BMW has never mass-produced an E46 M3 estate despite developing and testing an early prototype in the year 2000. It simply wasn’t viable, the Bavarian company argued. Twenty-six years later, UK-based tuning firm Petroyle decided to take the matter into its own hands.
The M3 Touring seen here is a custom build that uses a normal M3 chassis as the starting point. The bodywork is fabricated from lightweight carbon panels, and customers can opt for a carbon front bumper and roof if they feel like it. Numerous modifications are introduced to make the body stiffer than the original and the handling feel as modern as possible.
Petroyle has no plans to modify the interior in any way, but customers can always contract other aftermarket companies for a stylistic makeover. As for the engine under the hood, the tuner’s default offer is a zero-mileage S54 swap. That’s the original engine, so you just get the standard E46 M3 experience with fewer reliability concerns. If that’s not enough, further options include an (unspecified) V8 or a V10 sourced from an M5. Oh, and the transmission is strictly manual in all cases.
Only 50 examples of the restomod will be made, speculated to start from £130,000. For perspective, the current BMW M3 can be obtained in the UK starting from £90,000.
