AC SCHNITZER ACS3 SPORT

Renowned German tuner unleashes its near-600bhp take on the latest BMW M3

- RICHARD LANE

TESTER ’S NOTE

This M3 was manual, and it’s an agreeable ’box: precise, short of throw and unlikely to create much driveline shunt if you don’t nail shifts. I wish we had it here in the UK. RL

Those of a squeamish disposition, avert thy gaze. BMW’s latest M3 is hardly the most elegant creation, and this AC Schnitzer interpretation escalates the thuggery. It’s called the ACS3 Sport and it’s the most recent model in a line of Aachen-fettled M3s that stretches back to 1989 and the E30 3 Series.

As ever, the idea here is to make the regular M car smoother on the road, faster on the track and more stable on the autobahn. Quite an ask, given the superb all-round proposition that is the standard G20-generation M3, but when it comes to factory BMWs, Schnitzer generally finds a way to meaningfully improve the recipe.