Quote:
Originally Posted by thaalrasha
Quote:
Originally Posted by jmack123
First off, unless you are a professional racecar driver, and using your M car as such, then the "Motorsport" designation is pointless. 99% of people are either going to occasionally track their M car or never track it at all, let alone use it for "Motorsport". The M designation therefore was never about true Motorsport. Any M car being used for professional purposes is going to be so heavily modified that it is not even a "true" M car anymore - it is a racecar. What you are purchasing is a STREET car, designed for driving around on the street (likely in accordance with speed limits). No offense, but thinking otherwise are purely delusions of grandeur.
|
M cars purpose largely evolved from a real sports cars which was both track capable and also daily drivable, to a trim level of the brand. So it makes sense they expanded this to SUVs to make money in that regard. If the brand was true to itself with money not being an object we wouldn't have these M SUVs, they make little sense on a sport sense... Since they are never going to see the track i guess M lites version of them are perfect. While they make "true" M out of them they can't defy physics, bloated, heavy and high centre of gravity is just the contrary of what you want on a performance car, so they have to compromise at some levels... not saying they are not capable cars, but the form factor is just not fit for purpose.. Will most buyers care ? of course not they are not going to track them and will just use them in cities or highways anyway... So just make more money from them in order to keep real the purpose built M cars alive. |
This is the problem with anecdotal statements. The X5M isn't track capable? It (F85) was certainly capable of outpacing an M5 (F10) when compared in a track setting. Again, the idea that these vehicles aren't track capable is laughable and is an antiquated paradigm. While that may have been the case in decades past, technological advancements have clearly demonstrated that the gap has significantly narrowed in that regard.
https://fastestlaps.com/tracks/autozeitung-test-track
https://fastestlaps.com/models/bmw-x5-m-2015
On the Nurburgring, it performed comparably to the prior generation M5/M6. As we would expect, the cars should outperform the SUVs, however the fact that it could compete with the prior generation M cars is admirable:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Nürburgring_Nordschleife_lap_times
https://fastestlaps.com/models/bmw-x5-m-2015