i did a test drive back to back with a performance and a LR AWD and the performance acceleration was definitely noticeably quicker. Pretty much the main reason I went with the performance initially then switched to stealth once one became available. If I had never test drove the performance I would’ve thought the LR AWD was incredibly fast, and just went with that but Once you drive a performance you’re hooked and gotta have it — at least for me.
However I should note that the performance was almost fully charged and the LR AWD was at about 20% which definitely may have made a difference but oh well I am happy
1 second faster from an incredibly fast low 4s car is
huge and cannot be overstated. Now, here's the thing, you can always go faster, it's a question of where you stop. If accelerating super fast is of particular interest to you (seems like a cool party trick), the P is the quickest 3. I had both and kept the non-P (not for performance reasons, one car wasn't driven and was just collecting dust, and the P was a + with the 20s shod in summer-only tires which can't be driven in <45F temps unless I got a separate set of all seasons, so the P+ got the boot). Truth be told, I got used to how fast the P was and ultimately it didn't feel that fast anymore and, yep, I wanted more. Now that we only have the 3D LR non-P, I kinda readjusted up and it sort of feels as fast as the P felt. I know, and remember, how much faster the P was, but again, you can always go faster, and for the time being there's no particular, or practical, need to go any faster than the non-P. As a comparison, I testdrove a 2015 BMW 335i yesterday, a car with 300 bhp, and it felt miserably slow.
Edit: now, for $2k more, it's a no brainer. If you have no plans on tracking the car, the BBK on the + is useless and limits your choice of aftermarket wheels. This is why I'm kinda sorta looking to get a -. If only I could find a white on white.