‘13 E92 M3 vs ‘15 Mustang GT

[Bluemustang]

The M3 E92 is nothing special it might have been something special 10-15 years ago but we are talking 10-15 years ago to be fair based on lap times alone my Mustang is chasing the newer M3/M4's with an reasonable success rate and handling is not exactly the modern BMW's strong side. The E92 M3 is nothing special in terms of performance ether. Also stiffer suspension is not always better. I know what he mean by handling it really have that go cart like feeling in the way it drives but surprisingly that doesn't correspond in lap times at least not enough.

It's easy to mistake emotions and confirmation bias for reality. The newer Mustang is a quite capable car on the track with light modifications. I know this isn't evidence, but in my few Trackcross/Tracksprint events, I was keeping up or beating BMW M4s in my own class and in the solid upper half of the classes above me with me more expensive cars. There was a guy I've seen out more than a few times who had a Jaguar F-type V8 - guy had much more experience than me and seemed to know what he was doing - by the end of the day I was within a few tenths of his fastest time. But, that being said, tires and experience makes a big difference in putting a fast time.

There are something to be said for the older cars that still had hydraulic steering. The electrically assisted steering today kinda sucks, but the fact is, the cars today are objectively faster.

When I see threads like this it reminds me of other posts about a PP1/PP2/Mach1/GT350... whatever... like it is some ideal that can't be surpassed - Like Ford's factory engineers are some godly geniuses lol. IDK why but I see this type of ideology a lot and I find it funny. Fact is they're not geniuses. They make decisions - that is Ford the corporation does - to sell cars. And those cars have to appeal to a large market of individuals. There's all sorts of factors to those decisions and not all of them is about peak performance. You can certainly make a base GT perform better if you know what you're doing.

But, if people like what they like, who are we to tell them otherwise? Sports car hobby has a subjective element. But, it does kinda rub me the wrong way when a guy who sells his Mustang for an M3 to then come back here just to tell us that the M3 is better.

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[lo-fi]

E9x is a great platform but every owner leaves out the bit where the car is far to tame and numb off the showroom floor. Particularly so in DCT (amazing shifts, give it that) form as you’re even more disconnected from the pavement and the driving process. Not to mention a base manual was at 60k on release where as a 2015 mustang GT was around 33k. The mustang out of the box is less refined, but it is more visceral. It has character. You might dislike that character, but it’s there. The E9x is too clean. Too proper. Too tidy. I need a bad girl for lack of a better description. I don’t like Mustangs because it’s all I can afford, I like them because they are a bad ass.

 

[bnightstar]

But, if people like what they like, who are we to tell them otherwise? Sports car hobby has a subjective element. But, it does kinda rub me the wrong way when a guy who sells his Mustang for an M3 to then come back here just to tell us that the M3 is better.

Here in my end of the woods we have way more BMW's than Mustangs so the Mustang is the cool kid. But usually is all the rage for the E36 in fact in my class there is a very well build E36 2.8 Turbo car that is actually faster than the Mustang because it's more HP it's lighter doesn't have any interior besides the racing seat and people here always compare the Mustang with the E36 but when the end of the even come I jump into my letter seats with cooling and AC and just drive off. The lap time difference is around or less of 2 seconds so I will gladly trade them for AC and cool seats in hot weather. But to each it's own. E36 are actually really fun cars to drive but even the M3 don't have enough power if not highly modded to compete with the Mustang.

On my local track there is also a highly modded M3 E92 and that also is 1 second faster (hope to close this gap this year) but that's mostly because my S550 really lack HP because of EU regulations. Overall I can keep up with Stock G8x M3/M4's and Stock M2's but not with the modded versions granted the limit and ease of reaching insane power levels with the F/G M cars is hard to match with a Mustang to much things missing from the showroom floor.

But the E92 is probably out of all M3's the slowest and the coolest one at the same time. It's the only one with V8 so it has amazing sound but it's one of the heaviest without a way to compensate for that with power the maximum potential of the motor is somewhere in the 500 hp range which in today world is nothing to brag about. The suspension and the steering is very good though but that's to be expected considering is a BMW and drivers feel is what there whole brand is based on. The E92 is really expensive mostly because they are rare and more and more lost there engines. We can argue that this is also the most unreliable M3 ever build which compared to how reliable the Mustang is even when pushed is a very wired trade. Especially in a place where E92 M3 parts are not available in any junkyard like here.

 

[Mach VII]

I have a long standing client that bought this new and had It modified by Dinan. I don’t think it has moved in almost a decade. I’ve considered asking if he would sell but I’m guessing I don’t have the coin for it. I believe it is a 2008.

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