CarandDriver: M2 vs GT350

[marks]

1-0 to a naturally aspirated stick shift Mustang. A turbo auto may be 0.4 second quicker round a track but who cares, it's about how the car makes you feel.

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[FocusRS]

Fact man, tramlining can be helped more often than not with different tires or an alignment. Much more effort and cost into fixing poor suspension tuning, and you will probably lose performance then as well.

My GT350 tramlined from the dealer. When I put on the new rims/tires 0 tramlining.

I used my stock wheels with winter tires for Dec-Mar.

 

[FocusRS]

I live in Michigan. It's poor roads, everywhere. It is sometimes a bit alarming how much it pulls.

I'd recommend you guys take a shot in it. Always good to learn about the competition. I really feel like the M2 is a great car.

Very alarming. Try 2 lane road Big Beaver west of Woodward. Keep your hands on the wheel !

Like I posted though, new 6GR R-Specs and Continentals fixed that.

 

[FocusRS]

My issue with the M2 is that it's borderline cute. The 350 looks mean and beautiful.

Mine too. Looks so girly or something whenever i see them in a parking garage.

Every day someone gawks at my "Mustang". It's like, "what is that???". I'm like "just a Mustang". Aren't these cars, like, EVERYWHERE?

The GT350 is THAT unique, menacing, awesome-looking and sounding.

 

[sigintel]

Google "M4 M3 M2 steering pull drift right", then try "BMW class action"
Happy reading.

Due to problems with BMW power steering, you can find <2k mile M4/3/2 for sale, or with very low miles. There have been several lemonned according to forums and have a friend that has had his car spend more time at dealer than he has had it since new. Dealer has logged several hundred miles on it trying to fix. BMW just started reprogramming steering racks just this month. They have a massive problem with their power steering design that causes on center gain and near center offset. The system thinks there is an input due to picking up feedback from the road and gaining that up near center in closed loop feedback. Some cars have problems, others dont: QA issue on steering column and rack.

And BMW says that suspension is out of warranty after 2k miles! lol!
BMW NA is involved and about to be an attorney involved as well, all with less than 2k miles on a $60k car...
:ford:

 

[Stuntman]

GT350s are as fast as 991.1C2S & C7 Z51s on most tracks. I don't think an M2 would hold a candle to one.

M3/4 are drift machines and can't put down power to save their life. I guess the Germans felt being cool and making a car easy to drift is more important than turning fast laps.

 

[Minn19]

Google "M4 M3 M2 steering pull drift right", then try "BMW class action"
Happy reading.

Due to problems with BMW power steering, you can find <2k mile M4/3/2 for sale, or with very low miles. There have been several lemonned according to forums and have a friend that has had his car spend more time at dealer than he has had it since new. Dealer has logged several hundred miles on it trying to fix. BMW just started reprogramming steering racks just this month. They have a massive problem with their power steering design that causes on center gain and near center offset. The system thinks there is an input due to picking up feedback from the road and gaining that up near center in closed loop feedback. Some cars have problems, others dont: QA issue on steering column and rack.

And BMW says that suspension is out of warranty after 2k miles! lol!
BMW NA is involved and about to be an attorney involved as well, all with less than 2k miles on a $60k car...
:ford:

I'm still on the BMW forums daily and I've never heard of this reaching numerous lemoned cars or BMW denying a suspension warranty at 2k miles. :shrug:

Do you have any links for this?

 

[Minn19]

GT350s are as fast as 991.1C2S & C7 Z51s on most tracks. I don't think an M2 would hold a candle to one.

M3/4 are drift machines and can't put down power to save their life. I guess the Germans felt being cool and making a car easy to drift is more important than turning fast laps.

Yah it's not quite that bad and driver for driver an M3/4 is going to be right there with a GT350. It would truly be a drivers race. Both have their pros and cons on the track that keep them close. A DCT equipped M3/4 has an advantage on the track as well.

 

[Stuntman]

Yah it's not quite that bad and driver for driver an M3/4 is going to be right there with a GT350. It would truly be a drivers race. Both have there pros and cons on the track that keep them close. A DCT equipped M3/4 has an advantage on the track as well.

It kinda is when looking at each car's actual capability... Of course it's a drivers race. All these cars are way more capable than 99.9% of the owners out there. That's why you see Miata passing Ferrari's at track days, and a Camaro being able to hang with the new Ford GT on track.

C&D admitted they were 4+ seconds off the GM engineer's lap time at VIR and unfortunately Randy's head to heads, or Chris Harris' back to back tests, most reviews are pretty useless to see the true ability of a car. And those can even be flawed by many tenths.

 

[Minn19]

It kinda is when looking at each car's actual capability... Of course it's a drivers race. All these cars are way more capable than 99.9% of the owners out there. That's why you see Miata passing Ferrari's at track days, and a Camaro being able to hang with the new Ford GT on track.

C&D admitted they were 4+ seconds off the GM engineer's lap time at VIR and unfortunately Randy's head to heads, or Chris Harris' back to back tests, most reviews are pretty useless to see the true ability of a car. And those can even be flawed by many tenths.

I'm not sure what you are saying here, but it is not a Miata passing a Ferrari or 911 type of situation. Both cars are very evenly matched in testing and in real world driving when it comes to lap times. I've driven and lived with both. I'm guessing I'd put down very similar lap times at a local track that I've driven both at. The M3/4 are a lot less fun and more frustrating to drive than the GT350, but are still very capable cars.

I'm guessing somebody that reads your post and takes it to heart is going to be very surprised when they come up on an M3/4 and have their hands full competing with it.

FWIW, I say the same thing on the M3/4 forum when they over exaggerate the GT350s weaknesses and say similar things that you are about them on the track.

 

[firestarter2]

It kinda is when looking at each car's actual capability... Of course it's a drivers race. All these cars are way more capable than 99.9% of the owners out there. That's why you see Miata passing Ferrari's at track days, and a Camaro being able to hang with the new Ford GT on track.

C&D admitted they were 4+ seconds off the GM engineer's lap time at VIR and unfortunately Randy's head to heads, or Chris Harris' back to back tests, most reviews are pretty useless to see the true ability of a car. And those can even be flawed by many tenths.

Thats a bit of a exaggeration. Just because the cars are more capable then the drivers doesn't make all cars equal.

 

[AirBusPilot]

It must have been a short, tight track for the M2 to not be killed by the GT350.

The drag race was strange, considering the trap speed of the 350 is nearly 9 mph higher. I'd expect bus lengths difference.

 

[Minn19]

It must have been a short, tight track for the M2 to not be killed by the GT350.

The drag race was strange, considering the trap speed of the 350 is nearly 9 mph higher. I'd expect bus lengths difference.

The same thing happened when the M2 first came out and it beat an M4s lap time at a short tight track. It was funny to watch the M2 guys trolling the M3/4 ones and vice versa.

There are so many variables at play who knows. I'm guessing a very tight track, but I didn't watch the video that closely to care enough. I think most of these types of videos are worthless when it comes to actual drivers in my skill level (which is somewhere around intermediate) competing against each other in different cars.

 

[FogcitySF]

First time I've heard of this as well and bimmerpost has a knack for blowing things out of proportion!

I'm still on the BMW forums daily and I've never heard of this reaching numerous lemoned cars or BMW denying a suspension warranty at 2k miles. :shrug:

Do you have any links for this?

 

[Minn19]

First time I've heard of this as well and bimmerpost has a knack for blowing things out of proportion!

No kidding, people think they bitch too much about problems here. :lol:

I've heard of the pulling to the right issue and the software fix, but not the numerous lemoned cars or the claim that BMW is somehow limiting suspension warranties etc.

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