Evil Buddha

I have to say that I am now far more impressed with BMW; than before the event. The M5 was solid and well balanced. The traction control did limit the cars power in the hard turns more than I care for (we were not allowed to turn it off). It had lots of power and great brakes. It didn't quite give you the feedback that the RS4 does and at times the suspension felt a bit soft. Overall I felt that it was a great car and if priced closer to the RS I would consider it as a replacement if and only if it had AWD.

Now the M3 was fun but a bit of a disappointment. I only got to run it on a wet track (M5 was a dry track) so it was very hard to tell how it would perform in the dry. The car seemed to have a lot of power to weight. The shifts were short and clean but the back would break loose even in the straight with a blip of the gas and the car would kick the back end out. I found the back was easy to catch and could be controlled by being VERY precise with the gas. The front pushed quite a bit in the turns but as I said this was in the wet so it was very hard to be fair in judging the car. I would only take this as an option if once again they put AWD on the car.

The funny thing was that I was as impressed with the 335 as any of the other cars we drove. Very peppy and great handling. For the money I just don't know if you could beat it when compared to the other cars.

My final thought is that I may have to hang on to my RS4 for longer than I thought. You just can't beat our car for feedback, safety in the wet, storage on trips with the kids and most off the looks of the RS4 just kill the BMW's ;-)

The following is a list of what we did today:
Area 1 - Wet / Dry auto-X:
Driving 335s through a coned
autocross course that combines normal dry
asphalt with a wet polished concrete surface.

Area 2 - Performance Drive:
Drive an M5, around a large road course.

Area 3 - Sports Handling w/ Timed Runs:
Drive the all new 335 around a road course
and try to post your best lap time.

Area 4 - Off Road course:
Driving the X5 or X3, you will challenge the
capabilities of BMW's X Drive all wheel system.

Area 5 - Match / Rat Race:
Driving the M3 6spd, you
will race your opponent around a course to
see who gets back to the finish line first.

STALKIN RS4

I really like the way the new M3 drives. I use to have a e46 M3 before the RS4.

AchTTung--Vollgas

Sounds like a great time. Thanks for the impressions.

gamman

what do you think about e46 m3 vs rs4? I am thinking of getting a e46 comp....

STALKIN RS4

The e46 M3 is a fantastic machine. I loved mine. But if you want the most out of it, I would recommend doing a few mods. Coilovers with camber plates, CSL headers, SS mid pipe and new exhaust. It will transform the car.

I did the above plus many many many other mods, I think I spent about 40Gs on mods, but the car was a rocket. I used it as my daily driver, and my weekend track beast, also drove it all year round.

larryV

It simply blows away the M5, M6 and RS4 in handling and steering feel. Makes those cars feel like boats in comparison. RS4 comes close but definitely not as balanced. And I'm saying this as a former E60 M5, RS4, and now an E92 M3 owner.

I actually attended the BMW performance center's M-experience (2-day "driving school" was complimentary with a purchase of an M5 or M6). From my understanding the purchase of an M3 includes a 1-day course, but I haven't received confirmation from BMW on this. It was fun and best of all, free. Too bad Audi doesn't do this for RS owners.

brianja

The performance center in SC is a great time. I did the 2-day Z8 school there a few years back..

Evil Buddha

This one &gt;<ul><li><a href="http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&amp;hl=en&amp;geocode=&amp;q=bmw+greer+sc &amp;ie=UTF8&amp;ll=34.906557,-82.179708&amp;spn=0.007567,0.009012&amp;t=h&amp;z= 16">http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&amp;hl=en&amp;geocode=&amp;q=bmw+greer+sc &a

brianja

My group spent our second day at Michelin's test track (GIANT compound) which is also not far from here.

larryV

yup, same place