Wow, these are very bold statements. I can't fathom how you come to this conclusion.
Check my signature. I am bold. BMW has, for several years, gotten by with the ratings for the handling on all their automobiles, and especially the 3-Series. In has been beaten in that area by multiple vehicles of late.
The typical mantra goes something like,
"It has become a better car, but a worse BMW." Sure, rather trite, as similar statements have been made about Ferrari and Porsche vehicles in the past decade or so. But this time, I believe them. Because those guys friggin'
LOVE the BMW 3-Series, and it absolutely breaks their poor little hearts to deliver the news each and every time they get beaten. Beaten so bad, that even they have to admit it.
Because for a very long time, automotive journalists would time and again hand the WIN to BMW even if the 3-Series had lost every single instrumented test. In the end, it all came down to that old, familiar
'feel'. What they called the
'BMW feel' -- that communication between the chassis, the road, and the steering wheel -- that told them all they wanted to know was all that was needed to tip the scales in their favor... Every time.
And now? Two things happened: The BMW feels different, and other cars feel BETTER. Yes, even
BETTER than they remembered the BMW feeling before it changed. Other cars are more FUN that the BMW ever was too.
So, armed with that knowledge, Tesla Motors is at a considerable advantage. They can not only use the previous benchmark that is the BMW 3-Series... But they can ALSO examine the details and techniques and strategies that all the other cars used to DEFEAT them! They can use that information to create driving profiles and handling and power delivery and torque curves and suspension geometry and tire wheel combinations and use analysis of yaw and pitch to determine exactly what the TESLA version of a BMW killer will look like going forward. And where BMW might decide to boost horsepower and sacrifice fuel economy for a new model year, a simple over-the-air software update can tweak a Tesla to kick their [BUM] anyway. Because even the best car that Tesla Motors has on the road is probably never delivering more than 80% of what the drivetrain is actually capable of managing.
I'd certainly welcome this but I have zero expectation that the most capable Model 3 will be a match for something like a stock M3 in a high performance environment. The inescapable challenge is that the M3 is still going to be 300-500lbs lighter than the 3 PxxDL.
I wouldn't count on that. Do not be surprised if the Tesla Model ☰ is at least as close to the M3 in weight as... Oh, the other cars that kicked its butt. In any case, I certainly doubt the Tesla will weigh more than a Mercedes-AMG SL65, and those do alright. Don't they?
