Quote:
Originally Posted by The HACK
Man I miss the days when ANY BMW you can get your hands on is a capable track weapon, with a simple set of track oriented pads and some high temp brake fluids you can slay all but the mightiest from all other manufacturers on track while getting your latte from Starbucks in comfort in the morning.
In fact, I ran down a contemporary Porsche 911 Turbo S in my puny Z4 3.0i at a local, very technical track and earned a very begrudging point-by, and the same night took the missus out for dinner at a steak house. Didn’t have to compromise a nice commuter for a “track weapon” that lets me have fun destroying rubber.
In fact, my first BMW I took to the track was a bottom of the barrel E46 323Ci. 173 HP on a good day. And when I’m ON IT, there’s nothing short of Stuttgart and Munich’s best that I can’t catch on track. Didn’t used to NEED M cars just to have a competent BMW for track use...Although the wizardry put into the cars by the ///M division takes it to another level.
Now? The BEST BMW has to offer could BARELY keep up with run of the mill Toyotas, and even Ford and GM has left BMW in the dust when it comes to track performance. An area where even most non-M BMWs used to dominate, now we can’t even “take them in the twisters,” much less win at the 1/4 mile.
This is the state that BMW is in. And it’s reflected in the attitude of the general public that buys them. For what it’s worth, I used to be fine with the idea that “BMW needs to make money to keep bringing us these wonderful enthusiast oriented, special sauce M cars.”
I see now that’s just a fallacy. In reality, the dilution of the ///M brand has left BMW in a place where even the ///Ms are but a shadow of their industry leading self, that performance vehicles from Asian and domestic brands have long left BMW and its ///M divisions in the shadows.
There’s a reason the last performance car I bought was Chevrolet instead of a BMW, despite being a life long BMW “fanboy.”
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Wait what. You are saying a new M2 or M4 is barely a track car?