The exhaust note is what you might expect from a 3.2-liter, 333-hp inline-6. Inline-6s are known for their sweet sound. On a racing car, sometimes the sound can be spine-tingling (Jaguar), and sometimes it can be ear-blasting (Chevy TrailBlazer Baja truck). Inline-6s are not throaty nor beefy like a V8 (BMW M5). The M3 has a muted exhaust note, almost raspy. Like the rest of the car, it doesn't attract attention (not even your own) unless you're accelerating to 8000 rpm. Seventy miles per hour in sixth gear is a mere 2650 rpm, but there's enough torque that if you floor it without downshifting (not that you would, this is just a test), you'll take off. If you're on a two-lane in a series of third-gear turns, with no gear changing, the engine responds like the world's most exotic and satisfying rheostat.

And then there's the Sport mode. Not to be confused with a transmission sport mode, it's described as Engine Dynamics Control by the manual, which adds that Sport mode will cause the engine to "respond more spontaneously to the motion of accelerator pedal." Oh really? We think maybe "spontaneous" is not the word BMW was searching for, here. Sport mode does indeed gas the car on its own, however. Not a lot, but if you're driving along at a steady speed and click the button on the instrument panel, the car will shoot ahead a bit as if a tiny afterburner had been lit. After that, the throttle response will be more aggressive. We like it. It's very practical, very functional. Simply, there are times when you don't want aggressive throttle response, times when you do.

The shifting linkage doesn't offer as short a throw as it might, but shifting is quite positive; the clutch action is especially and admirably smooth. It's easy to accidentally slip the gearbox into reverse if you're going from third gear to first, like when you come up to a red light that changes to green just after you stop. If you want racier shifting, go for the optional sequential manual gearbox. It's the future.

Like the M5, the ride is amazing. No other carmaker that we can think of can design suspensions that corner like a racecar yet ride so comfortably, and the M sport suspension is specific to the M3. Definitely, it's firm; but we suspect it's a lot firmer than your butt thinks it is. If you know why you bought an M3, that firmness will be well worth the price of an occasional jab to the butt. Considering the handling you get for it, it's a steal.
At higher speeds you can feel the jabs, but not much, and they never move the car off its track. The M3 erases the bigger bumps at higher speeds better than it does the sharp ones at low speeds, however. There's one particular manhole cover near our house that we learned to brace ourselves for, when that left front wheel hit it at 25 mph. If ride quality is important to you, then you may find plenty of performance from the BMW 330i models.

The huge ventilated disc brakes are killer, no surprise there. As we recall, only the M5 has brakes like this. On wet surfaces, the ABS is fantastic. Braking ability is generally measured from 70 mph to stop, but with a car like this, a more significant measure might be 100 mph to 30, an area where the M3 inspires total confidence.

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Notice: "The laws of physics can not be repealed even with DSC. We therefore urge you to avoid using the additional safety margin of the system as an excuse for taking risks." So says the M3 manual. DSC stands for Dynamic Stability Control. Such systems, which control the car by varying the throttle, spark or brakes, or all three, when wheel slip occurs, are common on sophisticated cars now. But they're all different. Like ABS, some systems work better than others. And the M3's is specific to the car. A system's invisibility, whether it intrudes on the driving experience in undesirable ways, is one measure for determining what's better.
The unfortunate, if understandable, thing is that they're so complicated that even the manufacturers' public relations people don't know the details of how they work, and even the engineers (who didn't design the system) are sometimes stumped. Wheel speed, steering angle, lateral acceleration, brake pressure and vehicle movement around the car's vertical axis are evaluated by the sensors, and intervention comes in milliseconds. What type of intervention, when, and why is the complicated part. Automotive journalists are left with explaining how the car feels, not what it's doing, let alone why. Which is probably enough.

So we can tell you this: On our favorite secret backwoods road, where we defied the manual by attempting to defy the laws of physics, the DSC put us in our place every time, and with relatively little intrusion. Those last three words are the key. Meaning, not merely that we were unable to spin the car out at the rear end or slide it off the road at the front end, but that when we abused the throttle, even on a wet surface, we got traction without the throttle being totally shut down on us. It's one of the most advanced electronic stability programs out there, if not the most advanced system.

For example, we think the brakes were applied to gain traction, without the throttle being cut. Racing drivers do this all the time, dab the brakes with the left foot while the throttle is floored with the right. On our wet backwoods road, we saw the DSC light flash on the dash a lot, without the throttle or spark being cut, at least not that we could feel. The DSC works with the M Variable Differential Lock traction control, and the answer to this invisibility lies in the teamwork.
By the way, you can turn the DSC off. We did that too, though only for one drag-race launch on dry pavement. The M3 will burn rubber just like the old days, spinning the tires all the way up to redline in first gear. Cool. A German magazine turned the DSC off too, for skidpad testing, and the M3 achieved a higher level of grip than the Porsche 911.

In summary, it's hard not to be smooth with the M3, given its high-speed stability, its throttle response, its clutch and shifting action, its brakes, and its precise but not too quick turn-in. The problem may be that it's too good. You have to drive it very fast to fully appreciate it, and that mostly leaves a large longing in your heart, a longing for a closed-off road or a racetrack.