BMW M3 (G80) and BMW M4 (G82): How would a more conventional grille look?

It's been a long time coming; After many spy shots and leaks, the new BMW M3 and M4 have officially been revealed. Being a performance car, you would want to know some of the stats right from the get-go; Both cars are powered by a 3.0 Twin-Turbo Straight-6 engine producing up to 503hp in the Competition Variant. This allows the duo to sprint to 60mph in 3.8 seconds when paired to the 8-Speed Automatic gearbox. Once the option to remove the limiter has been selected, the top speed is 180mph. For the first time next year, buyers will be able to spec the M3 and M4 with an optional xDrive, all-wheel-drive system so expect to see even quick acceleration times.

Now let's focus on the design. From the rear, both of these cars looks far more imposing than their predecessors. Both variants feature black detailing on the spoiler and skirts which give the car a contrasting and dynamic look, especially on the debut colours. From the side, you can see the M3 and M4 take rather different approaches to the profile; The former has a more traditional glasshouse with a Hoffmeister kink on the rear window, while the latter has a low slung roofline giving it a sleeker and more aerodynamic stance. Personally, I am more of a fan of the M3 approach as you can really see the bulging rear arches behind the rear doors, giving it a more aggressive stance.

So far so good, but then we come to the elephant in the room. When you swing round to the front view, you are presented with kidney grilles like no other. We were teased with big grills since the introduction of the 4-Series which had kidneys that stretched beyond the majority of the front bumper. With the M cars, it is now a touch larger with the lower part reaching the bottom lip. The large openings on the M3 may come as a surprise to some as the standard edition of the 3-Series has conventionally sized grilles.

As expected, such a bold move has been met with generally unfavourable reception on the internet. With that in mind, I started to wonder "How would a BMW M4 look with a more conventional design?"

To answer that, I opened a photo editing program and got to work with modifying the front fascia. Having smoothed over the grille and placed some kidneys from the BMW M8 Competition (albeit reduced in size), this was the end result:

To some, this may be an improvement. It has a much cleaner front end, but I can't help but notice how much less imposing it looks with the large grille missing. Part of the reason could be that it reminds me of the Vauxhall Corsa. Not an ideal comparison for an M car, right? At least with the huge grille, you end up with something far more distinctive.

So am I saying the criticism for the new M3 and M4 is unjustified? Not entirely, everyone is entitled to their opinion. However, it is probably not the best idea to write off the M3 and M4 just because of the grille. If you take some cult cars which have made their debut with polarising designs, people have just become accustomed to them over time and I am sure people will also grow to like the new M cars, especially once they have realised just how capable these cars are.