I've been having a long standing debate with myself: Which car would be more fun to play with? A relatively cheap to run, but hardly exclusive Japanese, or a sophisticated, complicated (albeit sometimes too complicated for its own good) and classy German. It's funny how this was also the case in World War II. The Panzer tanks used by the Nazis were very efficient killers with the latest technology but were extremely expensive to produce and maintain, whereas their simpler Japanese counterparts were much easier to run.
We don't see many tuned German cars on the road, especially here in Malaysia, as BMW's and Mercs are, well, way out of reach for many people. Japanese cars on the other hand are a dime a dozen. I must confess that my own ignorance has led me to believe that German cars just aren't tuneable, due to the simple fact that there just aren't as many tuned BMW's as there are Nissans, Hondas, Toyotas and Mazdas. Take into account that a typical BMW costs twice as much as its Japanese counterpart and the higher cost of tuning parts and higher running costs; it's quite easy to see why most people stand firmly on the Japanese side of the fence.
Costs of modifications aside, you'd be hard pressed to fault the result of a nicely done up Beemer. A fully done-up Evo or Skyline just doesn't have the same visual clout as a Beemer, especially Beemers like this Motorsport Division demo car. An Evo with a full Varis bodykit may look fierce and intimidating, but a fully done up BMW will have the same intimidation level as the Evo, but it does it with so much more class.
Think of a street thug with piercings and tattoos covering his arms, brandishing a rusty blood-stained parang, dressed in tight jeans and a leather jacket (the Evo), standing next to a clean shaven man dressed in a white suit, with greased hair combed all the way back, gold chains, toothpick in his mouth and a silver-plated Colt M1911A handgun with ivory grip inserts and intricate engravings along the length of the barrel, resting in his left hand (the Beemer). Yeah, now you get the idea don't you?
BMW are known for making some of the world's best automotive engines. The E46 M3 S54B32 3.2 litre engine won numerous awards for its smoothness, high power output and all round awesomeness. It's good to know that BMW has passed on some of the M3's engine DNA to its lesser siblings such as the 2-litre straight-six engine which resides in this pearl white E46. In stock form, the M52B20-T produces a barely adequate 150bhp. That's hardly enough to power to propel this 3-series BMW which weighs around 1500kg.