Automotive media is getting its hands on the new BMW M3 and M4, and while reviews-including ours-are coming a little later, we can at least enjoy clips of the car now. France's Motorsport Magazine had its hands on an extremely yellow M4 Competition and an empty race track with a long straight. What happened next is fairly predictable.
The magazine ran the car up to 141 mph, and it really didn't take long to get there. No surprise when the M4 Competition has 503 hp, and a quick-shifting eight-speed automatic gearbox. Motorsport uses launch control here, and the car automatically starts in second gear, seemingly to limit wheelspin. The new M3 and M4 will be offered with all-wheel drive for the first time, but not for another few months.
This is also our first good sound clip of the new M4 and while it's nice to see that it doesn't have a soft limiter in Park, the sound isn't too dissimilar to the M340i and M440i from inside. Many European-market cars now have gasoline particulate filters in the exhaust system, which mutes engine noise. Here, it sounds like BMW is digitally enhancing the engine note out of necessity. U.S.-spec cars could possibly sound quite different than their European counterparts.
© Motorsport Magazine - YouTube
Unsurprisingly, the new M4 looks to be a monster.
Regardless of how it sounds, the new M4 looks to be very quick. BMW claims 3.8 seconds to 60 mph for the M4 Competition, but typically, the Bavarians always publish conservative acceleration figures. So it should be a monster, not that anyone's surprised.