BMW Z3 M coupe - 50 years of BMW M cars

By: Mark Higgins, Photography by: Unique Cars Archives, BMW

Date: 22.04.2022

BMW introduced the Z series in 1995 and three years later trotted out the M versions in Roadster E36/7 (model code) and M Coupe E36/8 bodies

As you have guessed both are based on the E36 3 Series platform and all were manufactured at BMWs Spartanburg factory in the USA with engines and gearboxes shipped from Germany. These cars were significanlty lighter than the M3 they were based on, by about 100kg.

The dramatic long-nose and short-tail styling of the M3 Coupe was divisive at first, however people's attitudes have come around in the car's favour.. Cosmetically the M versions wore their own design front and rear bumpers, air vents or gills, boot lid and mirrors.

Profile generated love or hate response

While the Z3 wasn’t one of BMWs most-loved cars, there was no denying the performance of the M versions, which incorporated many M3 Evo components.

Production of the Z3 Ms ran from 1998 to 2002 and all were powered by a straight six with a five-speed manual gearbox. Depending on the country the engines were coded S50, S52 or S54.

| Read next: BMW Z3 M coupe review

The Zed was originally launched in roadster trim and the BMW board took a lot of convincing by lead engineer Burkhard Göschel and his team before giving the M coupe project the green light, under the stipulation it had to be cost-effective.

To do that, most of the Roadster panels were used including the doors and bodywork forward of the A-pillars. The interiors were almost identical.

Underpinning the chassis used in the coupe and roadster is a MacPherson strut front and older style (from the E30) semi-trailing arms. Differing from the standard Z3 the track was increased by 10.2mm at each end and the ride height lowered by a sizable 27.9mm.

M spec stiffer springs and shocks, thicker anti-roll bars, stronger semi-trailing arms, a reinforced subframe and modified front suspension geometry were employed.

| Read next: BMW Z4 M coupe review

Straight six packs a big punch

Both the M Coupe and M Roadster were initially powered by the engines from the E36 M3, a 3.2-litre, 236kW/350Nm version of the BMW S50 engine with North American models making do with the 179kW/320Nm S52 engine.

In September 2001 the S54 engine from the just released E46 3 Series M3 was used. Power increased to 239kW/354Nm except in the States where the numbers were down had 4kW/13Nm. This was due to the location of the cat converters in the US models.

All Z3 M coupes used the ZF Type C-5 five-speed manual gearbox and a limited slip diff.

Filling the guard were 17x7.5-inch front and 17x9-inch rear alloys that were encased in 225/45ZR17 front and 245/40ZR17 rear tyres. Early versions had a silver chrome finish with the later models having a dark shadow chrome look.

Inside the wheels were the brakes taken from the E36 M3 parts bin with 315mm front and 312.4mm rear discs. All countries bar the US wore two-piece ‘floating rotor’ front discs.

Sales of the Z3 M coupe didn’t take off as expected with the S54 engined cars among the lowest production runs of just 1112 units. On the flip side, for owners this rarity has seen their values rise quickly in recent years.

From Unique Cars #462, Feb 2022

Unique Cars magazine Value Guides

Sell your car for free right here