How a BMW M3 made me fall in love with BMW again.

I'm a car guy. Ignore the fact that when my then fiancé was shopping for a car I suggested a gold Toyota Camry, Pontiac Vibe, and a Honda Fit. The biggest misstep was the gold Camry, which aged me by about 40 years. I'll never live that one down.

So I wanted to do something special for my wife for her birthday. A month late. Hey at least I was a good husband and bought her a bike for her birthday! 2 years ago. Ok, so anyway, I needed to really do something special so I went after my friend's E92 BMW M3. He's the nicest guy in the city of Chicago so of course he said yes when I asked. I showed up Monday morning and left him the keys to my 1999 Lexus GS 300. He was beside himself with excitement. Nope, actually, he wasn't.

So let me step away from the story for a minute. I really loved the E46 M3. It has been my opinion that those years, 2002-2004, were some of BMW's best. Then Bangle got his hands on the design reigns and some weird stuff started happening. Recent years have been much better but I've felt that design has drifted a little and my enthusiasm for BMW has waned substantially. That is until I got behind the wheel of the M3 on Saturday. Oh. My. Heavens.

I picked up the wife and then we hopped on Lakeshore Drive. I dropped the hammer. That V8. That exhaust note. That tight steering wheel. The way the leather sport seats wrapped around me. Crazy good. Outlandishly fast. Insanely beautiful. The M3 was everything a sports car is supposed to be. Except for the fact that the there is a weird material on the steering wheel that was peeling, the car is practically flawless. When you're in the middle of the power band, you know, where a typical car starts to slow, the M3 just keeps going. You run out of straight road and guts well before you run out of power.

The M3 had such a powerful effect on me that I found myself configuring a 320i the other day. Sure it has 234 less horsepower than the M3 but IT'S A BMW! Driving the M3 finally helped me see why Car and Driver has given so many accolades over the years. No they aren't biased. No they aren't receiving a paycheck from Munich. Driving a BMW is really that good. I still don't like the X1 or the X3 or the X4. I still think the GT versions of the 3 and 5 series look terrible and I just want the wagon. But the M3 really is that good. I was never a BMW hater but one weekend may just have been enough to make me a BMW lover.