Z4M / E46 M3 - Are they just not that fast?

[BlueEyedBoy]

I've had the Z4 for around 2 years now and had the odd tussle with other machinery. The other day, I could not lose an Astra Mk IV!!

Now the car was obviously highly tuned given it had a bloody big intercooler on show low down, but given the Z4 is meant to have 350bhp, in order to get that out of an Astra it would have probably being the quickest one in the UK! It was literally glued to my bumper all the way up into significant numbers on a pretty straight road.

Now are those ponies only available in the 6 - 8k band and therefore most the time its not putting out that much until you get there?

Now I love driving the car and the noise it makes as you accelerate is great, but I struggle to lose traction in the dry in anything other than first, which is a bind to use anyway as you either nail it or have to use it timidly as its so jerky, which implies to me that the power really is all at the top end. My Cerebra 4.5 would lose traction in 3rd, now I know a much lighter car and mine had around 380bhp verified, but when a VW T5 tries to accelerate in the inside of the slip road to beat you and you don't make much distance on him, is the car just old hat now in the power stakes to turbo'd revo cars?

[BlueEyedBoy]

Beedub said:

they are brisk in todays world with a really nice engine.... sadly many a turbo'd hot hatch will keep it humble Easily!! I've got a tuned up Fiesta ST 2015MY and I'm pretty certain in a stage 3 guise it would wee all over a stock z4m.

Edited by Beedub on Saturday 28th May 23:36

This is roughly my thinking, newer cars with much more consistent torque and turbo power are pretty much going to be easily tuned to be a match, and there is not much that you can do to the N/A.

[BlueEyedBoy]

Billy_Whizzzz said:

They are quick. But you'd need an awful lot more power than something to pull away and leave something for dead and as has been pointed out a remapped Astra isn't that far off the power to weight and thus no way you'd be able to leave it for dead.

I was't expecting to leave it for dead, you would just think that with the extra horses you would start pulling away at higher speeds, but that didn't happen either. I did have the roof down so maybe I screwed up the aerodynamics

[BlueEyedBoy]

Well I now know there is now very little in it between a M135i and a M235i, although quicker than an Alfa 147 GTA, so I guess just about where I expected it to be performance wise. Great thumbs up driving from the other cars

I had a brilliant morning A and B road blast and realised that 3rd gear with the roof down on an early summers day is where it's at and it does't matter if the latest hot hatch can beat it, just feels alive in those conditions.

I do think I will have to step it up on the next car as I admit I do like an engine that can throw you back into your seat but there is so little out there that has character and power without getting into silly money, which is maybe where I need to go. Probably I will have to finally give up the "i will never buy one" statement and get a 997 turbo

I think I'll take another year in the Z, definitely as summer is coming

[BlueEyedBoy]

As the opener of this thread... I test drove a f10 m5 on Sunday which I'll be making an offer on today, now that is fast! Almost back to my Cerbera 4.5 level of speed and the noise is amazing. As a family transport it's going to be one tool!

Looks like sadly I'm going to have to sell the Z4M as our m235i is on finance and not worth anything like the final value on the contract, and 3 cars in central London doesn't make sense! Will be really sad to see it go though as I do love driving it and it's one good looking car.

Edited by BlueEyedBoy on Monday 11th September 08:43

[BlueEyedBoy]

robbiekhan said:

Do you mean the simulated sound inside the car coming out the speakers? Because in stock form, the F10 M5 doesn't really sounds like your typical M car of old, it's too quiet!

There are plenty of aftermarket exhaust options to liven it up from the outside though. Sadly not much can be done for pumping natural sounds inside.

I'm not sure if the one I'm looking at has an aftermarket exhaust then as there was a great burble coming out of it.

My z4 has, and the noise from the m5 inside and out didn't disappoint.

[BlueEyedBoy]

bennyboysvuk said:

I think the Z4M still wins on feedback and noise and the analogue feel of its controls. IMO the F10 M5, new M3 and all the M-lites, although powerful and initially impressive just don't have the kind of long-lasting satisfying feel of the older NA cars. That said, it's horses for courses and there's no doubt that the F10 M5 is seriously fast. I wonder how it will fare against the Astra in your original post.

It's a competely different animal I accept that, but the z4 is a nightmare over speedbumps, and circumstances mean I don't have open country roads to blast along anymore. City traffic and motorways is not the place for it. I think it would pretty much destroy the Astra. I didn't realise quite the difference, but it's over 4 seconds quicker to 100!