I was driving along in my 04 TL and i passed a new M3 with some kind of personalized plate. Anyways, all of sudden, I seem him catch up to me basically egging me to run with him. At first I said this is a waste since Im probably going to get smoked. But, I ended up taking the bait, put it in SS and went into 3rd gear holding the RPMs up. We were next to each other at about 85 mph, we look at eachother and gun it. For all of 3rd gear till 115 mph, he couldnt run away from me! We were next to each other the whole time, and then he let go of the gas right when I shifted into 4th gear and i kept on it till about 125 mph, and said thats enough. I slowed down and the guy did a ricer fly by on me!!! I could tell he was pissed that he couldn't run away from a TL! I was truly shocked. My guess is it was an SMG model since theyre a bit slower and have unfrendly downshifts. But he was waiting for me, and I know he got on it since i saw the front of his car lift a bit when we launched.

 

Interesting...

His car weighs less and has nearly 100 more whp than yours.

Good run

 

maybe he forgot to shift

 

y's this in the cl forums?

 

hmm, i've been in and driven both of those cars and the M definitely felt like it had more. good run though, just keeping up is good alone.

 

cuz we're all 1 big happy family and the 'old' cl forum was the only forum that featured a racing stories subforum.

 

And not as many TLers are in to moding, meeting and racing like the CLers . . . I get more out of this group than in the TL group.

Maybe because the TL is a sedan and fewer think of them as "sporty" cars.

Anyway, I've been over here longer than you and have way more posts over here . . I think that counts for more than just showing up with a CL attached to your name . . .

Ruf

 

BTW, good fun Silver . . .

didn't mean to hijack your thread.

Ruf

 

Nice run but I would think he would of smoked you. Your TL is quick as hell but the M3 is a beast. Good run, I run w/ my boy in his everyday after work he usually leaves me in 3rd gear.

 

And this was a new M3 too?

Maybe those new TL's are quicker then i thought.

 

he prolly went frm 4th gear when he coulda been in 3rd @ 6500 rpm

 

Sure it was an M3 and not a 330? I find it heard to belive based on your minimal mods.

 

good run...but i think he might have hit it in 4th as previously stated by darrinb.

 

I can relate.

I was coming home after dropping my mom off somewhere, and I was behind this silver E46 M3. Some young kid was driving it.

As soon as he cleared the U-turn, I heard him gun it. I was like, "oh, no you don't."

I gave chase, got next to him, and waited. He looked over, and I knew he was game. We both gunned it from about 45-50 mph, took it up to about 85-90ish, and he didn't pull on me at all. I shut it down, because the speed limit's 50, and we were coming up on traffic. Then he floored it and ran off. Whatever.


Good run. I don't know what it is, but sometimes it just happens, ya know? Fun stuff.

 

Sorry but I call BS I have raced M3's while NA and turbocharged and there is NO WAY a stock TL is anywhere close

 

I'm glad I'm not the only one skeptical of this story.

 

my guess is a 330 posin' as a M3. nice run anyways

 

Not so fast. I have a fully modded all bolt-ons 2nd gen TL and had a similiar run with a E46. He passed me and then slowed down and looked over, and we did a 50 to 95 run dead even. I used 3rd of course! They may boast 330 HP but I think they are weak on torque. I dropped out at 95 not wanting to risk a ticket but he did keep going and disappeared in traffic ahead. Fun while it lasted. I would agree that these guys might be in the wrong gear.

 

If you had every bolt on for a TL it would be a little bit more believable (chuckstl), he is running, with from what I can tell, a stock 04 TL. The M3 must have been in the wrong gear, not saying it didn't happen, but that's my guess.

 

a cls/tls w/headers/intake etc will trap 98-100 (at best) in the quarter. an e46 will trap anywhere from 105-107 so unless these m3 drivers are really pathetic drivers there's no way you guys should be keeping up w/them.

 

 

You've got a TL-P! ... No offense, but even with all the bolt-ons, you're not keeping up with an M3. You're barely keeping up with a stock Type S, or a stock '04 TL. You quote a 14.995 as your best ET at the track...

It was either a poser 3 series with M3 badges or he sucked at driving/wasn't trying to race.

A stock '04 TL isn't going to keep up with an M3.

I'm sorry, but short of a FI CL/TL, there's no way you're beating a properly driven M3.

If it was an SMG like you surmise, then he wasn't trying since SMGs are a lot easier to drive well than a 6spd.

You're talking about a low 13 second car, versus an automatic 270hp TL which runs maybe a mid-14 second 1/4 mile on a good day. That equates to over 10 car lengths in the 1/4 mile, roughly speaking.

I won't say either story on running an M3 is bs because there are a lot of dumb drivers out there and there are also a lot of posers with 3 series out there and an M3 badge. But you beat the driver not the car if it was a real M3.

 

come on steve i did qualify that by saying cls/tls w/bolt ons. a SC isn't exactly a bolt on.

 

There is no doubt it was an M3. Like I said, probably an SMG and not a manual. Also, in highway pulls, 0-60 and 1/4 mile times are not everything.

Anyway, I knew if there was any chance I would remotely hang with him it would be in 3rd gear VTEC. Basically, I was holding the 04 at one of the strongest points of the J32A3. The J32A3 has a more torquey VTEC than the J32A2 (hence why there are complaints of torque steer now). Regardless of the circumstances, I did better than I thought, and the M3 didnt do as well as he expected.

 

I'm going to go with the M3 being the wrong gear. Or perhaps you got a jump on him.
Not saying that your BS-ing, just saying what I think based on facts.

 

Hmmm... I didn't have to drill into anything, just turn a few wrenches and fire it up

 

you're right!!!! who would have thunk??

 

All you guys are smoking weed.... A TL-S, TL-P, CL-S or CL-P with I/H/E (automatic) is nowhere close to an M3. You will get smoked in any gear... any speed... any time!

A CL-S (6spd) with I/H/E will also get smoked, but by 3-4 car lengths in the 1/4-mile.

I was running mid-to-low 13's NA when I could hang with M3's... during that same time I was dead even with S/C'd TL-S's running the HBP, so unless you guys say you can keep up with a S/C'd version of your car... you arn't coming close to an M3.

Keep in mind that most M3 drivers probably figure the TL's and CL's are slow and don't bother down-shifting....

I mean... the way my setup is right now, I'd run a TL or CL in 5th or 6th gear on the freeway... why bother to downshift??

 

to allmotor.. so very true tho

 

No it's true. I was there.........






















Unfortunately the M3 had it's doors open so there was a slight drag.

 

You beat the driver, not the car.

You shure he was racing??

 

With 300whp I can barely pull on them, prior to the S/C'er I'd get my ass handed to me.

 

I agree. You have a STOCK TL. Either is was a 330 badged as an M, REALLY sucky driver, or he probably didn't even bother to shift it out of 5th gear and just stepped on the gas. I'm glad a few other people here realize

 

I did 5-6 runs from 55 to 100 trying to get away from an E46 M3 on I195 in NJ and he pulled up to my bumper each time... with even more power left to spare if he changed lanes and kept on it I'm sure. This was when I had the S/C with stock pulley that I ran a best of 13.8 with.

edit: oh, he had a passenger too.

 

my guess is that he didnt downshift to 3rd when he should of

 

I'm not saying my 04 TL is faster than an M3. Having 2 TLs, I know how to drive these cars well. I basically was holding it a little bit passed the start of VTEC of 3rd gear (the strongest part of the car). He may have been at a speed where the SMG didnt downshift fully or whatever other reason you can come up with. However, the guy was trying to outrun me, didnt, and got pissed. Whether he was pissed at himself because he can't drive, you make your own conclusion..........

 

shit happens on the street all the time. you definately need at least a blower with stock boost to keep up. a 6 speed with i/h/e/p/comptech fly and thermoblok (basically every bolt on) should also have a good chance with da m3.
if it was an m3, you might have caught him in auto mode and his car didnt downshift to the right gear. nonetheless, if the m3 driver has no clue about proper gear for races, you probably embarressed him and thats all that matters. ive met a few people with these cars that had no clue how to drive them. shit, the guy i used to run with the g35 would SHORT SHIFT when he put it in ss. i just told his dumbass to leave it in auto, and he did alot better!

 

pls let this thread die off.

 

lock it up then

 

Just when I thought I've read it all.

I'm just waiting for someone from the DC area to post "I beat a Silver CL55 AMG, my car was in the most optimal VTEC range, blah blah"

All jokes aside, I do race quite a few M3's around here...for the most part I'm behind them and they take off and I pass them fairly easy...I don't only doubt , it's IMPOSSIBLE that a TL is even close to being faster let alone keep up with an E46...beating the driver is not really much. Heck, I beat a 911TT Tip in my stock RS6, we all know which car is the faster one.