sure will, you are correct and i am acutely aware
Great. But there's a reason why they don't come from the factory set up like that. The engine just will not survive. Let's compare apples to apples. Stock engine to stock EV drivetrain.
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sure will, you are correct and i am acutely aware
Great. But there's a reason why they don't come from the factory set up like that. The engine just will not survive. Let's compare apples to apples. Stock engine to stock EV drivetrain.
stock to stock the m3 ran 11.9 at 116 mph and it was still faster than a P3d over 80 mph not brutally fast like it is now. since the brakes and suspension is stock i still stand behind the fact that the handling and braking is better. btw it dynoed at 408 whp on my dyno stock. Again, as stated, they are different cars and have pros and cons , i own them both and like them both. Warranty on the M3 is almost done (it was a 2016 nov) so i am thinking of going crazy mod wise.
What can i say, i like to tinker, and i can tinker more with the bmw. all i can do to the Tesla is suspension and brakes for now. BTW the reason the M3 did NOT come with more power is because they did not want it to get too close to the m5. Case in point the m3 GTS which costs about the same as a m5 but has internally the same exact motor normal m3 with some cooling mods. it makes high 400 whp. It has lesser headroom than the normal m3 due to turbos maxing out Can m3s run around the high 400, low 500 mark ? yes the can and they do.
That quarter mile time is it least the tenth of a second quicker than any verified time on any stock M3. Most sources suggest 12.1 to 12.3. And yes if you like to tweak stuff there are a lot of restrictions baked into the Tesla drivetrain and system that right now can't be worked around. That's okay for me, maybe that's not okay for you.
i have a 16 m3 and a P3D as well. My M3 is tuned by me and is faster than the P3D but not by much.
M3 - 11.2 @ 123 mph
P3D - 11.75 @ 113 mph.
M3 makes a shade over 500 whp. Its ultimately faster on the street and has better "feel" driving it hard. Less body roll and way better brakes. You have to work the m3 to go fast and you get a bigger rush. The interior space is similar between the 2 cars. The biggest difference is that 80 mph and above the M3 kills the P3D - thats to be expected i guess. For 99 % of driving the P3D will be faster on the street. I like both cars and probably will be upgrading the M3 further
For everyday use the Tesla is the go to car. a full tank costs 50 + bux on the m3 and 10 on the Tesla, its a no brainer. i do like the seats on the m3 more but dont mind the Tesla seats too much. I should probably upgrade the suspension and brakes on the tesla and sell the m3. So confused because they do different things for me.
Actually there are guys running 11.8 stock on m3's with similar mph. i am just slower than them. you are correct the majority run low 12's. Just had to practice a LOT.
Maybe you can get those times in cold weather. I don't think you can get them consistently in warmer weather. And while M3 launching takes a lot of skill and yields a lot of variation, the Tesla Model 3 is uncannily consistent. Within a tenth of a second nearly every run
View attachment 449793
I've put a few miles now on my new-to-me 2016 F80 BMW M3, including a 400 mile trip, and have had my Model 3 for nearly a year--so I thought I'd write down some thoughts.
The Cars:
2016 BMW M3 6M, M Adaptive suspension, 425 hp
2018 Tesla Model 3 Performance dual motor, 475ish hp (incl. 5 percent OTA boost at some point)
Exterior:
The BMW is an extrovert's car. I've thought of them as sort of extra, as my kid would say, particularly in the way the rear fenders flare over the back wheels, and in the front bumper that just barely escapes looking like catfish whiskers. But the look of the car has grown on me. The proportions on the M3 are nice, old-school BMW--long hood, relatively upright passenger cabin, L-shaped taillights. It works better than the E90, to my eyes, which I always thought seemed a bit narrow. The details on my car, including a blacked out grille, dark wheels, and a carbon fiber roof, are a nice contrast to the Sakhir Orange paint, which is a dramatic, fun color.
The Tesla is...well, from some angles it's pretty good, especially with 20 inch wheels. There are details you can appreciate, like the multiple curves and angles on the nose that seem far racier than a sedan has any right to have. But from other angles (esp. from the rear), it's just awkward. The proportions are nowhere near as good as the dead-sexy Model S. But it blends in better than the M3, especially because it doesn't make any noise (more on that in a minute).
Interior:
The Tesla gets a lot of *sugar* for it's spare, Spartan interior design, and for materials that some say are sub-par.
But it takes living with the car, and comparing it to something like the BMW, to really appreciate how goddamn good the Tesla is inside.
The lack of instruments in front of you is off-putting at first, but you quickly get used to the panoramic view out the front, which helps you not only in daily driving but also lets you place the car better when you start to drive fast. The center screen has its disadvantages, mostly in the lack of tactile feedback category, but the interface is so clean and intuitive that anyone can get in and make the car work immediately. The Tesla also has noticeably more space inside than the BMW, particularly for cargo--it has a bigger trunk AND a frunk AND a compartment below the trunk. Taking two kids and their gear to camp in the Tesla? Easy. Not so much in the BMW.
Notably, the things that people complain about (lack of air vents, lack of buttons, etc) are, for me at least, non-issues. The automatic climate on the Tesla is essentially set it and forget it. The steering wheel buttons control the audio functions I need them to and nothing else. The nav in the Tesla is easy to use because the large touch screen makes entering a destination simple. I do wish there were separate mirror controls, but beyond that? I really have no complaints.
Compared to the Tesla, the BMW feels like you're sitting in a hollowed-out WWII torpedo. The hood bulges up in front of you, forcing you to look around it, and the gauges and instrument panel dominate your field of view. There are buttons all over the place, but they operate in inscrutable ways that requires study to master. iDrive is better than its ever been, but it's still hard to learn, and 9 times out of 10 you'll just not bother using the nav rather than try to wrestle with destination entry. I should note that BMW actually has a nice app that works with the car, and entering nav info on that works well, but the whole setup is far kludgier than the one in the Tesla.
The seats in the BMW seem nicer at first. They're real leather, and firmer than the Tesla's, which are sort of hyperneoprene and squishy. But the BMW's seats are made for someone broader of beam than me, so I kind of rattle around in them, and after 400 miles my ass hurts in a way it doesn't driving the Tesla.
Does the BMW feel nicer inside? I guess--there are certainly more types of materials, and they're probably more expensive. But ultimately, the Tesla gets out of your way, while the BMW demands constant attention.
Driving.
Speaking of driving, what about that?
I'd like to sugarcoat this, but I can't. It's in the driving that the Tesla reveals itself to be the better car. And it's not a close thing. The BMW is near the apex of what an internal combustion engine performance car can be, but the Tesla exists in a different league, a vision of the future, a quantum leap. It's like comparing a P-51 to an Me 262.
Around town, you expect this to be true. With no clutch and instant torque, the Tesla is faster than the BMW everywhere, all the time. It's always ready to go, to jump in front of someone at a light, to nail a gap in traffic, whatever you need. It's "throttle" response is otherworldly, but it also has traction to spare--it digs and GOES, right now, no wheelspin, nothing to worry about.
The BMW requires thought, deliberation--point it straight ahead, and lay on the throttle, and it will go fast, as soon you slip the clutch just right and let the revs build a little and the turbos spool and manage the shift points. Get any of that wrong and even the Kia Forte in the next lane will beat you to 20 or 30 mph, forget about the Tesla.
And the Tesla will do it silently. The BMW's active muffler sounds like its got holes bored through it in sport and sport+. It's a pretty OK sound, though not great, but what it lacks in sonorous character it makes up for in volume. When you go fast in the BMW, people know it. Pedestrians, your passengers, people a few blocks over, everyone. When you go fast in the Tesla, people don't even notice, although your passengers might wonder why they suddenly have whiplash.
OK, so around town the Tesla is the winner. Sure. That makes sense.
But living with the two cars what surprised me is how much better the Tesla is for long-distance travel. The BMW is geared crazy-short. At highway speeds, it's turning 3000 RPM. Great because the turbos are on boost, but terrible for relaxing. The suspension is a bit jittery and overall the car just feels like work to drive at high speeds. Given its size and weight, it's a little surprising just how much of a GT the BMW isn't.
The Tesla, OTOH, doesn't vibrate. It doesn't roar, or boom. It just goes. There's tire and wind noise, of course, but not too much of either, and mostly there's just calm.
It's really remarkable how tired I was today after 400 miles in the BMW; way more than I would have been in the Tesla.
And I will say this, too--people bitch about EV charging, but after you get used to using the Tesla network, going back to getting gas feels like a huge step backward.
Isn't it faster to get gas, you ask? Well, sure--but you have to make two stops if you also need food, which I do on a 200 or 400 mile drive. First you stop for gas, and you stand there while it pumps, and then you drive off to find a place to eat. With the Tesla, you stop, plug in, go get your food, come back, unplug, and you're on your way. It's legitimately better.
Of course, if you're driving more than 400 miles or so, and have to do multiple charging stops, the Tesla might start to feel constraining. But on a 6 hour trip like I did today, it wouldn't have, at all.
And that doesn't even get into the whole buying gas for daily driving thing, which is something you don't realize you hate until you don't have to do it.
The Tesla’s phone key thing is great, as long as it works, which for me it does, but for others in my house it doesn’t reliably, and that’s the source of immense frustration. Why can’t this car just have a normal key?
For the BMW, it has the world’s most sensitive passenger detection weight sensor in the passenger seat—seriously, it’s triggered by things like a sandwich or your phone + glasses case. This would probably also drive you nuts if you regularly carried a bag; you’d have to put it on the floor.
Neither car has much steering feel. The BMW’s wheel is too big, and the Tesla’s is too small. I’d say the Tesla’s steering is better if only because it’s sharper, but driving the Porsche after either is a revelation.
Verdict
I like the BMW. I really do. It's fun to shift your own gears, and you won't find a better manual transmission sedan of recent vintage than this one. And the BMW has sounds and feelings that give their own satisfaction. I'd hate to lose cars like this forever.
But if the question is "which is the better car," the answer isn't hard. It's not remotely close. The Tesla performs all of the functions you're looking for in a performance car better than the BMW, by a lot. Plus it's more practical and easier to live with.
If you could have only one, my recommendation would be: Buy American.
I drove 2 BMW 330 Coupes with Sport and Performance packages for 16 years before I bought my Model 3 (RWD LR). One Coupe was a 5 speed and the other a 6 speed with an after market short shifter. I love the Model. But nothing corners like the BMW Coupe. Tesla accelerates faster but the Beemer corners like nothing I've ever driven.
Let's hope you don't get subpar gas or any carbon deposits in your combustion Chambers. You're probably running pretty close to pre ignition without water injection. Good luck keeping that engine alive for very long at that State Of Tune without water injection. And it's safe to say you have no engine warranty.. And none of that is any meaningful rebuttal of your lack of Level Playing Field. Come on.
I hear you. Definitely takes a little skill and can be difficult to hit the posted numbers (especially with manual)Now in my 40s, I've started to hate launching ICE cars. I want to feel the power & speed that I paid for off the line, but I couldn't help but feel like a total antisocial douche bag creating a scene doing it. Now, I can do it all in silence and it's easier, cheaper & faster than ever. No drama, all smiles. Launch control is so last century...
Plus one on all that. The lack of drama is one of its best features because it makes the cars amazing performance envelope fully usable. No wheelspin, no noise, it just disappears down the road. People who are in the dark about Teslas are left scratching their heads as to why it's so quiet and how it could move away that quickly.Now in my 40s, I've started to hate launching ICE cars. I want to feel the power & speed that I paid for off the line, but I couldn't help but feel like a total antisocial douche bag creating a scene doing it. Now, I can do it all in silence and it's easier, cheaper & faster than ever. No drama, all smiles. Launch control is so last century...
That goes double for me. I am astonished every time I'm first in line at the traffic light with an absolutely safe and clear path to the speed limit and I gently lay into the throttle and by the time I've reached 50 mph everybody is two football fields behind me. It gets even funnier when they pass me speeding and are looking at the car like 'What the hell is that?'Plus one on all that.
No drama cause it all translates to the pavement instead of getting wasted spinning tires and pitching sideways. It just goes!Plus one on all that. The lack of drama is one of its best features because it makes the cars amazing performance envelope fully usable. No wheelspin, no noise, it just disappears down the road. People who are in the dark about Teslas are left scratching their heads as to why it's so quiet and how it could move away that quickly.
stock P3D sits too high and damper is too soft for track. You also need to upgrade your brake pad, brake fluid and remove the rotor heatshield to have sufficient brake on the track. Otherwise you'll be disappointed. Canyon carving won't be an issue.