BMW M3 Touring - The Best Car BMW Never Made | BOTB #ad

Hey guys, welcome back to another video. Today is going to be a very, very special day because I get to drive that fantastic F81 M3 Touring parked behind me. This is the unicorn of all BMWs. This is the best car that BMW never made. Before we meet the owner and have a walk around and look at the spec of the car and then take it out for a drive, oh my god, we're taking that out for a drive, I just want to say a massive shout out and thanks to the sponsor of this video who are BOTB. They give away a car every single week with tickets starting from just 85 pence. You could be in with a chance of winning a car a bit like this one behind me, but not quite. You need to be 16 years and over to enter the competition. With over 150 cars to choose from, not including this one, but they've recently added the brand new Alpina B3 Touring, a car that I'm yet to drive but I know will be fantastic. A £65,000 car could be yours for just £3.10 a ticket. Competitions close every Sunday and who knows, the following week you could have Christian knocking on your door with a brand new car. Not only that, but you could be winning £20,000 worth of cash in the boot. How good would that be? Just follow the link in the description below or on the pinned comment with your chance to win. Right, let's go and find Nick, the owner, to talk about this incredible car. Mr Nick Pritchard, how's it going mate? Not too bad, thanks. So this is the legendary owner of this gorgeous car parked behind us, this F81 M3 Touring. I actually reached out to Nick about eight years ago. I saw his previous E91 M3 Touring in BMW Performance magazine and I messaged him, I think it was on Twitter at the time, and he replied immediately. I had no following whatsoever back then and we chatted for a while and then I bumped into him at a few BMW shows and now we've met at various places in various car parks. Yeah, I know, I can't get rid of you. No, you can't get rid of me. But I'm so fortunate and pleased and happy to have this absolute unicorn of a car on the channel. It's something that gets, obviously, understandably, so much attention online and I'm very fortunate to be the first person to actually shoot a video on it. So I couldn't be more grateful, Nick. Let's just go through a little bit of the history of the car, when you picked it up and sort of the basics of what you had to do, because I'm assuming there's two cars really that we're looking at here, it's not just the one. And then we'll have a look at some of the components and some of the stuff on here, because there's so much and in fact there's an extensive list of stuff that Nick sent me last night, so I'll put that in the description below, so please check that out. And also while I'm at it, make sure you follow him on Instagram, I'll put that on the screen here and in the description below because there'll be plenty of pictures of this absolute gorgeous car on there. So yeah, Nick, tell us a little bit about sort of how it came about. It's based on a 320 diesel Touring and a full F80 M3, parts got removed and rear quarters welded in, rear bumpers, two bumpers joined together and every nut, bolt, clip, wire, everything just transplanted into the vehicle, suspension, everything coded. The car actually thinks that it's an F81 M3 with the electric tailgate, everything's coded in as if it came from the factory, running all the latest ID6, obviously for this vehicle, 2000 and now got the latest software, as if you bought it at the factory now kind of thing. Well I mean that's what I do love about this car, because it's not just a bodge of a car, Nick uses this car properly, as you can see from the overlay shots, it's filthy today, but that's great because he uses it, he takes it on proper drives, but it's also a show car, so he does take it to various shows, mostly because it's just so unique and it's just so individual, but as Nick was just saying there, every little attention to detail is amazing and really if this did roll out of your local BMW showroom, you wouldn't question it because everything on there looks like it should be there and obviously there are some parts that work absolutely as normal, because touring and a saloon do share various things, but there are some very very unique things. On top of all that, Nick has absolutely gone to town with some of the componentry, some of the engine mods, the exhaust, the wheels and everything, and in fact I think we should start, good timing, in the engine bay itself and lifting this up, it's very light, oh yes, as you can see that is a GTS or CS bonnet, absolutely love these bonnets, as most of you know, if you watch a lot of my stuff, you know I love these bonnets, looks so good in this car, it just gives the car so much aggression, but Nick, tell us about what's going on under the engine, because I can already see a beautiful eVenturi air intake, which is very similar to the one I've got in my M2 competition. Yeah, so it's running through eVolv, through Imran, the eVenturi intakes, it's running eVolv downpipes and they're stage 2 tuned, so it's running around 520 something, I'll say 530 whenever anybody asks, but 520, because guys always exaggerate, yeah, I always add a bit of length to it, as you do, genuine M Performance engine cover, and just some trick bits from Wise Tech for the oil, just to put a bit of colour under there, and also I'm fitted with a CSF charge cooler, which obviously brings more temps down, not that the car gets used on track or anything, but because it was an all-out kind of build. That's fantastic, I'll let you close the bonnet, because I know there's a special way, and I don't want to be responsible for making that, oh wait, is that a crack man? Okay, so Nick, as we're here now, let's just have a look at the front end of this car, because we've just driven down here, Nick followed us for the last sort of few miles, and I have to say, in my rear view mirror, this car on the road has so much presence, it just looks so mean, and so awesome, and sexy, and everything, I just think it looks fantastic, so what have you got going on in the front here that's not standard? Yeah, genuine M Performance splitter, and these side spats, I also upgraded the lights, because I originally built the car with LED adaptive headlights, but then BMW facelifted the headlights late 2017, with obviously these dark line headlights in them, with the hexagons, and I just think that's brought the front so aggressive, because obviously the paintwork's such a dark car as well, kind of thing, and while we're talking about paintwork, what colour is this? It's San Marino Blue, so it was an individual colour, but they do different price ranges of the individual colours, I think this was two and a half thousand pounds. Yeah, one of my favourite colours, and I think potentially the best colour to have any M car in, I think San Marino Blue is just absolutely gorgeous. I've never been a lover of blue paint, but it just, yeah, just grown on me massively, yeah, just I think it was the right choice, looking at the other builds that are around, kind of thing, and it just looks so mean on the road. Yeah, it suits, I think it suits the flared arches, and the shapes, and all the angles, especially the bonnet, look at that bonnet, that bonnet. Obviously, the biggest thing that stands out to me is these wheels, so what are we running, and also you haven't got your regular bolts there, what's the setup there? I'm running a titanium lug conversion. Okay. I ran them on the E91, just for the aesthetic looks really, for me personally, and obviously when you're changing your wheels, it drops onto the lugs, you haven't got to struggle trying to get your bolts in. Like a racing car. Like a racing car, and the wheels are 660 Kryptos, which are through Evolve again, through Imran, same specs, so they're all fully forged. I've run exactly the same specs as the competition pack wheels, I just knew how they would sit, and run, and then I would just drop a minimal spacer on, to achieve the stance that I've got, kind of thing, whereas, and also in the future, if I do decide to change the wheels, or move them on, that can just go onto somebody's standard vehicle, in a sense. Sure. Instead of like spec 11J on the rear. Yeah. You know, I just thought I would keep them as OEM as possible. And that's the thing with this car, I think that's the theme that we're going to discover, is that not only does it look amazing, and as we talked about, it is a show car, but it also is a car that can be used, it's not just for a display, and the wheels, yeah, 20 inch wheels, Michelin Supersports on them, and they just look fantastic. What I love most about the wheels, and we're talking about this off camera a minute ago, is the fact that I really think that they almost look OEM, and I think there's a real fine balance between putting aftermarket wheels on something like this, where you could completely ruin it, by putting some crazy aftermarket wheels that destroy the look of it, but these just look like they should have been an optional extra for the M3, because they just look absolutely perfect, and they look so lightweight, I get very excited about wheels and tyres. Yeah, that's why I went with the satin black, kind of thing, because it does look lightweight, kind of thing, whereas, thinking of gloss, because obviously the gloss black that's on the vehicle, like with the trims and the roof and stuff, but yeah, I just, I'd add my competition pack wheels done in satin black, yeah, and I just love the, they look like titanium, so it just looks quite classy, kind of thing, don't they? Yeah, while we're talking about wheels and the stance of the car, suspension wise, have you changed much? Yeah, it's just got a KW Haskett on it, which is an adjustable spring, kind of thing, to basically get the stance in it, again, so standard dampers, they're connected to all your EDC and stuff in there, but adjustable springs, yeah, brilliant, okay, so best of both worlds, to achieve the look, carbon side blades, yeah, from IND, nice, sorry, I'm just going to have a moment here, I know a lot of BMW fanboys will agree with me, why did BMW not make this car? Why do they continue not to make a fast touring like this? It's just, it's so hot, it's so, I just love this car, I really, really do, I've got massive car envy on you, mate, massive car, maybe not the build process, because I wouldn't know what I was doing, but everything else, right, we've made it to perhaps the most important bit of this car, of your unicorn, the touring, the estate, the wagon, the back end of this car, I mean, it's just brilliant, mate, it really is, again, following this from behind, it's like nothing else, again, but it's not standard, we've got some, we've got extra bits on here, so tell us about, well, the exhaust, and I can see some other carbon bits, the exhaust is, I've got a modified competition pack exhaust on it at the moment, with some tailpipes from a German engineering company, I can't remember the name, because I had an in-performance titanium exhaust on it before, and they're known, prone for cracking, okay, and it cracked, and it was vibrating, so I just, for a quick change up, really, I modified the competition package exhaust, which sounds, to be honest with you, sounds really well, I'm really happy with the sound, well, we'll get to experience and listen to that soon, so, yeah, and the rear diffuser is just a bit like a, I don't know, it's quite extravagant, in the sense it flares a bit, and it just suits the stance of the vehicle, works on exactly the same fitment as a F80, okay, but this car does sit quite hard on the road kind of thing, and has got probably the best thing about it, is the stance kind of thing, and the diffuser adds to that of course, aggressiveness, yeah, well, it fits, yeah, it kind of matches what we've just looked at the front, there's also a couple of other little details, the rear glass, you can see that there's a wiper delete on there, which I think Nick might have been regretting a little bit on a day like today, because you can't see much through there, but it's all about how it looks when it's clean, it's just, everything about this car, talking clean, everything about this car is just clean, and I know I said that at the beginning, but it really is, I can't stress enough how nice it looks in real life, and I know it looks good in camera and in pictures, but mate, it's a really nice car, and you should be proud of, yeah, thank you, from the whole BMW community, I think you should be a very proud man, yeah, it's a very, very nice car, anything else we need to talk about before we get inside, and warm up a little bit, nothing really, no, no, well, I think the next thing we need to do, is just fire it up, and listen to what it sounds like, with a couple of blips on the throttle, we don't want to annoy too many people, and then we'll get it on the road, and take it to a really, really nice stretch of road, that we've got just around the corner, and see what it's actually like on the road, okay guys, here we go, I can't believe that Nick has given me this opportunity, I really can't thank you enough mate, honestly, it's mega, he's not decided to come with me, as you can see, and he's just told me to go and have a proper drive of it, along this really, really good bit of road, so that's what I intend to do, I'm going to start off in normal comfort, default, so efficiency setting, suspension in comfort, just to see what this is like, because he keeps going on about how good the suspension is, it just doesn't look like it can be from the outside, you know, it looks like it's literally sitting on air, and the bags are deflated, but I can tell you that immediately, it is so smooth, and so pliant, it's unbelievable, I can't believe that I'm driving the car, that we just did a walk around of, it just doesn't feel like that's possible, really doesn't, really nice in here, just sitting at 1200 rpm, and yeah, I could be in pretty much any 3 Series Touring, before we talk more about the driving dynamics and stuff, I just want to talk a little bit about the interior, because we didn't really touch upon that, and it is a lovely interior, so it's Sakura Orange, so it looks quite red properly on camera, contrasts very well with the blue exterior, bit of a Superman spec car, if you like, and there's quite a few nice little extras in here, this has got the extended leather, it's got the carbon package, we've got, yeah the leather dashboard and door card, so it feels, it does feel really premium in here, we've also got the M Performance steering wheel, with shift lights and temperatures and stuff on there, so lots of really special parts in here, some really nice paddles, they look like paddle shifter paddles, I might be mistaken, but they feel great, nice and long, a bit like the ones you get in an Alfa, but obviously connected to the steering wheel, as opposed to being connected to the actual steering column unit, looking ahead, I can see that lovely bonnet, that absolutely gorgeous bonnet, oh it just all feels so great in here, I've got an hour on gauge, which gives me all of my pressures and temperatures and stuff, and yeah fantastic, right let's have a proper drive! I'm going to change out of normal default, lazy mode, into preset M2 button, so MDM, everything's in Sport Plus, I'm going to knock the throttle actually back into Sport, because Sport Plus is just a bit aggressive, remember we're talking about an S55 engine, that's producing about 520 brake horsepower, it's going to be really interesting to see how this car puts the power down the ground, because it's got a lot of GTS and CS software, so I'm hoping it's not going to be too spiky, like we know the original sort of F80 series was, gearbox is in the most ferocious setting, steering is in Sport, I can actually knock that back down into Comfort, because as most of you know, I like the steering to be a little bit lighter in most modern BMWs, feels really good the rim of this wheel, it's lovely and thin, right let's just push on a bit, so we've got suspension in Sport now, not Sport Plus, and it feels a little bit stiffer, but it's still very pliant, I'm literally feathering the throttle, it just picks up so nicely, but not too much torque down low, listen to it, oh it's lovely, I have to keep reminding myself that I'm in the Touring, it's an M car in front, but I'm in the Touring, I've got the amazing M head-up display, but yet when I look in my mirror, I've got an estate behind me, I mean how cool is that, listen to this, so nice, the way it picks up, oh lovely McLaren 720, I'd rather be in this though to be fair, this is far more unique, listen to those overrun pops, as we come into a 30 zone, let's just see if we can get some, honestly this would put a stop to a lot of RS4 sales, C63 wagons, people are forced to buying those cars, they're brilliant cars, don't get me wrong, absolutely brilliant, but I'm sure BMW customers, a lot of them are forced into buying faster estates from other manufacturers, just because yes, BMW offer the M340i, but they don't offer one of these, let's just slow it down a little bit, and then do a little, oh it's traction issues like you would not believe, oh it's just great, as the weather turns to absolute crap, this is 25mph stuff, again what I just can't get over is how good the ride quality is in this car, these roads are really shocking, the surface is all over the place, it tracks dead straight, it's not pulling left or right, the ride comfort is just amazing, the last car I drove along here was an A6 all road about two hours ago, and that's potentially the most comfortable and plush car on the market today, so to think that this car, I really was picturing myself bouncing down this road, I thought well maybe we've picked a road that's a bit too harsh, but not at all, we've definitely picked a day with weather that's a bit too harsh, so look at it come down, I think the one negative that I can find, because honestly I think this car's very close to perfect, is the fact that, did you hear that exhaust, the fact that the rear tyres just aren't getting the grip that I'm hoping they would, and I think that's as much to do with the fact that they're on Pilot Supersports, which are fantastic tyres for pretty much all weather, but when you've tried something like this on PS4S's, it just transforms the car, so I know Nick has been looking at PS4S's, but due to the the way the sidewall was more square, it actually has issues getting inside these rear arches, I just, it's such a sweet car, it's just, I just love it, do I look like I love it, it strangely brings back memories of when I was driving that beautiful M3 CS through the, well I guess they're the Eiffel Mountains in Germany, I'm getting those sensations, but yeah it's the middle of winter in the UK, this car in the summer on a nice dry road, oh it'd just be incredible as I go along a road that is basically flooded, look at it, is it a river or is it a road, and that's just quarter throttle, I can't, I put my foot down once in this drive, I'm not absolutely booting this car, because the conditions aren't right, you know it's a public road, and also it's Nick's pride and joy, you know, I just, I don't even want to bear to think about the what-ifs with this car, because it is so rare, and Nick's been an absolute gent, honestly, okay guys, hopefully you've enjoyed this video as much as I have, I very much doubt it, but there you go, tried my best to sort of share my experiences with you all, and this is right up there with the very best experiences I've ever had in a car in life, thank you so much Nick, make sure you all follow him on Instagram, go and show him some love, this car is more than just aesthetics, it's the real deal, this is one of the nicest and sweetest cars I've ever driven, and I'm just so fortunate to have had the opportunity, so thank you mate, thank you very much, thanks to Patrick Films for doing all of the fancy film work at the beginning, and drive bys etc, absolute legend mate, thank you very much, and of course thanks a lot to BOTB for sponsoring this video, remember to check out the link below, and see if you could be in with a chance of winning something similar to this, like the brilliant brand new Alpina B3, or even cars like the BMW M340i that I tested recently in touring form, until the next one guys, thanks a lot for tuning in, please give us a big thumbs up if you enjoyed this video, if you like this car, I might have to give myself a thumbs up for this video, just because I love this car so so much, take easy, and I will see you at the next one!