Monday 12th October 2015

PHTV Clip of the Day - M4 v GT4 v i8 v RC-F

Three-cylinder hybrid takes on twin-turbo straight six, flat six and V8 in another PH drag extravaganza

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Video: Porsche Cayman GT4 Vs Lexus RC-F Vs BMW M4 Vs BMW I8 Drag Race  

This is an interesting one. The BMW i8 may be more expensive than the other cars in this test but, on performance at least, is very much in the same ballpark. Can the inherent advantages of four-wheel drive and instant torque beat the higher power outputs of the others here?

There's the low mass and great traction of the Cayman GT4, huge performance of the BMW M4 (once rolling at least) and the Lexus RC F, which has beaten the M4 in a PH drag race already. Placce your bets!

Watch it here.

[Shambler]

Sorry to say, but very poor driving technique

[C.A.R.]

^ Party Pooper.

Great vid. Enjoying these, no matter how pointless the last match up was (Hellcat / GTR / 911)

I still think that RC-F looks very odd, there's a lot of different lines and they don't really flow into a cohesive design.

[vz-r_dave]

As opposed to the i8 which is a real beaut... seriously lol

[s2000db]

What rpm did you launch the M4 at please?

[MrBarry123]

Really surprised at how poorly the M4 got off the line - the i8 is impressive though.

[Housey]

Meh, GT4 please.

[vkcs22]

Guy in the M4 doesn't know how to launch and his reviews are quite poor generally.

[PunterCam]

vkcs22 said:

Guy in the M4 doesn't know how to launch and his reviews are quite poor generally.

It's an automatic - you could stick a brick on the throttle and tie the steering wheel to the head rest and it'd do what it's programmed to do. Knowing "how to launch" (who does? - who cares?) is irrelevant.

[cerb4.5lee]

I must admit the result surprised me and I thought the M4 would win easily, however I am chuffed the Cayman won with its manual gearbox as its one in the eye for the oh so predictable auto`s and DCT transmissions that are such a fashion accessory nowadays.

[Toilet Duck]

Why are the results labelled as Lexus 3rd and i8 2nd, yet the "narrator" states Lexus came 2nd and i8 3rd (at 01:39)?

[TNH]

Why do people have such an issue launching the M4? Surely it can't be that hard to modulate the throttle to minimise wheel spin?

Haven't driven one yet so genuinely curious to know.

[E92M3]

TNH said:

Why do people have such an issue launching the M4? Surely it can't be that hard to modulate the throttle to minimise wheel spin?

Haven't driven one yet so genuinely curious to know.

It's because of the huge amount of torque at very low revs, so no matter how much or less you push the throttle you are still getting a huge wave of torque and then spin city.

The should have employed a torque limiting solution in lower gears, something similar to Ferrari

[C.A.R.]

TNH said:

Why do people have such an issue launching the M4? Surely it can't be that hard to modulate the throttle to minimise wheel spin?

Haven't driven one yet so genuinely curious to know.

If you watch it with the sound on, the driver makes a clear argument, stating that the powerband is like an on/off switch and difficult to modulate - as above post.

[epom]

Toilet Duck said:

Why are the results labelled as Lexus 3rd and i8 2nd, yet the "narrator" states Lexus came 2nd and i8 3rd (at 01:39)?

Won't bother watching it now anyhow
Love that i8.

[s2000db]

Well, there was a couple of problems with the launch of the M4, first off the reporter stated the tyres were well worn, which must have limited the grip..

Secondly the launch rpm from the factory is set at 3500rpm, which is too high imo, and might only work with a very grippy track. If you set the launch rpm to 2500rpm, via the cruise control rocker (rtfm of course) you can get a 0-60 of 3.8 secs, and 0-100 of 8.5secs.

Which will comfortably see of all those cars imo...

[sh33n]

s2000db said:

Well, there was a couple of problems with the launch of the M4, first off the reporter stated the tyres were well worn, which must have limited the grip..

Secondly the launch rpm from the factory is set at 3500rpm, which is too high imo, and might only work with a very grippy track. If you set the launch rpm to 2500rpm, via the cruise control rocker (rtfm of course) you can get a 0-60 of 3.8 secs, and 0-100 of 8.5secs.

Which will comfortably see of all those cars imo...

Would be interesting to know if it was on the default, which I'd guess it was given no response....wonder what difference it would make at a more suitable rpm and decent tyres.

That said, good results for the other cars.

[The JM]

To get wheel spin like that in a M4 you must disregard any common sense and either engauge launch control with it set to default revs on a damp surface (Its adjustable), or simply use full throttle and not back off when the wheels spin. Either way in a race this makes the driver an idiot as demonstrated. The M4's claimed 0-60 time is 4.1 seconds. This has been repeated many times by many drivers and bettered on a number occasions by skilled sensible drivers. This sort of performance makes it the fastest car in the race by some margin.

Its sad that as the required skill of drivers drops with ever more tech in new cars that Journalists, many of whom have lacked driving ability but had at least the ability to use some tech in the form of a computer, can't even invest the time to learn the systems that would prevent them making complete arses of themselves.

[Buffyd]

No second run leaving the M4 traction on to actually get it off the line?

[vz-r_dave]

It's called feathering the throttle, it does not surprise me one bit that an M4 driver would be completely clueless of this technique. Probably had a 335 d prior to the M4

[mcerbm]

Im surprised that each car / driver didn't do some practice starts prior to cameras rolling so that they could get the best out of the car and get a representative drag race.