Test drive BMW 3 E46 2002 - 2005 sedan
Timezone
The world is divided into various time zones, but time flows the same for everyone. In different ways-only for owners of the BMW 330ci and BMW M3. They say that one millionaire was regularly interested in the cost of the watch of his visitors. After making sure that the interlocutor paid more than a thousand dollars for them, he was happy to show a cheap plastic stamp on his wrist and sarcastically stated: and they show the same time as mine! In some ways, he is right-an expensive watch is sometimes bought to impress. A similar situation often develops with cars. And expensive brands are acquired for public. But here are very expensive modifications of expensive brands - exclusively for yourself.
Gilded case. Around the clogged BMW, a stable circle of fans has already developed. These are successful, ambitious people who do not suit cheap hours on their hand and an average car in the garage. Unlike that old millionaire, who was already resting on his laurels in the shadow of his millions, they must demonstrate to others every minute that life has been successful and this will be for a long time. For these people, boutiques and personal managers were invented. And the BMW concern made a compartment for them on the basis of his third series. Why is this so - let's explain.
The body of the compartment only with a cursory examination resembles an ordinary three -lash. In fact, almost all body panels and details of modifications are different. The nostrils of the radiator CI were significantly expanded, the wings were heard, and the windshield leaned stronger. Special notches appeared on the rear -view mirrors that reduce aerodynamic noises. The hood looks more massive. In addition, a compartment is 17 mm longer than the sedan, 18 mm wider and 46 mm below. Engineers and designers who constructed BMW Ci understood - they should create not just a compartment at the base of the sedan, but a car for a fastidious client. So it was easier to make a new one. But they did not stop there. Because M3 is the next step in the desire to emphasize your own personality. For fans of the BMW brand and a row of 3-r-the pinnacle of evolution, the limit of dreams. The car is not only for pronounced individualists, but also for individuals who are already defiantly striving for leadership. A characteristic feature is the demand for transmission in two models. Here the BMW 330CI is preferred with an automaton, and M3 with mechanics. Moreover, 6-speed mechanics, where the fifth gear is straight, and the sixth-increasing with a coefficient of 0.828.
At the same time, the external differences between 330ci and M3 are frankly few. The uninitiated may not even notice them until both cars are at rest. CHRONOMETER. These two cars shares the abyss, passing along the invisible line under the hood. The physical embodiment of this feature is a row six in the BMW M3. Its volume is 3246 cubic meters. cm, and power - 343 hp 106 virtual horses were removed from each working liter of engine. And this is without the use of turbocharged, which BMW does not fundamentally recognize. The power is achieved by jewelry processing of all parts of the motor, a change in the degree of compression, the course of the piston in relation to the diameter of the cylinder, the reconfiguration of power control systems and the production of exhaust gases. In short, the top of engineering. And this is not just a clock mechanism - this is a ship chronometer.
Another serious technical difference is the self -locking differential in the rear bridge M3. As soon as the rear wheels begin to rotate at different speeds, there is a close of multi -disc clutch, and the force is redistributed more rationally. The car is significantly even more accelerated, more predictably behaves under the traction in steep turns.
The BMW M3 has an electronic accelerator drive. Roughly speaking, the gas pedal is associated with the damper that regulates the supply of the mixture, not directly, but through a separate electronic unit. The sensitivity of the gas pedal can be adjusted with a special key with the inscription Sport, which is located on the central panel. Actually, it depends on the position of this key, how legitimate to mate BMW 330ci and BMW M3.
Translation of the shooter. The sports regime of EMKI is recommended to be disconnected in the city. The stroke of the gas pedal is made longer, and crazy acceleration does not occur even with persistent pressing on the accelerator. BMW competitions against BMW were held by us according to primitive rules: the start from a distance of a little more than a kilometer. Under the wheels - an even asphalt, just laid by the builders and no external stimuli - this section of the track is still closed to outsiders. So it was possible to put pressure on the trigger from the heart.
In the first paired race, the BMW M3 participated with the disabled Sport mode, and the victory of 330CI was torn literally with teeth. If a racer who was not speaking in the VW Polo Cup, was sitting behind the wheel, who ate a mechanical checkpoint with a jewelry by a jewelry work, both cars would have come to the finish of the nostril to the nostril. But the coupe worked on the verge of its capabilities, and the tachometer arrow almost constantly stood on the border of the red zone. But the M3 engine did not promote to the maximum 7900 rpm. Maxim managed to switch to increased gear much earlier, in the region of 4500-5000 revolutions.
The picture changed dramatically after the M3 transfers to the sport mode. Now the gas pedal is enough to stroke how the revolutions take off to the mark of 7000. We build cars at the starting straight line, the photographer is aiming ... And only the compartment comes out in the photo. Because the M3 disappeared from the frame, and even the dust managed to settle. The acceleration is so powerful that the picture in the side glasses merges into a colorful tape. With this driving mode, compare these two cars, to put it mildly, is incorrect. Because if 330ci is just a powerful car, then the M3 is a car that guarantees its owner not only the most powerful injection of adrenaline into the blood, but also a huge charge of self -satisfaction from the fact that nobody is cooler on the road. In fairness, we note that this feeling is plus $ 23 thousand - such is the price of the M3 nameplate and all that is attached to it.
POVERTY IS NOT A VICE. We mentioned the minimum of external differences between 330ci and M3. By the way, both cars differ little by pendants. Modification 330ci, unlike the sedan, is serial with a tougher, sports suspension. Sick, comfortable, must be ordered. So the irregularities of our roads are equally worried about the backs of the owners of the coupe and Emock. And what's inside? If you expect something extraordinary from the M3 for $ 79 thousand, then we are forced to disappoint you. In total, in moderation, exactly for those $ 56 thousand, which pay for the compartment. The M3 salon is almost the same as in 330CI. This is not M5 for you, where even the ceiling is finished with soft skin ... There is an abundance of plastic parts, the same rudders, all the same options. Only now the front seats, designed specifically under the M3, amaze with a wealth of settings. You can even adjust the rigidity and volume of side support pillows. And, of course, there is a branded emotional tachometer - with luminous risk zones. With orange sectors after 4000 rpm, which go out as the engine warms up, and the red zone after 7500 rpm.
So when choosing a particular model, one must clearly imagine why the car is purchased. If exclusively as an external stimulus for others, BMW 330CI is quite enough. If to satisfy your own internal ambitions, then there is no BMW M3 better. This is a real exclusive car, not without reason the M3 of the previous version produced only 7400 pieces.
Text Nikolay Kachurin, photo Alexey Ilyin
Model/Modification BMW 330ci M3 Coupe
BODY
Type of coupe
ENGINE
Gasoline type with electronic injection gasoline with electronic injection
Working volume (cubic meter) 2979 3246
Power, kW (L.S.) at about./Min. 170 (231) at 5900 252 (343) at 7900
Moment (nm at about./Min.) 300 at 3500 365 at 4900
TRANSMISSION
The rear rear drive
Automatic gearbox, 5-speed mechanical, 6-speed
SUSPENSION
Front/rear independent type Mcphereson, reptile stabilizer/independent multi -link stabilizer, independent type Mcphereson, reproach stabilizer/Independent multi -core stabilizer of the far stability
STEERING
Type gear rack with a hydraulic booster gear-rake with a hydraulic booster
Min. Diameter of turn (m) 10.5 11.0
Brakes
Front discount ventilated ventilated disk with perforation
Rear ventilated ventilated ventilated ventilated with perforations
Dimensions/volumes/weight
Length/width/height (mm) 4488/1745/1369 4492/1780/1372
Wheel base (mm) 2725 2731
Equipped mass (kg) 1430 1495
Tires/Disks 205/50 R17/7J 225/45 ZR18/8J (before.); 255/40 ZR18/9J (ass.)
Dynamic characteristics
Maximum speed (km/h) 250 250
Acceleration to 100 km/h (sec.) 6.5 5.2
Economy
Fuel consumption city/highway (l/100 km) 12.8/6.9 17.8/8.4
The price in Moscow is $ 56.2 thousand $ 78.9 thousand.
Source: "Autopilot"
