BMW M3 vs. Toyota Supra Twin Turbo

Toyota's previously unloved muscle machine returns as a grey import to haunt BMW's brilliant M3 in an unlikely battle for the hearts, minds and wallets of purist drivers

Its all about how much you want to show off. The BMW M3 is subtle but deeply ingrained showing-off. Small badges, small door mirrors, surprisingly low-key alloys, this car could easily be mistaken for a 318i by those who don't spot chin spoilers. But when the penny drops, any the true identity clicks, the M3 becomes a car with 8in-thick, bullet-proof street cred.

Then there's the grey import Toyota Supra RZ. This is high-profile but more superficial showing-off. Impressed-until-you-find-out-it's-just-a-Toyota showing-off; high-gloss, spanked-up, big-winged, 'look at me showing off' showing-off. Wide-bodied, small-glass, slicked-back Gran Turismo showing-off. Wheelspin in third gear showing-off.

I think you get the picture.

But once you've chosen your mode of high-street celebrity, these cars are amazingly close under the skin. The £38,420 BMW M3 Evo has a 321bhp 3.2-litre straight-six with Vanos variable valve timing, driving the rear wheels via a six-speed gearbox.

The £36,450 Toyota Supra RZ, which fails to make official import status because Toyota can't get it through 'official' emissions tests, has a 3.0-litre turbocharged straight-six engine with VVT-i variable valve timing. Claimed power is 280bhp, but only because the Japanese tell damnable lies about horsepower (there's a gentleman's agreement that restricts output to that figure, so that's what they claim). Back in 1996, pre-VVT official Supras were 326bhp, so this car will be more than that - 340bhp maybe? The Supra also has rear-wheel drive and a six-speed gearbox.

So you see, visuals aside, Japan has little to offer that is closer to Europe's iconic BM super-coupe.

But why would anyone overlook an M3 Evo, which lines up in the showroom next to the M Coupe, M Roadster and M5, and choose the grey-import Toyota, parked up next to the Starlet and the Picnic? Why would anyone choose this chubby-faced bloater rather than a trim and perfectly proportioned greyhound of German supremacy? Drive both cars for half an hour and you'll have your answer.

Supra first. And let's look at the quality: this Toyota is exceptionally well screwed together. From the clunk of the door handle to the grippy seats to the solid dash mouldings inside, it gives little away to the BMW in the way it's built. The driving position's excellent, low and laid back, and the three-spoke steering wheel is small and palm-grippy. Ahead is a big central rev-counter and a curved dash full of knobs and buttons that all click so precisely it's absorbing just turning the heating up and down. The rear legroom would have small children screaming in pain in minutes, but nothing of any real importance is wrong with this interior.

The RZ's 2997cc engine, known in that charmingly precise Japanese way as the BEANS "J" VVT-i Twin Cam 24-valve Two Way Twin Turbo (and I have the brochure to prove it), is a big engine with a big name. It has every piece of technology conceivable (well that I can think of anyway) to provide you with the maximum swell of speed throughout the rev range. From 2000rpm, through its torque max (333lb ft) at 3600rpm, up to its power peak at 5600rpm, this car is on fire and on charge. Pulling away from a standing start, that first slug of acceleration comes on so abruptly and so seriously you'll leave everything this side of a Class One supercar behind you. Sixty miles per hour lies less than five seconds ahead.

The steering matches the engine in all round deliciousness, being heavy yet fluid, sensitive yet trustworthy. The original official UK cars used to have a false steering feel, all weight and no real communication, but this car feels much more natural, more genuinely sporty. The handling only disappoints when it starts tramlining, which it does on crummy surfaces, or when it starts to feel floaty, which it does when it's time to slow down anyway.

Get out of the Supra and into the BMW and you're in for a shock. This is the M3 Evo? King Of The Overtaking Lane? Lord Commander of The Three Series? Surely not. After the Supra, the M3 feels tight, constrained, restricted, like it's got marmalade for oil. The M3 squirts power precisely and incrementally through a small tube where the Supra splashes it on by the bucketload. That doesn't mean it's slow, but it takes some adjusting to its non-turbo high-revving nature before you can coax the same speed out of it as you enjoyed in the Supra.

The steering - Achilles heel of this M3 model since it was launched (in pre-Evo form) back in 1993 - feels slow and a bit numb compared to the Toyota. The car tracks much better than its Japanese rival, with no tramlining floating to worry you when you're in a hurry, but the act of turning into a bend and feeling the front end grip (which it does) and the back end squat under power and push you out (which it does) contains less simple satisfaction in the BMW. It feels less pointy, less involving, less direct. The seats are also wider, the steering wheel feels bigger, the pedals feel stiffer and the noise, though crackly and raspy, is subdued by comparison. It feels less exciting to drive. Which is strange, because it is, after all, an M3. Let's not forget that.

But what the M3 has that marks it out as really special is a kind of magical spontaneity in its responses. It uses a battery of six individual throttle butterflies that open together, giving it electric reactions to tiny throttle movements, the moment you ask it. that response time helps the M£ to stay with the laggy Japanese car in a straight-line fight, despite the Supra's eventual advantage (the BMW takes 5.4 seconds to 60mph). In the end, balancing power, weight and delivery, they're very very close.

But for someone who enjoys driving, great throttle response and big speeds alone just aren't enough. Yes, the Supra is probably less able than the M3, ultimately, and its engineering isn't up to the aerospace feel of the BMW (a turbo isn't as clever as a normally aspirated 100bhp per litre, is it?).

But the Supra is just more fun to drive, more exceptional. You might think the Toyota is the car with the mundane gene pool, but it's the M3 that feels like a normal car with some special bits, rather than a special car outright.

The Supra is inescapably special: special to drive, special to sit in, special to listen to even. And, of course, extraordinary to look at. But that's OK. It might look a bit outrageous for our reserved British tastes, but the Supra has the right to boast. It has the ability to match, and I'd take the spanked-up, bug-winged route every time.