Fast road cars

I had a fairly nimble car last year..

A BMW E46 M3, superb car that was as much at home on the motorway cruising along as it was being driven vigorously on a good back road. Swallowed up straights in a hear beat and was superb on the corners. Took my mate out in it who is a huge motorbike fan and he was blown away with the performance of it. Couldn’t believe how planted it felt on corners and how quickly it gathered momentum… The straigh six also sounded marvellous at full throttle as the revs built up past 6000 RPM..

I’d have another tomorrow if I could afford to run 2 cars.

So they are pretending that the other person is racing them? And that their cars are in fact equal but the other person is inferior and can’t keep up?

I find this odd. Well – I didn’t when I was 8 years old..

I can see where you’re coming from, although I do the exact opposite.

I drive a slow car, and tend to get a real thrill from slowing people in fast cars down, rather than racing them. It works best on wide “a” roads where I tend to stick to about 50 mph. If they try and overtake, I speed up a bit to stop them getting past.

Which then makes the driver behind angry and possibly makes for a ill placed overtake?

Whether it be bike or car I’ll lift off or even indicate left to help someone overtake me. Less pressure and doesnt hold anyone up behind me.

It’s just the way you’re going off on one about motorbikes, like a red mist has descended on you.

I love the justification that you used to ride one off road when you were younger, but wouldn’t ride on one on the roads now because it’s so dangerous with the cars etc.

Sounds like a lot of people who drive talking about cyclists….

I drive a slow car, and tend to get a real thrill from slowing people in fast cars down, rather than racing them. It works best on wide “a” roads where I tend to stick to about 50 mph. If they try and overtake, I speed up a bit to stop them getting past.

No ones going to fall for that troll surely?

Which then makes the driver behind angry and possibly makes for a ill placed overtake?
Whether it be bike or car I’ll lift off or even indicate left to help someone overtake me. Less pressure and doesnt hold anyone up behind me.

Ah ok, tips hat. Well done.

Molgrips, do you own a caravan perchance?

Comfortable cruising can be enjoyable, well more enjoyable than uncomfortable cruising. Just like a nice summers day ride along a quiet tow path can be enjoyable taking in the views etc. But it’s not quite the same as enjoying the feel of zipping along a nice flowing bit of single track nailing each corner with that perfect line (in my dreams), how the bike responds to your every input and exploring where the limits of grip are.

For cruising give me a nice Range Rover, quiet, refined and with a good view over the hedge rows.

To really enjoy the driving experience give me a moderately powered 7 and a twisty B road.

Here you go, “fast” and a “road” car:

😉

Whether it be bike or car I’ll lift off or even indicate left to help someone overtake me. Less pressure and doesnt hold anyone up behind me.

I shift into reverse to make it easier still. Sometimes I’ll simply sit motionless on an A-road or motorway taking in the scenery as the ultimate demonstration that you don’t need to drive fast or even move to enjoy driving. Some mellow classics on a good stereo, a glass of Chablis and birdsong audible through the sun-roof make for a fantastic non-journey.

Often these days, of course, I have little choice in the matter anyway as lemming-like ‘fast drivers’ seem intent on rear-ending each other – double entendre intentional – causing endless tailbacks etc. It’s a right pain in the arse.

maxtorque – Member

Here you go, “fast” and a “road” car:

I watched that last night. What amazed me was just how close the RS6 was at 150mph, never mind you it steamed ahead on launch. Obviously 4wd playing a massive part there but it’s seriously impressive that an estate car (albeit £90,000) can keep a £1million pound 900bhp hypercar in sight for as long as it did.

I’d agree, the most impressive thing in that video was the £70k estate car. Quite incredible.

*Puts order in for a RS6*

The rear of the P1…

Arent they going to finish it?

I’ve had ‘fast’ cars for the last 12 years or so and currently have a 911. For me it isn’t the outright speed that appeals – it’s the whole experience. The noise, the looks, handling, sense of occasion (only used weekends/when nice c3k a year) and the acceleration out of a tight corner etc. It wouldn’t bother me if the car was limited to 100mph in this county as owning a quick car isn’t about top speeds.

I can understand why a lot of people think they’re pointless and a waste of money though.

If they try and overtake, I speed up a bit to stop them getting past.

**** off.

You absolute **** braindead ****.

😆

Erm.. question..

Whats with the flashing rear lights on the P1..

Are they faulty ?

I drive a slow car, and tend to get a real thrill from slowing people in fast cars down

I guess your passenger footwell is a mass of soiled tissues……….or perhaps you have a special driving sock for such an occasion

😉

I assumed it was just one of those “interference” things you get filing LEDs with TV equipment.

@bikebouy, IIRC it uses a little rear brake for traction control since it’s an open diff? So could be that. Looks terrible to my eyes but, I am not the target market 😆

I’m quite happy with the handling and the torque from the 200bhp diesel in my mondeo.

bikebouy – Member

Erm.. question..

Whats with the flashing rear lights on the P1..

Are they faulty ?

It’s just the way LEDs show up on video.

Just asking, you see I saw a large Merc (new E estate) the other day down the road, looked brand new (it was dusk) anyway he was turning right and his indicators were graduated.. The flashed from the inside of the lens outwards, a bit like an LED on a Rev counter, if you get my drift..

Clearly a new feature on big Mercs..

I think now, the perfect car for me would be along the lines of a small / medium car with a decent grunt engine . . .3 series with 3 litre engine type thing. That way your getting good handling, with an engine that can be pushed hard at times, but isn’t too over the top you feel its wasted.

But even that you can’t ‘exploit’. We have an E90 330 (previous shape) and you can’t really exploit it fully because even with a measly 260bhp your well over the speed limit, especially as it loves yo be rev’d (sounds ace at the redline too).

I used to think that about my bosses RS6. Then we had to do a 1000 mile mostly motorway round trip in it. After that I’d be happy to never go in it again. Noisy, uncomfortable but spectacular down the slip road after the frequent service station stops to fill it up….

Which version was it? I’ve spent some time in the previous V10 turbo I e and noisey it wasn’t. My biggest grip was that you couldn’t hear enough of the V10 aside from a bassy woofle. It was bloody comfy too proving the dampers were in comfort mode….dynamic was awful. It was far better riding than any normal S Libe car. Fuel economy was terrible though…..I had one good drive in it and was 11mpg! Ouch.

Of course the RS6 was quick off the line, it’s a softly sprung heavy ish car.

I would be intrigued to know how the RS6 compares to half decent BMW though to drive, not just in a straight line

FunkyDunc – Member
A 3ltr in a 3 series is too much. I’ve got a 2.0 one and its plenty quick enough.

I’ve got a (new to me ) E91 325i, which has the 220bhp 3 litre motor. I love it, having driven diesels for many years. It is a heavier unit than my old 2.0d in my old E46 Touring, so I can see your point from a weight distribution view, but has also taught me that I’ll be looking at a 335i next as I still find the odd occasion where I could do with a little more poke.

A 2.0 l twin turbo would be ideal; grunt without the additional weight of 2 more cylinders. But then you’d lose that lovely straight six sound.

Of course the RS6 was quick off the line, it’s a softly sprung heavy ish car.

I would be intrigued to know how the RS6 compares to half decent BMW though to drive, not just in a straight line

Having driven both, the RS6 is actually pretty good. In fact it’s very good, the shove into your seat when you boot it is very impressive and very effortless too. The ride is better than my M Sport 3 when in comfort mode but awful in dynamic mode when it is just too firm. The car never seemed to settle and was dire on B roads. It never felt like a big car to drive either which was surprising given how big it actually is. The one thing that you can’t hide from is the sheer bulk of it when you brake or corner. That is the one place that my BM and others that I have driven did feel better.

As much asi enjoyed driving the RS6, I fidnt love it in the way that I though I would. It always felt like an amazing engineering achievement but lacked something. I think my step uncle felt the same because he didn’t keep it that long. I much preferred his RS4 which had a lot more character.

FunkyDunc – Member

Of course the RS6 was quick off the line, it’s a softly sprung heavy ish car.

Silly me. I guess any heavy, “softly sprung” car would have taken the shine off a million pound hypercar. Four wheel drive and nearly 600bhp probably had nothing to do with it.

Yeah, but it demonstrably is

Go on then, demonstrate it!

I’ve got a (new to me ) E91 325i, which has the 220bhp 3 litre motor. I love it, having driven diesels for many years. It is a heavier unit than my old 2.0d in my old E46 Touring, so I can see your point from a weight distribution view, but has also taught me that I’ll be looking at a 335i next as I still find the odd occasion where I could do with a little more poke.

I’m not sure that the six pot petrol will that heavier. The N52 3 litre was one of the lightest engines for it’s power and capacity. If you have the later detuned 3 litre engine it’ll be a development of this. I’m guessing that the older 2.5litre engine would have had some of the development of the N52 either.

I’ve got a (new to me ) E91 325i, which has the 220bhp 3 litre motor. I love it, having driven diesels for many years. It is a heavier unit than my old 2.0d in my old E46 Touring, so I can see your point from a weight distribution view, but has also taught me that I’ll be looking at a 335i next as I still find the odd occasion where I could do with a little more poke.

Map your 325i? My wife has the saloon, mapped with piper cross panel filter and exhaust. It sounds much nicer but only loud when you thrash it. It’s just as quiet as before around town which was a concern as she didn’t want it to sound loud when pootling.

Mindmap

It’s the detuned 3.0 six. It feels more nose heavy than my old E46 320d. However it’s a much easier car to drive from a liveability point of view.

New tyres in a few months time will give me a little more grip which I think will make a huge difference.

K-O

I didn’t think there was much mapping potential with that engine; I need to keep it for a few years to make things work financially, so maybe that could be an option. Yes it’s a very quiet note below 4000 RPM.

Any more details of the mod; tuning co. etc?

I’ve just added the BMW Performance carbon air intake to our 330 and it’s made it sound a bit chunkier the final 500rpm sound amazing now ith a slight. CSL rasp. The exhaust is bloody lovely too. Neither are cheap though.

Revo have a good rep with modifying german cars and may be able to map the 325 to get closer to the 330.

bikebouy
Erm.. question..

Whats with the flashing rear lights on the P1..

Are they faulty ?

On modern cars, the lights are LEDs, and in are driven by electronics that rapidly cycle them on and off to both save power and to stop them overheating. Luckily, humans have “persistence of vision”, so we cannot “see” any on/of flashing that occurs faster than around 20 times a second. So, in reality, your tail lamps are flashing on and off around 60 times a second, you just can’t see it with the human eye.

But, a camera also “scans” across its sensing element at some speed, and so you get a hetrodyning effect, as the two scan rates interlace. This makes the lights appear to flash on and off or to scan across the screen when they are filmed. Depending on the two rates (the flashing rate and the scanning rate) you can even end up with lights that are one, looking like they are off, if the frequencies are the same but 180deg out of phase etc).

As also mentioned, in some of the latest cars, the trail lamps have different intensities and illumination patterns as well, although this is less common.

To the question posed above about RS6 vs BMW, I’ve had both the Audi and an M6 – the Audi is miles quicker off the line but the V10 is a screamer and once above 3k revs I personally think its much quicker than the Audi(t). M6 is the first car I’ve driven that felt ‘too fast’ – it just keeps pulling until you’re doing crazy speeds and being a big car it takes some effort to slow it down. It also sounds immense and I must be the only person to actually like the SMG gearbox. First drive after picking it up and ‘trying it’, I had the proper shakes. I can’t comprehend how a P1 or Ferrari Ferrari must feel..

I’d love an out an out sports car but I know it would be wasted, totally impractical and be incredibly frustrating on modern roads. I’m one of the motorbike crowd and little can compare to a litre bike but fortunately I’ve gotten over most of the desire for excessive speed after getting rid of my last sports bike and leave high speed for the occasional track day.

Last year I treated myself to my first ‘not a s*** box’ car and went for a 335D touring. For my uses it’s a prefect biking car. I’m more than happy cruising along with the traffic but usually my trips for riding away does mean I do get to use a good proportion of it’s performance on an open, traffic free road. It’s no sports car and I don’t feel like I’m egged on when driving it, as cars like that have a dual personality of sensible cruiser when it’s appropriate. The power makes long trips less stressful and when you want to overtake, (loaded up with 3 people + bikes), it has enough power to make it safe and enjoyable.

@solamanda well you can have more than one car and you can find some quieter roads or go on track days to enjoy the performance a bit more if you want an out and out sports car.

Gary_C – Member
If they try and overtake, I speed up a bit to stop them getting past.
**** off.

You absolute **** braindead ****.

Was there any need for that?

I’m helping make the roads a safer place thank you!

55mph is plenty fast enough. The speed limit is just that; a limit; it’s not a target!

Making roads safer by forcing other cars to remain in the oncoming lane for longer? Interesting approach.

davidtaylforth

55mph is plenty fast enough. The speed limit is just that, a limit, it’s not a target!

^^^^ short hand for “i’m a brain dead driver who couldn’t drive a greasy stick up a pigs ar*e” but as i don’t exceed any of the arbitrary speed limits i’m obviously the bestest, safest driver in the whole world.

Accelerating or taking any action to prevent someone overtaking you because that way it’s “safer” is as idiotic as it comes.