Following the reveal of its lightweight M4 CSL coupe, BMW executives have confirmed the upcoming M3 Touring will make its debut at the 2022 Goodwood Festival of Speed.
BMW confirmed this reveal date at a press event where executives once again partially showed off an uncamouflaged M3 Touring pre-production model.
We already knew that BMW was going to be reveal a new M car at 2022 Festival of Speed, but it wasn’t clear exactly what the car would be.
The BMW M3 Touring is already confirmed for the Australian market, although we don’t know when it’ll be arriving Down Under.
It’s reportedly set to be powered by a 3.0-litre twin-turbo inline six-cylinder engine producing 375kW of power and 650Nm of torque. This is the same engine as the higher-spec M3 Competition and M4 Competition.
The M3 Touring will come exclusively with an eight-speed automatic transmission and BMW’s xDrive all-wheel drive system. It also has a claimed fuel consumption figure of 10.3L/100km.
In the lead-up to the 2022 Goodwood Festival of Speed debut, BMW staff have also been spied for the umpteenth time testing a camouflaged M3 Touring prototype.
Unlike previous teaser and spy photos, we got a clearer glimpse at what the M3 Touring’s interior looks like.
Unsurprisingly, this spied M3 Touring prototype confirms it’ll receive the BMW Curved Display like the regular M3 sedan and updated 3 Series sedan and wagon.
In these vehicles the curved dash houses a 12.3-inch digital instrument cluster and a 14.9-inch touchscreen infotainment system.
This curved dash runs the latest BMW Operating System 8 which has new map displays, an enhanced intelligent voice assistant, and for M vehicles an interface that includes an M-specific layout.
This spied prototype is still wearing the same black-and-white camouflage wrap suggesting BMW is gunning for the production wagon lap record around the Nurburgring Nordschleife. It’s currently held by the Mercedes-AMG E63 S, which lapped the Green Hell in 7:45:19.
BMW’s reluctance to develop a long-roof M3 has long proved puzzling, especially considering it’s applied the M name to tuned versions of the X3, X4, X5 and X6 SUVs.
Rival Audi has a rich heritage in high-performance wagons. Its very first RS-branded car was the RS2 Avant, which was succeeded by the first-generation RS4 that was also only offered as a wagon.
Likewise, Mercedes-Benz has always offered a wagon version of its hottest, AMG-fettled C-Class models.
When it’s revealed, the BMW M3 Touring will be the first mass-produced long-roofed M car in the model’s long and storied history. The company only ever built a prototype E46 M3 wagon in 2000.
BMW has previously always left high-performance wagons to firms like Alpina to pick up the slack.
Click an image to view the full gallery.
MORE: Everything BMW M3
