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M3 GTS sedan to debut at Ring 24h

GTS FOUR-DOOR: With its GTS-inspired front splitter and air-intake, this M3 sedan is not conservative with the M-division wild streak.
GTS FOUR-DOOR: With its GTS-inspired front splitter and air-intake, this M3 sedan is not conservative with the M-division wild streak.
BMW’s M3 sedan has never enjoyed the cachet of its larger M5 sibling, which is strange considering its more practical and offers all the M3 coupe’s performance benefits for a list price R64 000 cheaper.

The styling has always been a touch too close to the series production 3 Series sedan; succinctly: M3 four-door lacks visual drama.

M3 GTS?

In an attempt to address this issue M-division boss Kay Segler has revealed an M3 sedan derivative, based on the most powerful  road-going M3 yet – the limited edition GTS.

Due to be launched at the 2011 M Festival, which coincides with the Nürburgring 24 hour in June, this new M3 sedan will have a raft of styling upgrades including a blacked-out kidney grille, more pronounced bootlid spoiler and extended wheel arches.

Mechanical upgrades are still a matter of conjecture until the third weekend of June, when this go-faster M3 sedan is officially launched at the Ring.

Whether this pumped-up M3 sedan employs a detuned version of the 4.4-litre GTS specification 335kW V8 (unlikely) or a tweaked incarnation of BMW’s 309kW four-litre V8 (more likely), the peak power figure is expected to nestle somewhere in-between, at around 320kW.

Segler has promised that those hybrid CSL/GTS alloy rims are not the only weight-saving measure this new four-door M3 will debut. Expect the latest composite fabrication technologies from BMW’s partnership with SGL to find their way into various body panels. 

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