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ORIGINAL: wiz kidd
i dont know which one i'd pick out of those, i saw the commercial for the new wrx and it looks awesome...but then again its just an import...but i think thats the way our market is going to go soon :(
Mod `Wiz, & Members,
Below is a `SpaceDream *Luv'em : )
2008 BMW M3 Road Test
The first M3 with a V-8 engine, this one sounds like an American muscle car, looks like a million bucks, and drives like a race car.
By JIM MCCRAW - `Space
We are still in touch with Earth, but we are flying low over its wavy surface -- absolutely flying, around the dips, curves and straights of the famous Race Resort Ascari in southern Spain. The tree-lined 26-turn, 3.5-mile road course is giving the new 2008 BMW M3 coupe everything it wants in terms of challenging corners, rising and falling topography, and tricky braking zones, and we are trying to get everything we can out of this amazing new sports coupe. It's one of the easiest cars to drive fast we have ever encountered.
Every part, system and element of this new screamer says "Come on! Faster! More throttle! I can handle it! Don't worry about a thing! Let's go out and play!"
The engine is powerful, willing and revs to the moon. The slick new double-disc clutch and 6-speed transmission are race-quality. The big, fat, sticky tires tell the chassis what to do next. The onboard electronic systems evaluate conditions 200 million times per second so that the car knows exactly what to do next as we tackle this track together, lap after delicious lap, until we are waved in and our track session is ended.
No matter. We've driven up here from Marbella on some plenty arduous roads and we still have the return trip ahead of us. There will be more playing before the journey is through. This is one of those rare cars that feels more like a precision tool than a transportation device, and we want to use it some more because we like the way it feels in our sweaty hands. I've driven all of the previous BMW M3 models, but I've never experienced this level of acceleration, braking, steering and handling in an M3. There's something very different about the way this 2008 BMW M3 behaves, and most of that difference is under that newly domed hood.
While all three previous BMW M3 models were powered by either inline four- or six-cylinder engines, the 2008 version, which will go on sale in the U.S. in January of next year, is the first M3 ever to use a V-8 engine. It's a 4.0-liter 32-valve, 414-horsepower all-aluminum masterpiece that shares much of its design and componentry with the 5.0-liter V-10 engines used in the bigger, more expensive BMW M5 and M6 performance cars. It makes a whopping 22 percent more power than the last BMW M3 engine.
The new V-8 engine features variable valve timing on both intake and exhaust valves (which BMW calls Double VANOS), and unlike most V-8 engines, it uses eight individual throttle assemblies, like racing engines, controlled by drive-by-wire electronics.
Due to its internal geometry and lightweight internal components, it is the highest-revving BMW engine ever built, revving up to a maximum of 8400 rpm, and it makes maximum power at 8300 rpm. Maximum torque is 295 foot-pounds, substantially more than the previous 333-horsepower, 262 foot-pound six-cylinder engine. BMW says it will take the new lightweight coupe form 0-62 mph or 0-100 kilometers per hour in just 4.8 seconds, topping out at a limited 155 mph. The engine
