The BMW M Roadster was designed to be the performance version of the BMW Z3, and there were significant differences between the two variants. The body of the M Roadster had many slight differences. These included front and rear bumpers, gills, rear wings, boot and mirrors. Under the skin many of the components were beefed up with many of them taken from the E30 M3 and E36 M3 Evo including brakes and much of the suspension. Based on the E36 platform, the Z3 Roadster was considered the E36/7 platform. The M Roadster could run a wider track under the flared wheel arches as well as wider wheels and tires to try to tame the increased power. Standard tyre sizes for the M Roadster is 225/45r17 at the front and 245/40r17 at the back. The low offset of the rear wheels allows plenty of flexibility to increase the rear tire width. A dual exhaust system fed each set of three cylinders to two dual tailpipes. This quad exhaust has since become an BMW M division signature. Other changes included adding a limited slip differential, a different gearbox and strengthening the chassis. The interior had a different look to the standard Z3, starting with the M-version steering wheel and including different instrumentation such as an oil temperature gauge. Finally, the car was available in M-specific colors which were not released for the regular Z3, at least in the early production years (not counting BMW's Individual program). Early cars featured ABS as standard. Traction and stability control also became standard with the new engine. The Z3 was facelifted, but in common with other BMW M vehicles, the M Roadster's appearance was not updated. Production Numbers Edit In the 5 years from 1998 to 2002, approximately 15,000 M Roadsters were produced for both European and North American markets. This is compared to the 300,000 standard Z3s produced in the same time frame. This makes them very rare and highly desired by car and performance enthusiasts.