Quote:
Originally Posted by ENINTY
So this is what I don't get about M cars. The real M car that BMW got its reputation for "M" was the E30 M3. It was a de-contented car built to be tracked and was actually campaigned by BMW. In Europe it was available with a track-based getrag ("dogleg") manual transmission where you could change the gearset in the pits to match gearing to the track.
The new M cars are far more capable than the E30 M3, but why would you track them? They are big, heavy and require so much horsepower and complexity between active suspension and active braking to stay on the track that they cost $80 - $100K. If I were to want a car to spend my time track driving, I'd buy a car made for the track, like an Atom, or a Lotus, or any number of real track cars. Making an SUV into an "M" car is a joke. Yeh, its gets around the Ring really fast, but what's the point; it's not like anyone really buys a X6M to track it.
The new M cars have great performance, but on the street, where can you get the benefit? If you want a track car, then buy a used regular 3-Series for $30K, and buy a used Elise for $30K and track it.
"M" stands for Marketing, or maybe machismo...
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In bold: I always thought it was THIS car:
