BMW M3 Touring station wagon is actually happening

We seem to be in a station wagon renaissance. Following a new RS 6 Avant, which is actually coming to America, BMW is getting in on the hot wagon, er, bandwagon with an honest-to-goodness BMW M3 Touring. Not only is that exciting for wagon fans, but for BMW fans in general, since BMW has never made an M version of the 3 Series wagon. The closest the company came was with a prototype in 2000 of an E46 M3 wagon.

The teaser doesn't reveal much except a carefully shaded three-quarter shot of the rear of a wagon. It does have big fat rear fenders, a chunky diffuser and four cannon-size exhaust tips.

Mechanically, it should be basically identical to the M3 sedan and M4 coupe. The base engine will be a 473-horsepower twin-turbo 3.0-liter straight-six, and the likely Competition trim will make 503 horsepower from an uprated version of the engine. The base engine on those cars can be had with either a six-speed manual transmission or eight-speed automatic and only the latter with the high-output engine. Rear-wheel drive will be available on both, and all-wheel-drive only on the Competition.