MAXIMUM ATTACK

The M3 brought Motorsport pedigree to the masses, but for some that wasn't enough; these limited editions were BMWs turned up to 11

- AARON MCKAY

Homologation specials aren't cheap. For BMW in the early 1980s – then still relatively small compared to its key rivals – motorsport was a painfully expensive, if essential, exercise. The well-heeled enthusiast looking at a £16,685 BMW 325i Sport in 1987 might well have felt a similar sort of pain with the appearance of a £22,750 four-cylinder M3.

The arrival of the £34,500 M3 Sport Evo just two years later, still only available in left-hand drive, could have been a final, insulting blow. Yet the E30 M3's brilliantly successful circuit-racing career established not only a lasting motorsport legacy, but a commercial appeal so strong that it made the price worth paying. The M3 was motoring magic for an audience bored with supercars, offering superlative performance in a package that, rather than being seen as a costly version of a run-of-the-mill saloon car, was a practical, giant-slaying slice of racing pedigree.

The first stirrings within BMW's fledgling Motorsport department for a Class Aracer based on the new E30 3 Series had been generated in 1981, but put on the backburner behind the M1 and Formula One engine projects. Eventually, the small team found the time and, in 1985, the M3 was displayed at the Frankfurt motor show. It made its debut at the inaugural World Touring Car Championship in the Italian round at Monza in 1987, just as it went on sale in the UK (a year after it hit showrooms in its home nation).