M Coupe Makes Jalopnik's Best 10 Cars of the Decade

Jalopnik's Best 10 Cars of the Decade
From Jalopnik.com, Link

The criteria:

"Leave the minivans to the buff books, the sales stars to the wire services, and the hybrids to the green freaks. As Best10 week continues, here's Jalopnik's Best10 of the past decade.

Before putting together a list of the cars we dug the most — the stuff from the past decade that most represents Jalopnik — we decided to put down some ground rules:

1. This ain't Jalopnik Fantasy Garage — the car has to be attainable for an ordinary person, or perhaps an ordinary person who has mortgaged a kidney and inherited half of their hometown. MSRP is capped at $200k.

2. No matter what it is, the vehicle in question has to have made us cackle the first time we drove (or, in some cases, saw) it. Fuel mileage and practicality matter, but they aren't what gets us — or, we assume, you — in showrooms. Yes, we're admitting a bias toward the impractical. If you don't agree, come up with your own damn list in the comments.

3. To make the list, a car or truck has to be sold in the United States between 2000 and 2010. It has to be available to the public through an ordinary, open-door dealership. No gray-market imports allowed. No kit cars. Production must exceed 1,000 units per year.

4. Some of these cars are blindingly fast, but this isn't meant to be a list of salt-flat options. Nor is it a list of cars that made a difference in the industry. More than anything, these machines are what motivate car-obsessed freaks like us to find a way, any way, to justify a purchase. (In other words, no one buys a hybrid in a fit of passion, so those are automatically out.) "

I'm not sure if there is a hierarchy, but it's the first car on the list:
Link

BMW M Coupe

"Years Produced: 1999 - 2002
Base Price When New: $45,990 (2002)
Engine: 3.2-liter I-6, 240 hp, 3.2-liter I-6, 315 hp
Curb Weight: 3230 lb (2002)
Power-To-Weight Ratio: 10.25 lb/hp (2002)

This is it, propellerheads — this is the last of the nuthouse BMWs, the last car Munich built where the loonies were in charge of the asylum. Step one: Take a Z3. Step two: Graft a steel roof onto it, increasing structural rigidity threefold. Step three: Add a version of either the E36 or E46 M3's in-line six. The Z3 M Coupe is as unhinged as BMWs come, a rolling testament to the fact that the company once gave a shit about the die-hard enthusiast. Every BMW since has been too ordinary, too dull, and too fat by comparison.

M Coupes made in 1999 and 2000 featured a version of the E36 M3's 240-hp S52 six-cylinder. These are nice cars — and they're far cheaper than 2001-2002 models — but something is missing. We prefer to think of that something as "batshit crazy."

What You Probably Didn't Know: The M Coupe's semi-trailing-arm rear suspension effectively dates back five decades; BMW first used this layout on its 600 microcar, produced from 1957 to 1959. The Z3 and Z3 Coupe were the last production BMWs to use a similar design. (The same setup was also found on Munich's legendary 1600/2002 and E30-chassis M3.)

What You Probably Didn't Know, Short Wheelbase And Big Power Doth Not Always Equal Hoonage Edition: A stock Z3 M Coupe understeers like mad, the victim of liability-focused suspension engineers and a heavy nose. Add some roll stiffness and shuffle the spring rates, however, and that sucker will dance."