BMW Secretly Built An E30 M3 Pickup And Used It For 26 Years

In 1986, the same year BMW launched the original E30 M3, someone inside the company had a radical idea. Take a convertible, gut the rear end, fit a load bed, and put it to work on the factory floor. That is exactly what happened. For 26 years, this one-of-a-kind pickup moved parts and equipment around BMW’s facilities without anyone outside the company knowing it existed. BMW didn’t retire it until 2012. It was only revealed to the public in 2016, and this year, with the M3 turning 40, BMW has brought the E30 M3 pickup out to the Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este on the shores of Lake Como to finally give it the spotlight it never had.

From Detuned Workhorse to Proper M3

According to BMW Blog, the choice to use a convertible as the donor car was deliberate. The cabriolet body already had additional structural reinforcement built in, which made it better suited for the stress of pickup duty than a standard coupe or saloon. BMW also stripped the distinctive flared wheel arches, leaving the truck with a narrower, more purposeful stance. When it was first built, the truck didn’t run the M3’s high-revving engine at all. It started life with a detuned 2.0-litre four-cylinder making 192 horsepower. At some point during its working life, BMW swapped in the proper 2.3-litre S14 unit from the road car, a naturally aspirated engine that produced around 200 horsepower in standard form and has since become one of the most celebrated engines in motorsport history.

The Ultimate Limited Edition E30

The E30 M3 was never short on special editions. BMW produced the Sport Evolution with 238 horsepower, a lightweight Cecotto edition, and the Roberto Ravaglia edition to commemorate his 1987 touring car title. Standard E30 M3s average around $72,000, with Sport Evolutions pushing well past that.

One-off factory vehicles with documented provenance sit in a different category entirely. Given this truck’s combination of M3 underpinnings, its unique body conversion carried out by the factory itself, and nearly three decades of factory service history, a conservative estimate for what it would fetch at auction starts around $1 million, if BMW even decided to part ways with it.