Tag: m3

I heard about this from one of the LSC BMW CCA mailing lists. And, of all places, this picture sequence of a BMW M3 rolling over was posted on a Mazda 6 message board. The shots must have been taken in continuous-shot mode since there’re ten shots but I can only imagine that it occured within a span of a couple seconds. I’m interested in any conjectures on what the continuous-shot framerate may have been (some cameras with this feature allow selectable framerates).

You’ll also notice that they’re meta-photographs and, even though they turned out well, I would think that the originals would be even better.

In some ways, my favorite picture is #4 — you could just about caption it “This is the last instant where you’ll see your windshield intact and roof taut. Enjoy it for now.” Schadenfreude aside, you can really feel the fellow’s heartwrench in that last shot. See also more shots of the aftermath further down in this thread.

It appears that, within the next few years, BMW will only offer a manumatic shifting option on their M3:

The company’s second-generation SMG is an option on the M3, and the next-generation M5 will also feature the Formula One racing-style paddle shifters, sans the traditional clutch pedal and gearshift lever. According to Rolf Scheibner, product manager for M cars, it won’t be long before SMG is the only transmission option for the performance cars.

Many M3 die-hards aren’t happy about this and, initially, I wasn’t either. However, I then reasoned that if it’s good enough for Formula One (all Formula One cars now use manumatics), it’s probably good enough for me :).