They are designed as an everyday car - most owners dont want them to be brash. They do sound sporty though...

RS4's sound a country mile better as standard though!

i had a e36 M3 for 9yrs and e46 M3 for 2yrs even tho i still looking for a coupe and never driven a coupe before but im surely if the coupe fitted coilovers ,uprate anti roll bars (front & rear), strut brace (front and rear) and strenthen subframe it will handle better than a standard M3 ... regarding which car is better it all depends what u use it for , if u using it daily and occasionly track days then M3 ,if u wants outright performance then the 400bhp coupe will be better . M3 maintenance is on the high side ,u talking 160+ pound per a tyre ,inspection 1 service main dealer 700 pound inspection 2 can be 1000 pound . specialist is little bit cheaper .

this one is easy,400bhp coupe

and so is a 400bhp Coupe - as standard, the Coupe isn't a cheap car to run, but a highly modded Coupe is not something to be take on lightly, especially if (like me) you're doing big miles

For example, I've just worked out that I'm spending:

£10 per week on tyres
£10 per week on brakes
£5 per week on oil

and that's on top of the £100 per week on fuel, £12 a week on insurance and £4 a week on car tax

And I haven't even started on the servicing and other breakages..

TBH, over the last 5 years, I reckon an M3 would probably have been cheaper to own.

However, I'm now as quick as an M5, so performance-wise, I'm happy

There is no doubt an M3 is a better handling car but it all depends what your using it for and also how good a driver you are?

I own an E46 M3 and its great but when i try to show off or try to push the handling envelope i get the distinct feeling of the grim reaper looking over my shoulder

I can only talk for my self here but i simply do not have the ability to drive an M3 to the limit, maybe on a track but definetly not on the road and where is your going to be used most?

And some home truths about the M3, The clutch is a joke and the SMG version is just annoying, its very expensive to maintain and as a everyday car to use it feels on edge all the time and i find it hard to relax in.

or im turning into a bit of an old man though, as i spend most of my time cruising around in my old diesel range rover, rather then blasting around in my M3 or even my Skyline

Its just very comfortible and an effortless drive and i find that more important around london roads

i have found all my rwd cars on edge on the roads and with well over 300bhp i had in some its crazy and you can never relaxed. the coop i feel confident it really giving it hell even if the back steps out on the coop its not the same danger feeling as a rwd car.
sure a rwd car will handle better but a 4wd would handle even better so lets all buy a evo fq340 and be done with it!
my coop does roll way to much and i want to address this but the handling isn't as bad as some of you think.
is it just me but i find german cars boring and have no wow factor? i would rather have a itallian fair or jap engineering over a german car but as of todays image socity we are deamed very uncool unless we have a german super rep mobile or porker which lets be honest is rubbish.
a 400bhp coop would be faster than a m3, nigel didn't you say you could do 1/4 in 12.3 and came firest in the handling on fwd and would have come 8th in the handling on the rwd class at totb? if so see if a standard m3 can do that lol i doubt it.
look at merc and audi reliablity recently its a joke and bmw have taken a pay cut to improve the engineering so say a 10k m3 which is 9 years old might stll have issues and dam expensive to repair to!

well i never said coupe is not high on maintanance ....
if the above quote on maintenance on the coupe is correct then i can tell u M3 got a higher maintenance than the coupe .....

yeah and bear in mind how many miles do you do nigel?
you could get pads and discs for your car for about £480 and they are the top dollar equipment and i was looking at boxster and m3 part prices and i can a sure you add another £200 + for a standard setup.

I wouldn't read into the TOTB timetable too much to be honest. I think Nigel's time speaks more of his driving ability than the Coop's ability. I'm not taking anything away from the Coop , but the only way it could be used as evidence of the car's ability, is if you put the same driver in each car.

Nigel, do you think your 355 would be quicker than your coop on that track?

On the TOTB track, I doubt if my old 355 could have stayed with the Coupe - the 355s forté was fast cornering, where the grip and poise was just staggering. The TOTB track was just too tight. Having said that, I still beat the times of many RWD cars that you would have expectd to trounce the Coupe (Exige beig the scalp I'm most proud of - I don't think any of them beat me)

My Coupe is already faster than my 355 over a standing quarter (12.38 v 12.89) and in the midrange, the Coupe would destroy the Fezza. However, I know which one I'd have if I could still afford to run it.

oh don't get me wrong the fezza is a dream car and a leagues above a coop.
it does gripe me how peoplw think you have to have a german badge to look cool.
lets face it a 400bhp coop with handling mods will be quick enough for uk roads everyday of the week