It doesn’t necessarily equal engine overheating.
Haven’t you ever seen race cars with glowing exhausts before?

Weight continually goes up in practically all cars. Everybody wants to have luxury, safety (gov’t mandated) features, here in the US. Compare them to the same models in Europe, they are lighter over there.

THE AMERICAN CARS ARE CLOSING THE GAP but still drive and feel like crap vs the Europeans.

So what if the caddy has 500 hp, it still drives/handles like a heavy american luxo boat. And the durability is suspect.
(Road & Track long term CTS V had lots of drivetrain issues)

You guys who rag on Euros, Have you even driven any of these cars for more than a few minutes or at all?
If you were honest with yourself, you wouldn’t spend another dime on American iron. At least not any time soon.

Sorry for the insult.

As far as being biased against the brand, I am not. I have nothing against the M3 coming out. In fact, I hope it’s quite good.

I have a 6er, and a Z car, nothing says I endorse the product more than putting your money where your mouth is. But, I’m also objective, and I think BMW is living off it’s reputation. They are still a good brand, but no where deserving of the moniker “Ultimate Driving Machine”. Over the years, each model line have gotten heavier and heavier –that’s not a biased opinion, that is fact, you can look it up. The trend line might jitter, but it’s definitely an upward trend. And weight is the number one enemy against performance.

Perhaps the torque doesn’t exactly suit your fancy, but quite honestly BMW has never been a company to grab your attention by throwing out numbers and seeing who responds and who doesn’t. OHHHH… the Caddy CTS-V puts out 500hp and 390 lb torque. Bid deal. It also utilizes a 5.7L engine (The staple GM V8). 420 out of 4.0L is a bit more impressive, not so much torque, but the pesky Bavarians have probably configured something to counteract that. Whoever, The Caddy corners like crap, is weak through the gears and the interior doesn’t look much differenty from a Chevy Impala.

To also say that BMW’s QA control is lacking. Give me one company whom is better at it or basically, doesn’t suck. For all you “I’d rather have an Audi” buffs, do you know who owns 99.7% of Audi? VW, one of the worst assembled auto’s in the world. Yeah, they’re a seperate division of the company, but it all stems from the top. “German engineering in da house”, more like lame advertising for a lame company who builds their cars in Mexico. Seriously, you might as well say, “I’d rather have a Land Rover or a Beamer”.

Welcome to the internet! Theres no need to result to calling me a snob just because im laughing at your comments, which are obviously quite biased’.

If they have made the engine bigger, yet lighter than the I6, what makes you think they haven’t reduced weight in all other areas of the car? You talk about people looking at brands objectively, why don’t you?

you dont know anyone who autocrosses or hot laps their car during season on the weekends? I do. Theres no excsuse that the car should over heat after only 4 laps for their top of the line 3 series. Its not a true race car but its a SPORTS COUPE. Theres absolutely no reason at all why it should fail, even if it is in arizona. What about all the people living in arizona who wanted to buy a 335? Not anymore…

Saloon = sedan M3′s were available as sedans back in the E36 days, since then only coupes…

It will be good or bad, what else can it be? That’s not a statement about the design nor is it an opinion, it’s the position I have on the car –neutral. We shall wait and see how the car turns out. The 3400 lbs is an educated guess based off previous M3s. I’m only pointing out a car with similar dimension and the complaints launched against it. Where do I come out and say the car sucks or is awesome.

Finally, this is a place where car enthusiasts can talk, “professional” or not. Last I checked, you haven’t contributed anything to the conversation other than getting your jollies bashing on everyone else. If anything, you should be laughing at yourself. Notice how no one is laughing at you. Why? because frankly reading car forums to act like a snob for a few laughts is a sad life indeed.

Cheer up, things will get better.

Comment by camero, posted on March24 at 9:54 pm

ill say this is true, doesnt matter if my cts beats my girls 525, her interior is probably 2 steps above mine. i like the feel of some of the dash panels, and the dash itsself has a realy nice grain to it.

but is that worth risking ur drivers lic? or do you attend speedways regularly?

“blackyae86.
I never commented on how the M3 will be.”

Which was then followed with:
“and the new M3 will likely weigh at least 3400lbs”

lol

You say it ‘MIGHT’ be good OR bad, then follow it up with imaginary stats that haven’t been released yet. Like I said, please keep posting Toy Yoda, its very amusing.

I never commented on how the M3 will be. It might be good or bad. I”m commenting on BMW in general. And most comments about the M3 in this thread has been about the pathetic torque output of the motor.

The Ferrari 360 Modena has a comparable motor to the BMW. It’s a peaky motor, about 3.8L, V8, 400HP, and 275ft-lb torque. 20HP less, and 20lb-ft less than the new M3 motor. Yet, the Modena weighs about 3000lbs, and the new M3 will likely weigh at least 3400lbs, since the last one weighed roughly that weight.

The biggest knock on the 360 Modena, if you read anything about the car, is that the torque is awful. The M3 will feel more sluggish if you look at the numbers per weight. So, I think people here who think the torque is girly have a very valid complaint, and that’s nothing to laugh about.

you can define see that all this technology will come at a price We have to wait and see when the car finally comes on the market. But because of all the technology i pretty sure it will cost much much more than the Rs4, something that i think is going to be the determining factor weather this car is back to being top dog. It will have to prove that little difference in performance is enough to better the almost similar rs4 with its the 4-wheel drive system and easy drivability.

and no a fence to all the Detroit fans, but i don’t think any of their cars are quite in the league of the Germans. The Cadillacs can come with 500 and 600 hps for all i care, but until GM breaks up or becomes less stingy and stops doing half ass jobs on their cars, they are really not in the competition. A car has to be REFINED…everything about it, interior and everything. I love the CTS, but put it beside a merc, bmw, and audi you can tell the difference in build quality unless your vision is completely impared by nationalism. PLZ!!! go all out on the product GM !!!

Those super-sedans from Europe are more to haul ass down the autobahn than cutting hot-laps at the track. it’s really no wonder when an M5 breaks a major part doing what it was billed as being able to do but not being specific in saying, “It’s fast, stupid fast, but it is not a track car”.

Is it possible to build and large sports sedan that won’t break under stress… Yeah… we Americans call those MUSCLE CARS.

We Americans tend to gravitate toward how powerful a car vehicle is for a number of reasons. I don’t know them all but I’m sure lots of folks will chime in on that.

Mine are fairly simple. Speed and acceleration. You can argue for days about how agile a car is but unless it has speed, it just isn’t going to register.

Unfortunately for us in American we do not have the vast array of treacherously winding road courses, and just plain old back roads to be found in Europe and most other parts of the world. As a result, it is about speed and acceleration, Point and shoot, kind of driving. Save that few sports cars made in America, the vast majority of performance vehicles are made to extol their power, not so much their handling ability.

American is a nation whose racing is built heavily upon NASCAR and drag racing. Gone is Rally racing as you might know and understand it (we have it but it’s small and largely ignored or else Detroit would have Rally cars for sell like crazy). NASCAR does not use many road courses throughout a season and on that note does not race the cars that are built like sports car racing. Trans Am is barely a blip on the racing radar to the masses…

All performance cars are shaped by the racing they are involved in. Detroit is getting back on the ball but the main emphasis will remain power. That’s we we want and that is just the way it is.

Handling is not so much an afterthought but just is not the highest thing on most car development criteria lists. Even when it is high on the list it tends to fall on or so slots short of Power.

BMW are decent to good cars, but they are no where near the reputation that they have. Certainly, they are not driving enthusiast cars any more. I just wish those who own BMWs would complain about this more, but they don’t. Why?

Because most BMW owners are not driving enthusiasts. They just want to have that moniker. BMW knows this, they have to keep appealing to a wider and wider audience if they want their earnings to keep growing. It’s inevitable, with every car company. Look at the Mitsu Evo line. The Evo X won’t be the raw car appealing to a niche market. In it’s attempt to be appeal to more people the Evo has become more refined.

None of this is bad. A new car company / new car will meet the needs. I’d just wish car owners weren’t such brand whores, and can look at their brands in an objective manner.

Ofcourse if they we all do that, stop fooling ourselves, we might also realize that we mostly use our cars to get on with our day. For a majority of people, 90% of the time, anything more than a Toyota-camry like car is really a waste of time and money. I guess I’ll pretend to fool myself, so I can continue to enjoy leftlanenews.

(By the way guys, check out greencarcongress.com, if you are into science and alternative energies, they got some really cool articles and well informed readers.)

I hope it doesn’t have a cup holder, or an armrest for that matter, you ‘ve got better things to be doing with your hands in a 420hp sports car than sipping on a Macchiato or propping up your mobile-phone elbow on a nice piece of padded leather.

A high revving engine can make enormous power by spinning much faster making the power on the revolution rather than on the power stroke. The production of power is a function more to do with velocity and time rather than mass and volume.

I find it fascinating and I think more sports cars will look to this in order to make performance targets, reliability expectations, and (whether we want to admit it or not) fuel concerns (the S2000 showed that not every high revver will be in super expensive cars but will find parlance in more affordable sports cars) where pockets aren’t as deep as the Marianas trench. Imagine a car that can beat the Veyron’s 250+ mph with “only” 500hp.

Internal combustion is not going away anytime soon I’m sure, Whether it’s gasoline, hydrogen, or some crazy “syntholine”… This is yet another step forward in performance as Racecar tech becomes more accessible to the consumer.

How long before the Corvette has a High revving engine of it’s own?

Thinking hard about gettin the 2009 M3 sedan now.

I can’t wait to check ou the Coupe in the fall

the v8 f1 cars of today are faster around a track than the v10s of 2 years ago.

http://www.callawaycars.com/v16/

From Callaway:
Technical Specifications

Callaway Cyclone V16
4.0-liter 16 cylinder 90° V angle
5 valve / cylinder DOHC
bore 75.5 (3.0 in.) x stroke 55.75 mm (2.19 in) = 3994 cc (243.83 cu. in.)
aluminium block and heads, iron liners
12 (2 x 6) main bearings, plain
crankshafts: en40b steel, 2x, 4 journal, flat plane, nitrided
connecting rod, steel, plain bearing
compression ratio 11.5-1 naturally aspirated
power 550 bhp@10,000 rpm
torque 340 ft/lb@ 8,500 rpm
max rpm: 10,500
dry sump lubrication, 1 pressure, 3 scavenge stages
super unleaded fuel
EFI single fuel injector / single throttle / cylinder

Dimensions:
926 length (36.45″)
540 width (21.25″)
500 height (19.7″) – to top of injector trumpets
dry weight: 152 kg (334 lbs.)
patented Cyclone cam drive system
clutch: superclutch triple plate 5.5″
water pump: ecu-driven, vari-speed electric unit

The BMW 335:

It happens on lap 4. That’s when the difference between Infiniti’s 2008 G37 Coupe and BMW’s 2007 335i Coupe crystallizes.

All at once the BMW coupe that we’ve considered the leader in its class finally decides it’s had enough. With its oil temperature pinned at 300 degrees F and its coolant temperature climbing rapidly, the turbocharged Bavarian wonder engages its limp-home mode and we crawl pathetically back to the pits.

The BMW M5:

More disturbing than the stability control was the warning that flashed up on the iDrive screen after just 12 miles of fast driving. Transmission temperature was escalating, so the M5 announced that it was taking matters into its own circuits by reducing engine output. The redline then steadily crept down. And down. By the time we got fed up and pulled over to let it cool, the redline had dropped to 6,000. Apparently the manual transmission just doesn’t have the cooling capacity to deal with 500 hp.

So yeah, people here might not know as much as BMW engineers, but they certainly do know to give cooling some attention.