Two M3 Questions
 

Hi,

I've been looking at some M3's and I wanted to know two things;
Does the 97 M3 have more horsepower than later models (except for the 2000+'s)?
I have a car mag that says the 97 had 321HP and the 98 on had the 242.
What doe the "Onboard Computer" do on the 99 and previous M3's?

Thanks in advance,

I'm not completely sure but I believe the Europeans had 321 hp from 97-99. We had 242 on all the 3.2 liter M3's. As for the "OBC" it calculates fuel mileage, distance traveled, average speed, and the arrival time for a given mileage. It also displays the outside temperature, date/time and if you have exceeded a speed you preset (for instance you can set it for 90 mph and if the car exceeds that it chimes). And you can record memos. Hope this answers your questions.

The '97 car is a euro-spec car whereas the '98 M3 is US spec...Euro cars got more horses then US cars and from what I understand,the Canadians got the euro spec cars...

Canada specific answer: 1994 saw 45 Euro spec M3s imported. The full 286 hp 6 throttle bodies 3L I6 engine. I seem them for sale every once in a while and the sellers are VERY proud of them as reflected in the prices they are asking). The rest of the E36 run for the Canada market had the same 240hp US spec engine.

HTH.