BMW has revised its popular 3 Series. Ted Welford tries it out in flagship M440i guise.

Though you might only consider models like the M3 and M5 to be ‘true M cars’, BMW offers a number of ‘M Performance’ models across pretty much all of its range too.

Bringing a greater focus on sportiness and more performance than ‘regular’ models, they sit between the standard car and full-fat M Models.

Take the 3 Series, which is one of BMW’s biggest sellers, and of which up to 15 per cent of versions sold are these ‘M Performance’ versions. BMW has now tweaked them in line with the rest of the 3 Series line-up. Let’s find out what they’re like.

BMW has left the beating heart of the M340i and M340d the same as before, and we’ll explore more about its straight-six engines later.

Read the full test-drive at timesmotors.com