The 2006 M3 that's up for auction has the Dinan S Competition package and was purchased new by two-time Indianapolis 500 winner Dan Wheldon. In 2005, racer Dan Wheldon was having a very good year. He'd won the Indy 500, drunk the milk in Victory Lane, and then gone on to win the IndyCar championship outright.
Wheldon's gift to himself just turned up on Bring a Trailer, and it reveals him to be not just a charismatic race winner, but also a man of impeccable taste. It's a 2006 BMW M3 with the desirable combination of the Competition package and a six-speed manual transmission, finished in blue-black metallic paint over rich brown nappa leather interior.
This M3 was also fitted with the Dinan S package for a bit sharper power and handling. Under the hood is what you really want to find from a car company with the middle name of Motor: a smooth and revvy inline-six. No forced induction, just 3.2 liters of displacement and a redline of 8000 rpm once the oil's warmed up.
View Price on AmazonThanks to the bump from BMW tuning specialist Dinan, power here is up to 355 horsepower and 281 pound-feet of torque. M3s of this vintage came with two transmission options: a traditional three-pedal manual or a sequential manual gearbox. This last was better than most people remember, but when dual-clutch transmissions came along, it seemed pretty clunky.
Happily, this example has been turned into a proper, old-fashioned stick shift. Even without the Indy racer provenance, this is peak spec for this generation of M3. The paint is called Carbon Black, but it's really more of a midnight blue, offering complex subtleties, especially when hit by golden hour light conditions.
The Competition package upgrades include great-looking 19-inch wheels. The mileage is excellent at 78,000 miles, low but not can't-drive-it low. Inside, color-matching the headliner to the seats is just that little bit special, and the controls are refreshingly no-nonsense compared to screen-cluttered modern cars.
BMW said, "You'll get exactly one button on the steering wheel, and you'll like it." You can, however, still enjoy niceties like the Harman Kardon upgraded audio and navigation. The auction ends on July 22.
Source: caranddriver.com
