BMW

Look inside the M3's engine

Has BMW finally got an advert that not even Honda can match?

Auto Express Car Reviews

By Mark Nichol

08th April 2008

If the heart of an M3 is its V8 engine, then BMW has just performed a triple bypass!

For years Honda’s clever car ads have been unrivalled, but BMW has literally exploded onto screens with an ad that’s set to burn Honda’s creative fingers – by filming inside the M3’s engine!

The concept is simple – what happens during one revolution inside a cylinder from BMW’s awesome V8? And the results are truly mesmerizing proving that the simplest ideas are often the best.

But don’t think it was an easy exercise. No computer generated imagery was used in the making of the 30-second advert, which utilises no less than three complete 4.0-litre V8 engines and took a total of four, 20-hour days to film.

Capturing the combustion cycle involved drilling into the cylinders and inserting special cameras able to record at 10,000 frames per second. The results are spectacular.

And unless any diehard BMW fans have a particular problem with the dismantling of three powerplants, it’s unlikely the ad will suffer the same fate as VW’s latest campaign.

The ‘singing dog’ ad, in which a Jack Russell sings I’m A Man while on the passenger seat of a Polo, but stands quivering when he’s not in the car, has prompted a raft of complaints from dog-lovers.