yesterday's fun at Bedford
I today took the E92 along to a nearby M fanatic and serial M3 owner whose most recent addition to his fleet is this rather magnificent GTS. A pity we didn't have this yesterday; a pity also we couldn't accept new-found friend at Bedford Steve Page's invitation on the phone to come back and pitch it against one of their Palmersport M3s. Some other time perhaps - both Steve and owner seemed keen on the idea!
As stated in our original review of the GTS, it's tempting to compare it with the E46 CSL but it's a very different thing and much more extreme in its posturing. From the moment the stroked out 4.4-litre V8 catches for the first time it's obvious it's got a very different character from the metallic sounding standard car. It breathes out of GTS-specific racing cats and a titanium rear exhaust section for what BMW euphemistically described at the time as 'optimum exhaust flow'. Maybe. Optimum V8 noise would be a closer approximation, the percussive bass hitting your chest and making windows rattle.
Credit to the car's owner for letting us take it out on such a dismal day, the warnings that the tyres aren't brilliant in the wet adding to the intimidation factor of taking the wheel of someone else's rare and expensive pride and joy. Intimidation that didn't ease one bit as we headed off to our photo location. With gravel and spray echoing around the stripped shell, the exhaust booming menacingly and the attention-grabbing looks it made 'our' standard car look like a 320d in comparison.
A blanking plate covered where the stereo would have been and also where you'd expect to find the EDC damper control on a regular car, the GTS having just one setting from its passive dampers. That being effing stiff. I should qualify that. The springing is fierce on the GTS but the damping brilliantly matched and adjustable together with the geometry and ride height. It's only 70kg lighter than a standard car but the rigidly mounted rear subframe and lack of sound deadening all conspire to make it feel more of-a-piece and lighter on its tyres. Above about 50mph the constant jiggling calms a little, the damping feels more at ease and the car more composed though it tramlines aggressively and never lets you forget what it's about. Like you could anyway with that bright orange paint all around you.
The conditions and warnings about the tyres cooled my boots somewhat but even at a modest pace you could feel the extra potency the increased capacity offers - stroke went up from 75.2mm to 82mm with no reduction in the 8,300rpm redline and power with it from 420hp to 450hp. Shifts through the DCT come even more aggressively than the standard car, a couple snatched as the rev counter started flashing prompting a significant wiggle from the rear tyres on the sodden roads and a slightly tighter grip on the Alcantara wheel. Something of a wild ride in these conditions, the GTS must be a proper weapon on a track and pushes the 'event car' sensations of the standard M3 into a whole new league. Decent brakes - only 18mm bigger at the front but gripped by fixed six-pot calipers - should mean it'd be able to do more than half a dozen laps before the pedal goes long too.
And then from the sublime to the ridiculous and another German V8, this one from Audi and suffixed 'TDI' rather than GTS. There was no reason for taking the M3 out with the A8 4.2 TDI other than we needed to shoot it too but wafting along behind snapper Tom in the BMW it was amusing to ponder how completely different these two V8s are. The Audi certainly doesn't suffer from the M3's lack of low-end torque, making it surprisingly easy to keep pace on roads big enough to accommodate its size. Doesn't half sound bad either, no matter what it's fuelled on.
Amusing novelty or not though, I think I know which of these two V8s I prefer.
little taste
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