Article Summary
- BMW built the one-off M3 E30 Pickup Truck back in 1986.
- It was kept a secret for decades and used in-house to haul work equipment.
- BMW didn't retire the workhorse until 2012.
ALPINA’s stunning new coupe is undoubtedly the star among BMWs at the 2026 Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este. However, there’s much more to see this weekend on the shores of Lake Como in Italy. The M3 turns 40 this year, making it the perfect occasion to celebrate the milestone with a special exhibition. It includes a one-off vehicle that remained secret for decades and was never sold.
It’s not a car in the traditional sense, but a truck. Built in 1986, when the original M3 went on sale, it’s the one and only E30 pickup. The workhorse started life as a convertible before BMW transformed it into a truck to haul parts and work equipment.
Why the cabrio? BMW had a couple of reasons. A convertible was readily available for the transformation, and the body style already had the extra bracing needed for pickup duty. Given the truck’s narrower body, BMW had to drop the flared wheel arches.
The E30 Truck Initially Didn’t Have The M3 Engine
When BMW originally built the M3 with a load bed, the truck wasn’t operating at its full potential. It initially featured a detuned 2.0-liter engine producing 192 horsepower. Later in its long career, it received the actual 2.3-liter S14 engine from the M3 E30 road car.
BMW kept it secret for decades before finally revealing the contraption in 2016. By then, it had already been retired for about four years. For roughly 26 years, the one-of-a-kind machine quietly served as a parts hauler behind the scenes. BMW Classic has taken exceptional care of the truck ever since, and in 2026, it remains a time capsule of a vehicle that only company employees have ever had access to.
Although BMW has since built trucks based on the M3 E92 and even the X7, those also remained one-offs. On numerous occasions, company officials have ruled out the possibility of selling a pickup. However, you can buy a brand-new truck with the heart of a BMW by opting for an Ineos Grenadier Quartermaster, which comes with a choice of B57 and B58 inline-six engines.
Even without plans to build a truck that customers could actually buy, we certainly wouldn’t mind seeing another one-off project. The X7 pickup created by BMW Munich plant trainees is approaching its seventh anniversary, so maybe it’s time for another pickup built purely for fun. Of course, that’s just wishful thinking on our part.
