Don’t like the sound of an electric BMW M3? Here’s a V8 manual for £14k

A future BMW M3 will be electric, packed full of technology and absolutely overflowing with horsepower. So many horsepowers. Every horsepower, everywhere, all at once. Nearly as much horsepower as every M3 before it, put together.

Knowing how good BMW is at this stuff, it’ll likely be fascinating to drive and full of depth, talent and heady notes of fair-trade leather and the recycled tears of old M3 enthusiasts.

Speaking of which, look what we found! It just happens to be an old BMW M3, replete with a hearty 4.0-litre V8 engine and a manual gearbox. Yes, the classifieds are absolutely awash with old BMW M3s in various states of both repair and tune, so it’s incredibly wise to take your time if you want one.

TopGear.com has taken precisely zero time to find this one, but it’s a good indication of what you can get for around £15k. It’s just been serviced, apparently, comes with some service history, has covered just 94k miles, has an MOT until September this year, and is somehow ULEZ compliant.

It’s also one of the great M3s. Controversial before it launched for ditching a straight-six for eight little pots (when has a new M3 not caused controversy, right), it was quickly lauded thereafter. Here was a naturally aspirated 414bhp V8 coupe that’d dust off 60mph in under five, top out at 155mph and sound really nice getting there (where applicable, of course). Worked rather well when pushed around a corner or five, too.

It got a simple setup – front engine, manual six-speed in the middle, drive at the back – and lots of complex engineering and material selection, like a carbon roof and programmable setup.

Which you’ll simply set to max, forget about thereafter, and spend the rest of your days revving it to 8,300rpm. Don't like the sound of an electric M3? You'll love the sound of one of these.