Modified
Manhart gives BMW’s ultimate dad chariot 640 horses. Should be fun to… hoof it, then?
This is exactly what it looks like: a tuned BMW M3 Touring with all the subtlety of putting The Ramones’ ‘I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend’ on a mixtape.
And in case there’s any kind of confusion over exactly what it is, Manhart’s model name sorts that out rather neatly: MH – for Californian metal band Machine Head, obviously – then ‘3’ for 3 Series and ‘650’ for the number of metric horsepower the engine produces. As to what constitutes a metric horsepower, that’s simple: it’s the power made by a horse that doesn’t know how many shillings are in a crown.
One would think that Manhart, being German, would use the actual metric system and speak in kilowatts. But the kW is a much less lyrical unit of measurement, and one that also yields smaller numbers for any given output. Properly metricated, we’d have the MH3 485, and probably something like the MH3 640 if we translated into British horses. Thankfully, the MH3’s 590lb torque figure isn’t represented on its badge, so we don’t have to jump out of one measurement morass into another. In any case, precise figures – or indeed how they’re measured – will take something of a back seat to the real-world experience of deploying them. As will anything not strapped down, by the sounds of things
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Much like the M3-saloon-based MH3 GTR, the MH3 650’s power bump comes courtesy of a bimodal stainless steel exhaust and an auxiliary engine control unit, which rather answers the question of how much BMW left on the table with the standard M3. The body kit is largely the same as Manhart’s tuned M3 saloon as well, including “a plethora of carbon parts”, like the front and rear spoiler, diffuser and the aero pieces mounted ahead of the rear wheels.
As for that paintjob and the decals… well, the ‘silk matt black’ is Manhart’s choice, obviously enough, although buyers can opt for another hue if they so desire. The decal pack, on the other hand, is Manhart’s “signature final touch”, which rather feels like a way of saying ‘It’s going to be there, sunshine’ – just with a bit more subtlety than that mixtape we made back in the day.
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Keyword: The MH3 650 is a ballistic estate based on the BMW M3 Touring