540i vs 05 STI

[Pavia]

Top Gear just showed the M3 getting better gas mileage than a Prius last night... Clearly the M3 is the better choice for the environment than a hybrid. Just think of all the damage done by mining and transporting nickel for the batteries.

[2004NeonSRT4]

OT: With all the power you have pumped out of your SRT, how do you combat torque steer? Bigger biceps?

actually my triceps do most of the work.(you hold it like your trying to do a pull up with your hands at 9-3, on the outside of the wheel) fighting tq steer. seriously. on my drag radials, on the street it will rip you into another lane (or ditch) if your not holding on to it for your life. if you get it "settled in" it weaves in the lane (up to 80ish) like i'm trying to warm up my tires. thankfully on slicks at the track. (where 130+ is the norm) it doesn't do it.

[AwdTurboWrx]

Your running out of the bank with the money bag under your arm and the alarms going off. Your get-away driver betrays you and takes off without you. In front of you, stopped at light, is an M3 and an STI. Which one do you carjack?

e46 i take the sti, e92, i take the m3.

[Trainrex]

e46 i take the sti, e92, i take the m3.

e=mc² I take my Toyota pickup

[06wrx4me]

e=mc˛ I take my Toyota pickup

Damn I wish we woulda got the Hilux diesel.

[Wrinklechops]

540i
curb weight 3748lbs
4.4L V8 282hp @ 5700 RPM
310 lb-ft @3900

Stock STI curb weight ~3,300 lbs
300 hp
300 tq

Actually, the 540i has 320lbs of torque, not that 10 more matters in this case though.

The 540i wasn't designed to be a real sports car. 0-60 in 6.1 seconds. I could probably beat that with my WRX.

I love the 540i though...with a few DINAN mods (even a stage 1 software tune) that thing can fly. But it's just supposed to be driven by mature business guys who want a little power when they step on it, but nothing more. Hard to find them in anything other than an automatic too.

STi will win, hands down. If it was the M5 from that same year as the 540i in question, that'd be a different story. That's one of my dream cars though...a 2001-ish M5 with 400hp mmm...

[RayfieldsWRX]

.a 2001-ish M5 with 400hp mmm...

I love those, too. Understated, bad to the bone, 6-speed-manual, comfortable...sounds good, well, 'til you have to get it repaired.

[Wrinklechops]

Top Gear just showed the M3 getting better gas mileage than a Prius last night... Clearly the M3 is the better choice for the environment than a hybrid. Just think of all the damage done by mining and transporting nickel for the batteries.

LOL man I saw that episode and I thought it was funny! You're right about that bit about the Prius being more harmful due to all the mining of the nickel and transportation, etc.

[RayfieldsWRX]

No politics, please.

[Wrinklechops]

No politics, please.

Sorry...

[Wrinklechops]

The WRX and STI are basically "economy cars with upgrades". The chassis, basic exterior, and interior are still pretty much from the $17,000 base Impreza.

Nothing wrong with that, of course, but IMO no matter how much you paid for an Impreza it doesn't have a certain "bank vault solidness" that the nice German sedans have.

I posed a question to a friend once... he was a huge modified Civic and Supra fan and always talked down to me when I mentioned a quality German build, like the M3 or Porsche....I asked him "say you were going to take a girl on a date, which would you pick her up in: the Supra (or insert various Japanese sport car i.e. STi in here) or M3? There's just something about having an M3 or Porsche that I'm sure is much more appealing to women" but he goes on to say "well if she only liked the car because they're expensive and she's only with me for my money then screw that!" *sigh* lol

[Wrinklechops]

I KNOW from having a good friend that owns a LS1 powered camaro with roughly 310whp that top speed is over 160

Hey, I know it's not the 540i, but seriously watch this E36 M3 driven by a 15year old kid outrun the police...in a police modified Camaro... the kid is leaving him in the dust at 150mph HOLY CRAP!

YouTube - Police vs. BMW E30 M3

That year M3 had 240hp, but the 350hp Camaro can't catch him? Tell me this isn't real guys...

[GageP]

...a 2001-ish M5 with 400hp mmm...

The 2001 were rated at 375. The 2002-2004 were rated at 400 they did minor engine work to them to get the extra 25 hp out of them.

[Wrinklechops]

The 2001 were rated at 375. The 2002-2004 were rated at 400 they did minor engine work to them to get the extra 25 hp out of them.

What do you mean, minor engine work? The E39 M5 was the same from 1998-2003. They didn't even make an M5 in 2004. The E60 started in 2005 and continues to this day.

From Wikipedia:

Unlike its predecessors, the E39 M5 was not handbuilt at the BMW M GmbH factory; it was produced on the same assembly line as the normal E39 5-series at the Dingolfing factory in Germany. In fact the E39 M5 was almost not built at all; BMW believed that the 286 bhp 540i was powerful enough, but when Jaguar released the XJR (320 hp) and Mercedes-Benz introduced the W210 E55, which had over 350 bhp (354 hp), BMW responded to the competition with a 400 bhp (300 kW) M5.

Yea, it's one of my dream cars lol...

[Wrinklechops]

how many of you have ever driven the cars in question? I've spent a good amount of time behind the wheel of a 540 and own an sti. The sti is a much faster car, but anybody that knocks the 540 is just talking nonsense. It's an outstanding car that is powerful, handles well, and has a pretty darn nice interior that blows away the sti. Many people that drive them are car enthusiasts like many of us. I seriously looked at the 540 when i looked at the sti. Overall, bmw just makes some very nice performance-oriented cars that consistently rank among the best in the world in their classes.

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