Quote:
Originally Posted by srbs73
Quote:
Originally Posted by jmg
That misses the entire point of an M car. It's not for average conditions, it's for extraordinary conditions. Going fast to 60 is also not extraordinary. You can engineer almost any car to go fast to 60. All you need is power and traction. Where the extraordinary engineering happens is handling dynamics and consistency lap after lap after lap after lap. No matter how hard you push your car on the street, you will not even get 75% of the abuse these cars take on the track. It's either too unsafe, or doesn't require the driver to skirt the edge for tenths of a second. This is why even less powerful cars with slower 0-60 times can pass other more powerful cars. People keep thinking a fast 0-60 time makes their car a sports car until they get to the track and get embarassed by Miatas.
So yes, I think they hold their own place... on the street. With some modifications they can hold their place on the track as well, but then you are sacrificing the daily driveability that the car excels and still with compromises compared to it's M counterpart.
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Not disagreeing. As someone else said, they sit in a spot in between M cars and the rest of the range. And for me, who will never take my own car on a track, in many ways it’s the most sensible option. An M car restricted to under 70mph in normal conditions doesn’t really get the opportunity to show its strengths. |
Agreed. Different driver, different needs. What's somewhat annoying is when a non-M driver says their car is "better" an M car on the street because it's just as fast or faster to 60 but is more comfortable for daily driving. It ignores the fact that other drivers have more demanding needs. At sub 4 seconds for both M cars and M performance cars, do we really care who wins a 0-60 when, like you said, we don't even really have that opportunity to show it's strengths on public roads.
In the end though, it just seems to be about bragging rights for something they can't really use unless they are breaking the law. It just seems a bit meaningless to me.