The M3 Touring is quick wagon. There’s no doubt about that. Even against the greater sports car segment, it really holds its own. But thanks to the wonders of modern tuning — and the delightful powertrain under the M3 Touring’s sheet metal — it turns out, the performance wagon can even give a large section of the hypercar market a run for its money. In a new video from Carwow, a tuned M3 Touring reportedly touting four-figure horsepower takes on a $450,000 Lamborghini. We could’ve ended the sentence there and you probably still would’ve wanted to see what happens. But in fact Carwow tests a trio of cars — which also includes the multi-million-dollar Koenigsegg Jesko.
The Contenders
You’re probably already familiar with the M3 Touring. It’s the wagon variant of the M3 Sedan, utilizing the venerable S58 engine, an eight-speed automatic transmission, and M xDrive all-wheel drive to put the power down. Oh yeah, power — normally, the car makes 523 horsepower. This M3 Touring specifically has gotten the works thrown at it, sporting a built engine and gearbox and plenty of other goodies. The claim is 1,000 horsepower, but we’ll have to see how that holds up on the drag strip.
The Lamborghini is the newest V12 flagship model, the Revuelto. Like the BMW i8, it features a hybrid powertrain and all-wheel drive, only here the three electric motors and mighty V12 produce a combined 1,001 horsepower. It’s the most horsepower of any Lamborghini ever. The Koenigsegg, on the other hand, has the intriguing distinction of being the most powerful and lightest car here while simultaneously being the only rear wheel drive car. The car makes 1,280 horsepower here, as without E85 fuel on hand, you can’t get the full kill 1,600 horsepower.
The Race
After some revs and general banter, the cars take off. As you might have suspected, the all-wheel drive cars immediately jump out ahead of the Egg. It’s also fairly easy to tell that the Koenigsegg’s pilot perhaps isn’t the most experienced drag racer. It is, after all, the owner, rather than a tamed racing driver. While the wagon takes home the W pretty handily, it also launched quite a tick ahead of the others — early, that is. The Egg driver loses their passenger and the trio line up thrice more. Long story short: the Koenigsegg never wins one.
The Touring backed up its 1,000 horsepower claim with a crispy 9.5-second quarter-mile dash. And, notably, there wasn’t a slow run here — every car posted a time below ten seconds. Higher speed roll races see the Koenigsegg perform notably better, which makes sense as limited traction isn’t an issue. Anyway, watch and enjoy. The M3 Touring is an amazing machine with or without 1,000 horsepower. But it’s very cool to see one consistently thrashing on cars with exponentially higher price tags.