Quote:
Originally Posted by MRichmond
Is everyone here just for bragging rights?
First there is the inevitable stupid "SUVs don't belong on race tracks, but my four-door sedan with heated seats, 35-speaker sound system, 400 lbs of sound insulation, and acres of leather is a perfectly appropriate track car" claim. A tiny number of you ever will take your cars to a race track. And of that tiny number, a much tinier percentage will dedicate the time, effort and money to develop the driving skills necessary to drive any of these cars more aggressively than 7/10s without stuffing them into a tire wall (i.e., anywhere near the limit where the small marginal differences between these highly capable machines can become evident). Not to mention that anyone who is in any way serious about race track use will realize quickly that neither the X3M, nor the M3, nor any other street car is appropriate due to the severe compromises in safety.
Then there is the "My choice of the X3MC is vindicated because it is .1 seconds faster to 60 than a Competitor Y (never mind that I likely will never actually race Competitor Y and the impressively low acceleration figure requires launch control)".
For all the bench racing, chest-beating and minute dissection of quarter-mile times (sometimes even resulting not from actual quarter-mile times but from spreadsheet calculations and extrapolations), there is surprisingly little discussion about the real world every day use of these machines. I've done the race track thing, including instructing and wheel-to-wheel racing in a dedicated and properly equipped race car. With respect to a street car, I care much more about how it functions in every day use, whether it brings a smile to my face when I see it, when I start it, and when I drive it, how responsive is it on my daily drive to work, how comfortable it is after a day-long highway slog, etc. I cannot imagine making a $90,000 purchase decision based on whether the car I choose would beat some other car in a mythical 0-to-whatever race that will never happen. Maybe I am just an outlier here.
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I bought my C63S to put my dog in the back and my bikes on the roof. I just happen to enjoy it too.
As someone who has driven lots of cars (and motorbikes) around tracks including single seaters with decent aero, I do agree that the vast majority of road cars are distinctly average when on track. It's still fun though.