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BMW M3 Competition Touring

BMW lists 280 km/h for the M3 Competition Touring with the M Driver's Package. Road & Track and Autocar print 174 mph for that package.

Also known as M3 Touring, M3 Competition Touring
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Top speed

Published as 280 km/hPublished as 280 km/hPublished as 280 km/h

Manufacturer claim and governor for the G81 M3 Competition Touring with the M Driver's Package. BMW's specification table lists 250 / 280 km/h. Road & Track and Autocar both print 174 mph for that package (280 km/h is 174.0 mph). The 155 mph / 250 km/h limiter without the package, and the M3 CS Touring's 186 mph, are not stored.

ClaimedBMW (opens source in a new tab)

In context

  • 2.7× a cheetah's timed top speedSourced · Cheetah, 29 m/s. Sharp 1997, mean of three timed runs over 201.2 m
  • A football field in 1.2 sConstant · American football field, 100 yd (91.44 m)
  • London to New York in 19 h 54 minConstant · London to New York, 5,570 km great-circle

Worked out from the sourced figure above, which stays the ranked number.

This list

Why it's so fast

A car is fast when the force pushing it forward still beats the air, and when the tires and the gearing can use that force. A limiter is a different fact from an unlimited run.

  1. Drag and gearing

    Top speed is the balance point: thrust equals aerodynamic drag. The gearing has to still be pulling when the car gets there, or the engine falls off its power.

  2. What the sources signed

    A manufacturer claim, a magazine test and an electronic governor are not interchangeable. The measurement line says which one this page ranked.

A limited example is the Bugatti Chiron.

This is how the category works. A note written for this entry appears here once it is in the database.

Provenance

Every measurement

Claimed, measured and official figures side by side, each with its source. The ranked figure is marked.

  1. 280km/h174mph77.8m/s151knRanked figure

    Manufacturer claim and governor for the G81 M3 Competition Touring with the M Driver's Package. BMW's specification table lists 250 / 280 km/h. Road & Track and Autocar both print 174 mph for that package (280 km/h is 174.0 mph). The 155 mph / 250 km/h limiter without the package, and the M3 CS Touring's 186 mph, are not stored.

    Claimed
    BMW (opens source in a new tab)

Reference

Specs

Model
G81 M3 Competition Touring
Layout
All-wheel-drive wagon
Limiter
Governor, M Driver's Package

Spot a wrong number?

Every report is read by a person, and corrections are dated on the page.