The latest BMW M3 and M4 models got quite a lot of videos from BMW M engineers.
When BMW M showed official photos of the latest M3, it became clear that they were advancing this new grille regardless of what the fans thought of it. Many who didn’t like the new look came around to it eventually after seeing it in the metal. However, it’s probably still the case that many are on the fence or still a little repulsed by it.
Perhaps this was why BMW M decided to create an entire series of vertical videos regarding these two cars. Of course, you could say that these were made to jump on board the recent uptake in TikTok/Snapchat/Instagram Stories users. However, it’s also worth noting that not other BMW M car has received this much attention from the BMW M YouTube channel. Not only have 20 quite technical explainer videos been produced, but they’ve all been done in a sort of casual manner.
BMW M videos tend to be very polished, stylistic and ‘cool’ save for a few product presentation videos. To me at least, BMW M probably felt a little bit cornered by the poor reception of the design (which is subjective) and decided to hammer in the point that this was objectively the best M3 (and M4) they had ever made. What better way to do that than to have someone from every department explain the work they did.
Here are all 20 videos. Be warned, many of them are dubbed in English, all of them are in vertical format.
The first is on Performance and Weight.
In the second video, they bring in an engineer to talk about the M3 and M4 cooling systems.
Next up, we have an episode dedicated to tyre selection.
After tyres, comes an episode on the seats. To be honest, this was the last episode I personally sat through.
You would have thought that an episode on the tyres would have been followed by one on the rims. However that comes after the episode on seats. Perhaps there was an internal scheduling issue.
The BMW M youtube page uploaded a more professionally done ad on the first ever BMW M5 CS after episode 5. This was followed by an episode on the brakes.
After the Brakes episode comes the all-important Drivetrain episode about the engine and transmission.
But that last episode was just the beginning! In episode 8, they go into greater depth about the engine.
In episode 9, they talk about the sounds produced by the two cars. There’s a funny moment where the guy doing the English voiceover makes his voice a little lighter to voice a second character.
Another unrelated video is released at this juncture. When we get to the halfway point, BMW M talks about the manual gearbox.
In episode 11, we have a French dude speaking English about the interior of the cars.
The next episode brings back the voiceover guy and takes us into a wind tunnel to talk about aerodynamics.
If you want to know more about how they got the cars to drive so well, the next episode is for you. It’s all about chassis details.
In the 14th episode (we’re not done yet!) the host speaks English and goes through the M Mode in its entirety.
Following this is another English speaking host explaining the Laptimer app on the cars.
The channel uploads an unrelated video on the Red Bull Driftbrothers. In episode 16 our voiceover artist returns to help us understand the rear axle transmission.
In episode 17, we have an explanation on the M Traction Control.
Next up, we have an explanation video on the Drive Shaft of both new M cars. As boring as it is, there’s also a little bit of interesting information regarding the driveshafts in the previous M3 and M4. We also see why the driveshaft is made of steel in this generation instead of CFRP.
In the penultimate episode, we return to transmissions. This time, they explain the M Steptronic automatic gearbox option for both these cars.
Finally, we have the M xDrive all-wheel drive system explanation. The engineer talks about how he was overtaken by a Subaru back in the 2000s in his M3. It’s pretty fun.
