Blasé about the Z4MC performance?

[ChawenHalo]

You can definitely get used to 330 odd horsepower. What you can do though is install a great big exhaust so that you'll think you're going a million miles an hour when you're doing 50. :lol:

I know people dont like the drone and the high volume and whatnot but i dare anyone to go on a mountain drive or tunnel run with my car and not come back with a grin THIS big. Whenever i drive through a tunnel i drop the windows, kill the music and air con and blast from 2nd to 4th! A year and a half since the RPI's and it still makes me laugh out loud every single time.

+ 1 More noise = quicker car.

True the Z4 M is not THAT fast, but thats because its not such an easy car to drive. On the other hand its all the more involving and enjoyable to drive. You don't need a zillion ponies under the hood and all sorts of gadgetery to enjoy driving. Also the potential to exploit silly Bhp it pretty limited.

I've driven more powefull cars like Gallardo and GTR etc. The 2 memorioes that stood out was 1 GT3 and 1 F430 (manual). Probably did not drive faster than in the Z4M (expept in a straight line for a little while) but what stood out and that I enjoyed was the feel and experience of the car, not the speed. :|

 

[ga41]

You can definitely get used to 330 odd horsepower. What you can do though is install a great big exhaust so that you'll think you're going a million miles an hour when you're doing 50. :lol:

I know people dont like the drone and the high volume and whatnot but i dare anyone to go on a mountain drive or tunnel run with my car and not come back with a grin THIS big. Whenever i drive through a tunnel i drop the windows, kill the music and air con and blast from 2nd to 4th! A year and a half since the RPI's and it still makes me laugh out loud every single time.

+ 1 More noise = quicker car.

True the Z4 M is not THAT fast, but thats because its not such an easy car to drive. On the other hand its all the more involving and enjoyable to drive. You don't need a zillion ponies under the hood and all sorts of gadgetery to enjoy driving. Also the potential to exploit silly Bhp it pretty limited.

I've driven more powefull cars like Gallardo and GTR etc. The 2 memorioes that stood out was 1 GT3 and 1 F430 (manual). Probably did not drive faster than in the Z4M (expept in a straight line for a little while) but what stood out and that I enjoyed was the feel and experience of the car, not the speed. :|

I agree in part. 330 horsepower is not THAT much nowadays but you'd be surprised how fast a Z4M can be in the right hands. I remember i drive i went on with a 550hp Noble M12 once. He couldn't keep up in the twisties and when we stopped his brakes smelled profusely, i wasn't even going full out! :lol:

 

[mmm-five]

Well, after a weekend at the 'Ring, I can happily say I'm once again impressed by the Z4's capabilities.

Whilst I know driver abilities, confidence and knowledge of specific tracks have an influence on relative performance, I can happily report that the majority of caged & harnessed e46 & e92 M3s at the 'Ring this weekend were simply acting as mobile chicanes. The best 'battles' I had this weekend were with a couple of GT3s, a v8 R8 and a Cayman R who could not lose me whilst in front, and could not catch whilst behind.

Brilliant weekend, but the same old 2-4 hour stoppages whilst the police, ambulance, fire & helicopter sorted out the mess, including one involving a 'Ring Taxi.

 

[mmm-five]

Well, after a weekend at the 'Ring, I can happily say I'm once again impressed by the Z4's capabilities.

Whilst I know driver abilities, confidence and knowledge of specific tracks have an influence on relative performance, I can happily report that the majority of caged & harnessed e46 & e92 M3s at the 'Ring this weekend were simply acting as mobile chicanes. The best 'battles' I had this weekend were with a couple of GT3s, a v8 R8 and a Cayman R who could not lose me whilst in front, and could not catch whilst behind.

Brilliant weekend, but the same old 2-4 hour stoppages whilst the police, ambulance, fire & helicopter sorted out the mess, including one involving a 'Ring Taxi.

PS, I love these Pilot SuperSports

 

[ali_b]

I agree in part. 330 horsepower is not THAT much nowadays but you'd be surprised how fast a Z4M can be in the right hands. I remember i drive i went on with a 550hp Noble M12 once. He couldn't keep up in the twisties and when we stopped his brakes smelled profusely, i wasn't even going full out! :lol:

No offence but the Noble driver clearly cant drive! leagues apart.

 

[ChawenHalo]

Well, after a weekend at the 'Ring, I can happily say I'm once again impressed by the Z4's capabilities.

Whilst I know driver abilities, confidence and knowledge of specific tracks have an influence on relative performance, I can happily report that the majority of caged & harnessed e46 & e92 M3s at the 'Ring this weekend were simply acting as mobile chicanes. The best 'battles' I had this weekend were with a couple of GT3s, a v8 R8 and a Cayman R who could not lose me whilst in front, and could not catch whilst behind.

Brilliant weekend, but the same old 2-4 hour stoppages whilst the police, ambulance, fire & helicopter sorted out the mess, including one involving a 'Ring Taxi.

PS, I love these Pilot SuperSports

You and GA41 are good pilots obviously, and its very good to know that the Z can keep all these top cars honest in the right hands

I'm still a chicken on my local dodgems track (very short , little run offs if at all+ with intermitent drift sessions ).

True enought when I got back to the Z from a more powerful 3.8 GT3 I did not think the Z was lacking in pace. I think the engine and drive train are exeptional.

Mmmm5: Are the Supersports that good? I've got to say I'm amaised at the Pilot Sports I run on all 4's: they heat up nicely, are progressive but with plenty of grip. Good on accelaration, direction changes and hard braking. Even brilliant in the wet which had me very surprised.

 

[mmm-five]

Yes, the SuperSports are that good.

I really liked the PS2 on the e34 M5 too, but stuck with the OEM Conti's on the Z4 because I didn't fancy paying 30% more for tyres that were only going to be used for commuting 20,000 miles a year. However a trip to the 'Ring in June showed how poor the OEM Conti's really were, and I swapped them as soon as it was sensible enough to do so.

The guys I go with are not the boy racer type, and all are professional engineers of one sort or the other (one is a flight systems designer for the ESA, another is an ex- Cosworth & Aston Martin chassis engineer with 5 years of testing at the 'Ring under his belt, etc.). We tend to only do 25-40 laps over the whole long weekend, and prefer the early (8-10) & late (5-7) hours of the sessions to avoid the 'day trippers' and the most common crash periods, when we simply drive around the region and go for lunch in Trier, Monschau, Cologne, etc. There were a lot of closures this weekend, and saw a couple of Z4MC in the car park (one Brit, one French).

They seem to cope with everything so far, including greasy conditions on Sunday morning being he first car on at about 10:15am after a 2 hour delay due to fog.

I was running standard pressures all round and found they'd last a lap longer than the OEM Conti's before becoming a bit squirmy, but that's including driving the car harder due to the increased confidence the PSS tyres gave.

Without timing - which I'm not planning to do - I can't give a more accurate measure of how much better they are, other than to state that I'm overtaking people off-line at speeds that I was driving on the OEM tyres when taking the correct line.

I'm sure they'll be useless in the snow though

 

[ga41]

mmm-five, sounds like you have a nice little group there

I wish i was on the continent too so i could do proper track days and road trips like you guys....

 

[Gilberto]

I think the Zed is a very quick and capable car, i'm sure it would surprise a few more poweful cars!

 

[carl]

My previous car was a TVR Cerbera and I'm still impressed by the Z4. Mostly because it doesn't try to kill you at every opportunity I guess.