Next time you pull up at the lights to drag a BMW M3, it might pay to check who’s driving it first.
AN UNMARKED BMW M3 has joined Australian Capital Territory Policing in Canberra.
Photos of the car have been shared on the Facebook group Australian Police Vehicles, showing the car in action as protests were taking place at the nation’s capital. In a fine adieu to the V8-powered, locally-built Holden Commodore SS cop cars that are slowly being replaced, both the M3 and an older Commodore SS patrol unit were photographed together.
While the larger BMW M5 is already serving duty as a marked highway patrol car, this is the first public sighting of a BMW M3 police car in Australia. The M3 is smaller, lighter and available with a manual transmission which the M5 doesn’t get, though it is not clear if the M3 sighted has a stick shift or automatic transmission.
Australian police have been playing with a variety of new vehicles as they find a suitable replacement for the Holden Commodore SS, which was available with a manual transmission and high-powered engine, something increasingly hard to find on European alternatives. Some alternatives trialed been Kia’s Stinger and Chrysler’s 300C.
BMW’s entry-level M3 is equipped with a straight-six petrol turbo engine producing 317kW and 550Nm, though the M3 Competition variant increase output to 331kW, helping the sedan hit 100km/h from a standstill in under 4.0 seconds.
