[JamesNoBrakes]

Originally Posted by wjones14

My BMW and '05 Mustang had roughly equal power output and equal weight, but the BMW has a lot more grip due to better chassis, tires, and electronic aids. Consequently, when I took the cars to Lime Rock, the BMW laid down laps 3 seconds quicker than the Mustang with me driving both cars.

BMW is notorious for advertising the WHP/WTQ and not the crank. Seeing N55 dyno runs in the ~290-something ranges in stock configuration, compare that with other cars "rated" for around 300hp kicking out more like 260 and the 2005 mustang dynos closer to 270hp according to what I'm seeing. Even more than that, the BMW turbo setups are capable of full torque from around 1500-1700 and up to around max rpm. With a torque curve like that, it's going to smash the old low-compression V8 in the 2005 mustang, every time you upshift you'd be making a lot more torque in the BMW. 0-60 I could take those 2005 Mustangs in my WRX even. Throw the DCT in the BMW and it's just going to kill the solid rear axle mustang around a track.

I didn't go with the 235/M2 because the dealer markups around here are just crazy and I didn't want to be further disconnected from driving, they somehow got their M2s well up past 70K and for the price, it's just ridiculous IMO, more stripped down than an M4 as far as interior/features and such. I could afford it or the M4, but I feel like I'm just burning cash for no reason, especially when the 1LE can best an M4 GTS costing more than 3x more while not riding like a jackhammer like the GTS.

Like I said in the other post, I have a few more miles now on the car, back in storage this week due to some snow and low temps, but it is seriously fun to drive with the manual transmission and exhaust. My other concern with the M2/4 would be while I could go faster than in my previous car, it would still be very "disconnected" to the driving experience. BMW steering was awful and the suspension was fairly poor, although I didn't have an M4, I did opt for the M-sport brakes with Adaptive suspension and even though it was a fairly recent 4-series, BMW's active/adaptive suspension is very crude by GM magnetic ride standards. Brakes felt very "wooden" too, despite being upsized with monoblock calipers front and rear. That may have been due to the electric nannies that were inherently hooked to the braking with adaptive cruise control, but it just wasn't great feedback compared to my last few cars before.