The M3 rolled out in 1986 as a coupe with four-pot muscle, yet the six-cylinder sedan we all know and love had to wait until December 1994. Previously offered as a cloth-top convertible as well, the segment's premier high-performance model took a page from the BMW M5 for the sixth generation.
You see, the M5 was offered in the guise of a five-door station wagon (make that Touring in BMW vernacular) twice. Remember the E34 and the V10-powered screamer that bears chassis code E61?
Best described as the roomier sibling of the G80, the G81 is – without a shadow of a doubt – a tremendously exciting family car. Wagons may not sell as well as utility vehicles, but nevertheless, the M division will soon add yet another wagon to the lineup in the form of the G99 BMW M5 Touring.
Turning our attention back to the M3, something is clearly missing from the lineup. That something is a coupe utility, or ute for short. Once popular in the Land Down Under, the coupe utility faded into irrelevance due to increasing demand for proper trucks to the detriment of the unibody Holden VF II and Ford FG X.
BMW is known to have created at least pickup-bodied M3s over the years, with said prototypes inspiring pixel artist Rain Prisk to chop the G81 in Photoshop. The end result further stands out from other M3 pickup renderings due to the redesigned B pillars and roof, which make this design study irresistible. However, in the real world, there's little to no demand whatsoever for such a vehicle.
Photo: BMW
That's exactly the reason why BMW never poured money into the series production of the aforementioned utes. The original BMW M3 Pickup from 1986 is an E30 convertible underneath, and in the first instance, it sported the 2.0-liter mill of the E30-generation M3 for the Italian market. Later on, it received the big-daddy 2.3 with 200 metric ponies (make that 197 mechanical ponies) to its name.
The 1986 BMW M3 Pickup was used to transport parts and equipment around the premises of the M division's factory for a whopping 26 years. It was finally retired in 2012, yet the quirky ute still exists. The same can be said about the 2011 BMW M3 Pickup, a V8-powered brute that can only be described as the one of the best April Fools' jokes in the automotive industry.
Revealed on April 1 of 2011, the sporty ute boasts a maximum payload of 450 kilograms (almost 1,000 pounds) over the rear axle. Clad in structured aluminum sheeting, the loading area can swallow up to 20 golf bags. Liters or cubic feet would've been more useful, but on the other hand, we do know that the M3 Pickup weighs 50 kilograms (110 pounds) more than the M3 Convertible on which it's based.
BMW also created an X7 pickup truck in 2019, but not as a joke. The one-off was built by a team of 12 trainees for Motorrad Days, with Motorrad being the German manufacturer's motorcycle division. A double-cab truck as opposed to the single-cab M3s, the X7 can haul an F 850 GS in the teak-lined bed.
After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well. Full profile
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