2019 BMW 3 Series Spied Testing Hard at the Nurburgring

You can always judge how close a BMW is to its debut by how much of the design is being shown. For example, we have no idea what the taillights and bumpers of the G20 look like. Compare that to something that's about to debut like the X3.

The overall design language appears to be similar to that of the 5 Series. BMW’s signature kidney grilles will still dominate the front, flanked by angry-looking LED headlights.

Over the weekend, some interesting bits of information have been revealed about the car. It's going to be based on the same CLAR platform as the 5 Series, of course. That means BMW is adding body stiffness and plenty of inches to the body while reducing the overall weight by an average of 40 kilos (88 pounds).

And it seems they've already started Nurburgring testing of the faster versions, as this prototype makes the telltale sounds of an inline-six engine. The 335i has already been replaced by the 340i, and it's going to be superseded again by an M Performance car that's likely to be called the M340i. That should give the S4 and C43 something to worry about!

Now, we know from the X3 project that its M40i setup makes 370 horsepower or more. But there's no way of telling if this 3 Series prototype has made that big of a jump in power.

While all the other engines will keep their displacements from the F30 3 Series, their output is set to increase by an average of 7 HP nd 20 Nm of torque. So, for example, the ever-popular 320d will deliver 204 PS, while the 318d will match the output of the current EfficientDynamics model, going from 150 to 163 HP.