Ben FR

Even though I think its pretty indisputable that an M3 will beat the S4 off the line, I think it's a different story at highway speeds because of the S4's turbos. Anyone here race an M3 from a rolling start in 2nd gear or above? Was it close? I remember reading something about the S4 Avant in Automobile Mag coming up with some fast times in comparison to the C32 AMG and M3.

-Ben FR

BenM@University Audi

said that the S4's roll on power from something like 60-100mph was way faster than the other cars...and that was stock.

The R

Stock vs. Stock, the S4 will get destroyed on a roll on. Now stage 1 or stage 2, it should be a good race. From a dead stop, the S4 has an advantage due to traction. From a roll, it's anybodys race. I've yet to run into one on the freeway, but when I do....I'll post win or lose. Oh, you are talking E46 M3 right?

As for E36....dead even....all driver on both accounts. Now if you have a factory freak vs. a factory dud, well........

Psyence

because gearing and torque chracteristics would play a big part in the results if all 3 cars hard to start in a specific gear...

and the C32 has quite a bit of torque down low...

Zaphod//TMK:Indukted

time after time i see people posting "he had me off the line but i caught him going into second gear" HELLO???? AWD!! That's the whole point. A 2wd car with power is going to either spin or have to ease out of a launch, either way the AWD car has (should have) the advantage. My friend with a VR-4 raced a GN and even though though the VR-4 was running 12.7's and the GN was running 11.4's, the VR-4 had him through first gear just because of the traction factor.

z | b

The R

car. If you are behind when the race is over, you lose! I took a C5 real bad out the whole because of traction once when I was stage 1. Cool guy, we talked afterwards. He posted about it on the Vette forum. He said by the time he had traction, he had no chance in catching me.
He wasn't trying to do 120 on that street.

Man, I annoyed the hell out of some LS1s here in DAllas at the street races one night because I could launch on them but they could never catch me before the race was finished. I was stock back then. Of course, they weren't the best drivers either...IMHO....but on a slick road, AWD can be hard to beat from stop light to stop light. Now if you bog that S4...hehehehe... your toast.

Pat-SoCal

I was in my camaro though and down about 100hp due to a faulty optispark, but I was not impressed with the new M3 (was barely pulling my mildly modded LT1 camaro). That and when I test drove one, it was not as stable as the E36 and the exhaust noise is reminisient of a jap rod with a 5" exhaust tip.