Andynolife

M3 vs S4

biker

Linky not working for me.

iTimmy

Works for me

NeoChaser

nice video

but the captions were kinda annoying

Lung Fu Mo Shi

The guy who made it needs to learn about aspect ratios. Ugh.

Andynolife

mmm .. just right click and save as ... or just click the link ...
dont use FlashGet or those kind of stuff to download it ..
it doesn't work that wya .. ~ ~

bgillette

SCREW THAT.....I'm take the M3 over the S4 every single day for 10000000 years.............are you kidding me!!!!

Andynolife

hahaha .... drove the new S4 .... not as fast as wut i was expecting ... ~
maybe it's too heavy or that V8 is not aggressive enough ...
i would pick C32 AMG/C55 AMG instead of the two
too many M3 out there and drove it many times .. C AMG rulez ~

Dan Martin

I can't remember who but one of our members has an M3 with an S4 on order.

EDIT: It is masmole but he sold his M3 for an S4 and he has a new S4 on order along with an SLK55.

jlukja

Sorry to jack this thread briefly but I recall a while back there was a vid review of the TSX (or was it the Euro Accord). Don't remember if it was top gear or not. Anyone know the link?

Andynolife

there r too many rich asses out there ... ~~

Dan Martin

I remember a Canadian one and the TOV review but haven't seend a Top Gear review although that would be cool.

dabuda

nice video...i like how the M3 was swerving back and forth while the S4 was driving smoothly

just for that i like the M3 better!! actually i think the M3 looks better too, S4 looks like a regular A4 w/sport package

Andynolife

wut's the canadian one ?? .. i just saw the TOV one only

Dan Martin

It was weird. Some sort of husband and wife team that reviews cars and gives pros and cons from the man and woman's point of views. Anyways they both really liked it and their only real complaint was lack of rear seat room. I'll do some searching to see if I can dig it up.

jlukja

Yes, that's the one I remember.

Also, I think it might be a nice sticky to have links to all the TSX reviews that have been posted over the last 18 months. A post with links to the on-line articles would be great. I'll certainly contribute. What do you guys think?

Dan Martin

That's a cool idea jlukja. I think we should put it in the FAQ section.

Edit: Here you go: http://www.acura-tsx.com/forums/showthread.php?t=13202

masmole

That video is pretty damn accurate, given the track has some fast sweepers followed by good long straights immediately after. I've driven a B6 S4 (V8 one) and an E46 M3 (current). both 6-speeds, both on street tires, at Gingerman raceway in Michigan. Track conditions were dry and ideal (70 degrees) and I consistently got 1-2 seconds better lap times on the S4 than on the M3. I have to admit, I currently drive a B5 S4 (old V6 turbo one) and even though the way AWD behaves around the track is the same on both cars, the driving dynamics are different than the new V8 version, so I cannot attribute my better times on car familiarity because I don't own either an E46 M3 or a V8 S4. I do have experience with the old B5 S4 and a '99 E36 M3. This oppurtunity at Gingerman was the first instance on both cars that I've had the chance to drive at the limit. While I don't claim to be a professional driver, I am a track junkie and former club-racing intructor so I can at least say that I don't suck at it. It all boils down to AWD and it's inherent advantages. While I was driving the M3, I sincerely felt like I was going faster and lapping faster but it didn't show as such on the lap times. It could be that the M3 is louder and more dramatic when you drive it at its limits, giving you the false sense of tearing the track up but in reality, the S4 was more efficient. I agree with the video on this -- the M3 is definitely more of a driver's car and it behaves accordingly. The S4 however, is no slouch and AWD simply allows you to almost always leave your foot on the throttle pedal entering the turn, through the turn, through the apex, and even get on it hard and early exiting the turn! It's an awesome god-like do-no-wrong feeling and not only does it make ths tricky business of throttle control when exiting a turn less complicated, it becomes virtually idiot-proof and you come out of the turn faster than you would ever on a rear-wheel drive M3. While the M3 is more adept at braking and entering a turn, the S4's AWD and torque advantage quickly catches up and dominates the business of maintaing and gaining speed as it exits the turn. No contest. No wonder the S4 laps faster... and this is on a dry track. Imagine what happens when it's wet.

I can definitely see why some purists would prefer the M3. There's still no arguing (even from me) that it's way more of a thrill ride around a track even though it laps slower.

For what its worth, Subaru STi (2.5T US spec) owns both the M3 and V8 S4 on the same track. I lapped faster on the STi than both the german beasts on my first try and this was with a passenger (the STi's owner) in the car. Too bad I'd never want to own one because I can't get over the fact that it still feels like a gussied-up econobox, the build quality sucks, and it has that ugly picnic table attached to its boot lid that they're trying to pass as a spoiler.

On that note, I still haven't taken my TSX to the track. I'm sure it can't get close to those times but it would definitely hold its own.

sauceman

Awesome post, Masmole. And please try the TSX on the track and come back to tell about it!