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2007 BMW M3 - The Golden Road Rules
Point A: Lincoln Tunnel, New York City.
Point B: Atlantic City, New Jersey.
A busy day in Manhattan and a girl’s calendar is crammed with nonstop events. Deadlines. Deals. Drinks. Dinners. Demands. That’s the life of a lady in the lead. And it’s all good, except every now and then, it gets to be a bit much. Sometimes the best therapy is to dip out of the hustle and bustle and clear your head. I turned to a chain e-mail sent me to by best friend all the way in La La California, offering some advice from the Dalai Lama. The title reads “Instructions for Life,” I scroll down pondering my day’s activities. Rule #1 tells me take into account that great love and achievements involve great risk. The feisty 2007 BMW M3 comes to the rescue, offering the perfect solution.
 It’s not a luxe Lexus or a cozy CLS that one might assume is meant for a lady of hard work and ultimate leisure. But, rest assured, an M3 is ideal for a girl on the go, who is not afraid of a speeding ticket and thus brings me to Rule #2 -- when you lose, don’t lose the lesson.
The M3 requires purpose -- experienced drivers who embrace the challenge of the 6-speed requiring the qualities of Dalai Lama’s Rule #3 to have respect for self, respect for others and responsibility for all your actions. The M3 is a real performance monger that’s ready to rumble -- a bastion of BMW power with 333-horsepower and sensitive steering that responds at the slightest nudge. Retail therapy has its benefits, but there’s something to be said for revitalizing revs. With an optional sequential manual gearbox, there’s a little assist with operation, which is like aromatherapy for the heels.
 By BMW definition, the fun of BMW driving is in the workload. Like meditating, sometimes the pose isn’t comfortable, but the joy comes on surrendering to the sensations.
And so if what you’re expecting is an extra-squishy ergonomic seat,
over-the-top interior luxury and super sensors warning of all impending danger, the M3 probably isn’t the car for you. Keep an open mind until you experience it. As Rule #4 states that when you don’t get what you want sometime it’s a wonderful stroke of luck.
Perhaps you’ll discover what I have -- that there’s joy in commanding the freeway with cool assertion. Then the M3 is among your best bets for performance, which allows you to toy with the suspension for that racetrack vibe. If a 7-Series is a sailing ship, the M3 is a stealth bomber. My experience on the New Jersey freeways attests to that fact. You make a move and the car bends and weaves with your caress.
 This is a car that pays attention to the driver. The day starts out with the usual hubbub of traffic lingering from Manhattan, until I hit the open stretch of the Garden State Parkway. Passersby are mere fireflies left behind and with a pulse of the throttle in 4.8 seconds I’ve left all stalkers stunned, en route to hitting 60 mph. Rule #5: Learn the rules so you know how to properly break them. Need I say more?
Once you get going, it’s really hard to stop. I read the odometer correctly after my escapades to New Jersey shore -- 620-some miles, when all was said and done. I’ve fulfilled Rule #8: To spend some time alone everyday. But that was okay with me; when you’re in an M3, long distance travel is the name of the game.
While I’ve skipped a few of the Dalai Lama’s thoughtful instructions, you can see that an M3 might be the best kept secret to escape stressful days -- only a bit more of an investment than a trip to the spa at $48,000, which brings me to rule #10: Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer.
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