Sept. 07 Winding Road M3 Review

[Voltigeur]

Originally Posted by Epacy

Sweet mercy that shot from above makes the car look f'ing mean!

+1 Ya gotta love that power bulge - really a muscular car from this angle.

Props to the photographer for thinking of that angle :rocks:

[RI_RS4]

Originally Posted by BruceWain

MB's C class had a V8 before the RS4.
Please do not try to tell me that the reason BMW went with a V8 was because of Audi.....

This is from an article in Autoweek about the M3 introduction. The quote is from Gerhard Richter in BMW's M-division. I would certainly include Audi's RS4 as part of the competition. It is quite clear from this quotation, from the horse's mouth, that the decision to go with a V8 in the M3 was a reaction to the competition that BMW was seeing on the horizon. So yes, I think it is reasonable to conclude that Audi's RS4 was a significant reason for BMW to put a V8 in the M3. In Richter's own words: "It wasn’t so much us thinking the new car needed a larger powerplant ..."

http://www.autoweek.com/apps/pbcs.dl.../70402007/1059

The story of the new M3 begins in 2002 with the M division’s decision to proceed with a 4.0-liter V8 engine in place of the outgoing model’s sublime 3.2-liter inline-six. “It wasn’t so much us thinking the new car needed a larger powerplant than news that the competition was preparing cars in excess of 400 hp,” says the company’s development boss, Gerhard Richter, adding, “To stay in the game, we simply needed a bigger engine with greater power.”

[RI_RS4]

Originally Posted by southlight

Wow, you must have a pretty sensitive right foot. Never heard before that anyone has a better fuel economy with his RS4 than with the S4. But the S4 is indeed very bad in fuel consumption.

Best regards, south

Actually, all of the RS4 drivers that switched over from the S4 report higher mileage. It's a V8 and it still sucks, but on long trips on cruise control I can get 23.5 mpg at 70. Normally I'm running around 16 mph, 12 mpg when I run hard on the street, and about 8-10 mpg on the track.