I suspect in terms of on-the-limit balance and driveability, the 3 series will punch well above its weight (OK, well below it if you're pedantic!) but it'll never be as chuckable as a hot hatch. But a car "feels" good if it talks to you. You need to know when you're approaching its limits and you need to know how it will react when you get very close or step over them. Ultimately there's no substitute for weight but there's a lot you can do to a car to make it handle well.
One thing that often makes me laugh at our colonial cousins is that they seem to have this obsession with "stiff=sporty" (say it in the right accent in your head, it really helps) which is utter nonsense. A stiffer car simply reacts to your inputs more quickly but is nearly always worse handling than a softer car. A bit of body roll lets you know instinctively when you're getting close to the limits of adhesion, a softer car with a good damping setup will always keep more rubber on the road compared to the same car with stiffer springs. It's just simple physics. You can control transitional forces with better damping and good ARBs and keep softer springs to get a much more driveable car. Slam it and you'll ruin it every time. Oh, and it'll look stupid
