re: Maybe a New //M3 & Thinking of buying an E36 328is

[jkerouac <jkerouac@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

re: Maybe a New //M3 & Thinking of buying an E36 328is:

    Yesterday on my way home I was driving down a main local road and a 
somewhat modified E36 328i turned on to the street next to me and 
accelerated by.  I noticed the //M3 exhaust he had, and it sounded like 
a snout type of intake snarl as he accelerated.  He had large wheels and 
the car was lowered.  We had a brief traffic light run but  even with 
starting easy off the line in first gear my E36 //M3 left him a couple 
of lengths behind.  Once traffic opened up some more, it was obvious 
that this 328 wasn't even close to what my //M3 was capable of.
    Pulling out onto 101 South, early evening so there was room to run, 
I held back on the throttle to see what the 328 was pulling like as he 
wound out in second and third.  To my //M3, it was 3/4 throttle at most 
to keep up.  When I punched it all the way and wound to redline, passing 
him by and waving a hello, this guy was looking flustered.  Time came to 
say goodbye altogether, so I wound it out in fourth, slowed back down to 
let him catch up up and show me if he had more than he had shown so far. 
He punched it and gained a couple of lengths on me as I held steady ~90 
in fourth,  but Jack flashed his ellipsoids from behind and wound it up 
to the top of fourth, good bye one last time before turning off the 
highway, thanking his driver for the exercise, and parking in his garage 
to cool down and see what the next day might bring to his tachometer.
    If you don't buy an //M3, whatever other non //M car you do buy, 
you will always wish you would have bought the //M instead.  For me, 
after years of modifying other models, life settled down and the career 
grew to where I realized that I could buy a new //M3.  So I did. 
Compared to the best of the winningest Street Prepared mutant 
autocrossers I ever built,  an E36 //M3 accelerates faster, corners 
better, is way less conspicuous on the street, is more comfortable and 
durable in all number of ways, than anything you could do to any other 3 
series variant. With 30+mpg on steady 79 to 84 mph highway drives and 
23+ around town.
    If you buy the //M3, you will never regret it.  _Imho if you get a 
lesser model, or another brand of car, then in the back of your mind 
anytime you want to lay it out hard in a corner, air it out on a back 
country road, enjoy the peaceful easy feeling of sporty cruising with 
good fuel economy, or offer your favorite passenger seat occupant to 
switch seats and let them drive, you'll keep reminding yourself  "I 
should have bought an //M3".

'jk
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