If it's one thing German cars do well, it's high speed stability. Cars built in Germany are subject to high standards of speed, comfort, and usability to suit the country's famous Autobahns. But after 20 years of driving and abuse, can a good German car still hold up to all that high speed action? Alex Kersten of Car Throttle took his 20-year-old BMW E36 M3 to the Autobahn to find out.

When it was introduced 1992, the second-generation M3 had a top speed of just over 155 mph. For models sold in Europe, it was equipped with a 282 horsepower three-liter straight six engine, which after 1995, was upgraded to a 3.2-liter, 321 horsepower unit. It was a quick car in its day, and barring any major mechanical issues, should be nearly as fast today.

Kersten made sure his M3 was in fine mechanical shape before taking it to Germany and running it on a strip of the derestricted Autobahn, with an oil change, a new fuel filter, and even new rear dampers. He notes the car is 30 horsepower down on it's original rating, but decides to see what the car can do anyway. Shockingly, Alex is able to take his car all the way to an indicated 159 mph (!), breaking the car's official top speed by four miles per hour. In a car with 20 years of driving under its belt, that's mighty impressive.

Watch for yourself as Alex pushes cars to the upper limits of the M3's impeccable German engineering.

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