PAU, France (CNN) -- Take a pen, start with the nib at the bottom left corner of the page. Gently drag the pen diagonally from bottom left to top right and you have a quick and easy graphic representation of the price differential between the standard BMW 3-series and its habañero cousin the M3 coupe over the last four generations (and 20 years).

Quad exhaust pipes and M-badging distinguish the M3 from standard 3-series coupes

The car in my hands is, supposedly, a 3-series. You know the 3-series. You may well own one. You almost certainly know someone who owns one. It is the ubiquity of the 3-series that has seen BMW become a more mainstream player (without making an obvious lurch down-market) while the mainstream has made an obvious lurch up-market to plug the gap. Ford's new Mondeo couldn't be clearer in its 3-series aspiration.

But this latest M3 has substantially less in common with the vanilla 3-series than I have with a gorilla (98.4 per cent shared DNA). Eighty per cent of the M3's body panels are brand new, from the aluminum hood to the composite fenders and carbon-fiber reinforced plastic roof.

And let's get back to that graph. This UK-specification car costs £50,000 (€74,000). With the options as tested (including the gorgeous 19" alloy wheels, one of which I pranged on a curb while rectifying a going-the-wrong-way-down-a-one-way-street maneuver -- I'm blaming the co-driver for this navigational error, and so should you) we're talking close to £55,000 (€81,000).

It looks good. It looks purposeful and aggressive and more -- what's the word -- obvious than its M3 predecessors, with the engorged dome on the hood to accommodate the 4-liter V8 and the Aston-like side air-intakes with integrated side-light repeaters and M3 badging. But it still looks like a pumped-up family car rather than a purpose-built sports car (though it sits between Porsche's Cayman S and 911 Carrera in price). It may just be possible to buy one and pretend to one's spouse that it's a sensible family car -- providing, that is, that the 22.8 mpg (12.4 liters per 100 km) combined fuel economy (and the regularity of trips to the gas station this necessitates) doesn't give the game away.

Inside it's typical BMW -- leather seats that adjust to accommodate any driver (including those such as me who are short of body but long of leg) and a chunky leather steering wheel stitched with the cyan, blue and scarlet colors of BMW's M division.

On the road the M3 is -- simply -- lovely. Over 20 years BMW's M cars have evolved from homologation specials (road car versions of track racers) to sedate luxury saloons that can transfer themselves into sporting monsters. Some earlier enthusiastic driving from my co-driver made it necessary to drive slowly, in sixth gear, behind the slipstream of a motor home to conserve fuel while on a desperate hunt for a gas station. In some sports cars this would require skill and dedication. Not so in the M3, it drives however you want to drive. It can pootle as competently as it can hustle.

And boy can it hustle. When questioned later that day, a BMW spokesman denied any knowledge of the cars having had their limiters disabled. But I can state that I was passenger in a car that supposedly tops out at 155 mph (200 km/h) at a staggering 176 mph (283 km/h). The question of whether this delimited limiter is an "undocumented feature" or a manufacturer's attempt to woo motoring journalists with a set-up that isn't representative of the sale car, will only be resolved once the first customers take delivery of their new M3s.

There is, of course, more to the M3 than flat-out speed on the straight. It's a car that allows drivers a turn of speed on twisty roads with confidence
what is the generation of the BMW M3 coupe what engine does the car have What kind of engine does the vehicle have? An excellent very fast car
four 4-liter V8 4-liter V8 Mondeo
question: what is the generation of the BMW M3 coupe, answer: four | question: what engine does the car have, answer: 4-liter V8 | question: What kind of engine does the vehicle have?, answer: 4-liter V8 | question: An excellent very fast car, answer: Mondeo