Popular Mechanics has chosen the new BMW M3 as the winner of the 2008 Automotive Excellence Award in the category of Performance.

One of the deciding factors for the M3’s victory was its versatility both on and off the track as well as its “mastery of refining and redefining the entire performance envelope.” In case you forgot, the M3 is propelled by a 4.0L V8 that produces 414 horses. A feat of engineering mastery in itself, this engine gets over 100hp/L of displacement, something that once upon a time was only achieved by the likes of Ferarri.

Other categories included design, which was won by the Nissan GTR, luxury, won by the Cadillac CTS, Versatility, won by the Chrysler Town & Country/Dodge Caravan.

Congrats to all the winners. We’re sure you deserve it. Maybe not as much as Driver’s Life deserves to win Blog of the year, or its author (yours truly) deserves to win “most eligible bachelor” but probably pretty close.
[Source: Popular Mechanics]