BMW has finally revealed the first M3 Touring after countless spied prototypes and a storied teaser campaign.
We already knew the high-performance wagon was coming to Australia, but vehicle arrival and customer deliveries are set for the first quarter of 2023.
Local pricing and standard specification will be announced later this year.
The 2023 BMW M3 Competition Touring will make its global in-the-metal debut at the 2022 Goodwood Festival of Speed, which will run from June 23 to 26.
It’s worth noting this wagon body style marks the fourth body style the M3 and M4 vehicles are available in, with the M3 Touring exclusively offered in ramped-up Competition guise.
Under the bonnet of the M3 Touring is a 3.0-litre twin-turbocharged inline six-cylinder engine producing 375kW of power and 650Nm of torque.
This engine forms the basis of the one used in the BMW M4 GT3 racer, and is already used in both the M3 and M4 Competition models.
In the M3 Touring this engine is mated exclusively to an eight-speed M Steptronic automatic transmission with drive sent to all four wheels through a rear-biased M xDrive all-wheel drive system.
MORE: BMW M3 Touring, ‘no stone unturned’ honing hot wagon, says M engineer
There’s also an active M differential at the rear axle.
BMW claims the M3 Touring can do the 0-100km/h sprint in 3.6 seconds, with the 0-200km/h sprint taking 12.9 seconds.
Top speed is usually electronically limited to 250km/h, but with the optional M Driver’s Package the top speed is raised to 280km/h.
The M3 Touring just became the fastest production wagon around the Nurburgring as well, beating the Mercedes-AMG E63 S by 10 seconds.
BMW has given the M3 Touring adaptive M suspension with electronically-controlled shock absorbers and M Servotronic steering with variable ratio as standard.
There’s also a double-joint spring strut front axle and five-link rear axle with M-specific kinematics.
BMW says the integrated braking system has two different settings for brake pedal feel, with standard M Compound brakes or optional M carbon ceramic brakes available.
As standard, the BMW M3 Touring comes with 19-inch forged light-alloy wheels on the front and 20-inch units on the rear. Track tyres can be specified as an option.
The main benefit of the wagon body style is added boot space due to the longer roof.
With all three rear seats upright, the M3 Touring has a boot capacity of 500L, which can be expanded to 1510L with the rear seats lowered.
The rear bench also has a 40:20:40 split fold function as well.
Other functions centring around the rear of the M3 Touring are a powered tailgate and a separately-opening rear window.
There’s also storage compartment under the boot which can store the luggage compartment cover and boot partition net.
BMW says anti-slip rails that automatically raise from the boot floor to prevent items in the boot moving around will be available too.
The BMW M3 Touring comes as standard with the BMW Curved Display that combines a 12.3-inch digital instrument cluster and a 14.9-inch touchscreen infotainment system into one housing.
This setup was first used in the all-electric BMW iX and i4, but it’s populating throughout the BMW range.
It will run on the latest BMW OS 8 with an intelligent personal assistant, as well as Apple CarPlay and Android Auto connectivity.
Other notable interior features include three-zone climate control, ambient lighting, hi-fi sound system, as well as interior and exterior mirror packages.
On the steering wheel there are two M buttons that can programmed to store two different vehicle setups.
There is also an M Mode button on the centre console that can be used to adjust the responses of the driver assistance systems and content shown in the digital instrument cluster and head-up display.
The M3 Touring also comes with an M Drift analyser and a M Laptimer.
As standard the M3 Touring will come with Merino leather, electrically adjustable M Sports seats with heating and memory.
There’ll be optional M Carbon bucket front seats available that saves almost 10kg over the standard M Sport seats.
On the safety front, the M3 Touring comes with front autonomous emergency braking (AEB), lane departure warning, steering and lane control assist, adaptive cruise control with stop and go, traffic light detection, parking assist, and reversing assist.
As noted above, the BMW M3 Touring will arrive in Australia early in 2023 with full pricing and specification to be detailed closer to that date.
MORE: Everything BMW M3
