Allow me to provide excerpts from Benji a German enthousiast who has accurately pinpointed the basic facts regarding the differences between the US and Euro BMW M3
....and I quote....
"The US M3 engine is - from a constructors viewpoint - a tuned standard 3-series 6-cylinder motor: The S50us engine is a bored and stroked M50/M52 engine which was/is used in the 325i(s)/328i(s).
The Euro Spec. M3 engine is a hand-built engine which has Double-VANOS, 6 single throttles (one individual throttle body per cylinder) and has the characteristics of a racing engine: High engine speed red line almost at 8000 rpm, High specific power output of over 100hp/liter. The single throttles are a typical feature of all M-engines from the late Seventies M1 to the allnew E39 M5 8-cylinder. They all had/have single throttles. If you compare a picture of the US M3 engine with the Euro M3 engine with the hood open, you can see the difference by looking at the engine bay, even from distance.
Beside this essential difference, the US M3 also has a softer suspension, other headlights, wheels of different materials and other more or less minor differences. Also the US M3 is available with an automatic transmission beside the 5-speed manual gear box. The Euro Spec. M3 is only available with a 6-speed manual or a sequential gearbox (called "SMG"), which either works like a manual gear box (but without a clutch) or automatically. In 1995 the 3.2 Liter Euro M3 also got the 1994 M5 3.8 high performance brakes with compound discs, which made it one of the best braking cars on the German market (even competitive to the Porsche 993 TT for example).
Most likely reason for the "De-Tuning" is the fact that the Euro M3 might be too expensive for the US market (in BMW's opinion) and would never have reached the successful sales numbers of the US M3. And offering the Euro M3 as a special edition for those who can afford it was obviously not an option for the following reasons: 1. Adapting it to the US emission regulations and having it certificated for the US market would have been too expensive for BMW, related to the small number of cars that would have been sold with the financially much more attractive S50us-powered M3 aside and 2. the US M3 would have lost some great amount of prestige (Keep in mind, that many US M3 buyers find out about the Euro M3 actually AFTER they purchased what they thought was the "original" one...). So, although the US M3 unfortunately is not a 100 percent "genuine" M-car, it still remains being a hell of a machine :-)
© 1999 Benjamin Chams-El-Dine "
.........end quote
....and I quote....
"The US M3 engine is - from a constructors viewpoint - a tuned standard 3-series 6-cylinder motor: The S50us engine is a bored and stroked M50/M52 engine which was/is used in the 325i(s)/328i(s).
The Euro Spec. M3 engine is a hand-built engine which has Double-VANOS, 6 single throttles (one individual throttle body per cylinder) and has the characteristics of a racing engine: High engine speed red line almost at 8000 rpm, High specific power output of over 100hp/liter. The single throttles are a typical feature of all M-engines from the late Seventies M1 to the allnew E39 M5 8-cylinder. They all had/have single throttles. If you compare a picture of the US M3 engine with the Euro M3 engine with the hood open, you can see the difference by looking at the engine bay, even from distance.
Beside this essential difference, the US M3 also has a softer suspension, other headlights, wheels of different materials and other more or less minor differences. Also the US M3 is available with an automatic transmission beside the 5-speed manual gear box. The Euro Spec. M3 is only available with a 6-speed manual or a sequential gearbox (called "SMG"), which either works like a manual gear box (but without a clutch) or automatically. In 1995 the 3.2 Liter Euro M3 also got the 1994 M5 3.8 high performance brakes with compound discs, which made it one of the best braking cars on the German market (even competitive to the Porsche 993 TT for example).
Most likely reason for the "De-Tuning" is the fact that the Euro M3 might be too expensive for the US market (in BMW's opinion) and would never have reached the successful sales numbers of the US M3. And offering the Euro M3 as a special edition for those who can afford it was obviously not an option for the following reasons: 1. Adapting it to the US emission regulations and having it certificated for the US market would have been too expensive for BMW, related to the small number of cars that would have been sold with the financially much more attractive S50us-powered M3 aside and 2. the US M3 would have lost some great amount of prestige (Keep in mind, that many US M3 buyers find out about the Euro M3 actually AFTER they purchased what they thought was the "original" one...). So, although the US M3 unfortunately is not a 100 percent "genuine" M-car, it still remains being a hell of a machine :-)
© 1999 Benjamin Chams-El-Dine "
.........end quote
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