Five ultimate BMW M3s part 4: E90 CRT

Though the E90 M3 CRT shares its infrastructure with the BMW M3 GTS, it wasn’t intended to be a hardcore track-beast.

BMW actually built the car to ‘show off’ its ability to manufacture carbon fibre-reinforced plastic, or CFRP.

The CRT moniker stands for Carbon Racing Technology, and it shows.

After creating the CFRP for the i3 and i8, BMW had leftover materials which became the starting point for the CRT.

The bonnet alone had a weight reduction of 50 per cent due to being made of CFRP rather than aluminium, so once passenger cells, seats and spoilers were created in the same material, the CRT only had a 1580kg curb weight.

Coupled with the GTS’s 4.4-litre V8 producing 331kW/440Nm, the M3 CRT could hit 100km/h in a claimed 4.4 seconds.

This performance doesn’t come cheap though, one’s up for sale on US luxury classified website DuPont Registry for $299,950 USD, or $396,900 Aussie dollarydoos.

With only 67 CRTs produced, it’s not surprising to see it advertised for so much money, though we imagine a right-hook example would fetch more – there are only five of those in the world.

All of them were painted in ‘Frozen Polar Silver’ metallic, with carbon trim and accents in ‘Melbourne Red’ metallic.

Despite being a lightweight version of the M3, CRTs came with automatic climate control, BMW’s navigation system, an audio system, and the rest of the creature comforts you’d expect from an M3.

It’s essentially a ‘liveable’ GTS you could drive daily, but it had four doors, which is why it’s the ultimate E90/E92 BMW for us.