controversial grille put to one side, deeply desirable. It��s a whole heap of money but I can’t think of anything else that marries practicality with scintillating dynamics so completely. It could be quieter and more refined. But that rather misses the point. The M3 Touring is, at its core, a BMW M3. I wouldn’t have it any other way.’ – Jethro Bovingdon, former evo contributor and columnist, who tested the M3 Touring on the road in the UK.
2005 BMW M6 (E63)
Opinion is mixed on these infamous V10 M cars. Were those glorious, heady multi-cylinder engines a bit brittle, 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 mills 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.
All the way back in evo 43, we said: ‘It’s a testament to the quality of the chassis that it emerges from the drivetrain’s shadow within just a few miles. The ride is superb for a car of such potential, but snap the throttle open, start throwing the M6 at some corners and the cruiser morphs into a responsive, nimble and involving sports car, the steering delivering a delicious flow of information.’
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.
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.
‘To put the E39 M5 into context we need to look back to eCoty 1999. Yes, the Porsche won, but in fourth place (out of 12) finished the M5. Beaten by the 360 Modena and Impreza RB5, but ahead of the mighty R34 GT-R. The supersaloon has got bigger, faster and more advanced, and become more complete, but I’m not convinced it’s got any better.’ – Antony Ingram, evo contributor, who drove the M5 on the road in the UK.
1978 BMW M1
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, tactility and usability. Given it’s counted among the ranks of 1970s and 1980s supercars, the BMW M1 is a surprisingly usable thing. 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 the collections of millionaires these days, rather than gracing mountain roads. It’s the most inaccessible M car but it’s where it all began. Ironically, most remember it as a one-make racer that fortified the timetable of a few F1 race weekends in 1979 and 1980.
‘It’s out on the open road that you really appreciate the M1’s talents. The M88 engine is an absolute jewel, and for a car that was designed with competition in mind, the M1 is remarkably tractable and compliant for pottering around town. That’s partly thanks to the suspension, and partly thanks to the generous tyre sidewalls. Be smooth and deliberate with your inputs though and the M1 still has a delectably balanced feel to it and it’s still capable of cutting a dash cross-country.’ – Bob Harper, evo contributor.
2011 BMW 1M (E82)
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 being 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 last year as one of the most significant cars to evo, of the last 25 years. In a way, it ensured a future for the M car as we know it.
‘Above all else, the 1M demonstrated to BMW’s board that while the future product plan of M-badged X-series cars would deliver huge profits, the demand for purebred M cars was as strong as ever (2700 examples were meant to be built; more than 6000 were eventually delivered). Without the 1M, the current crop of Competition and CS models would most likely be left in an engineer’s notebook of missed opportunities.’ – Stuart Gallagher, evo editor-in-chief, who drove the 1M on the road in the UK.
1990 BMW M3 Evolution II (E30)
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.
‘I spend more time with the M3, revving it right out to glean every last horsepower and uncover more of the racer’s edge. Yes, it would be more exciting with more power, but as with so many of the cars of this era it’s not about outright performance, it’s about carrying speed; composure; feeling connected. It’s a precision tool and totally absorbing. – Peter Tomalin, evo contributor, who drove the M3 on the road in the UK during our ‘80s Eras test.
