My friend and I found a road about 30 miles out of Fairfax Virginia which is stright, middle of no where, and we decided to go for a little race.. he has a 1995 BMW M3 with performance tires, exterior is tints, light covers. He wants to race my Z. I told him no point, I'd beat him, but he claims he beat an SS, and could take the Z. He says he has 275hp, but when reseaching, it said 240. When I told him, he said he had some special edition or somethng added when he bought it. Anyone know if the 95 M3 - 240hp could beat the Z? Thanks everyone.

 

Road and Track tested the 95 M3's specs at 0-60 in 5.4 and 13.9/99.6 and .94 on the skidpad. I've seen slower numbers as well. My guess is that it will be a close race, but the Z will Win - it's newer and has that advantage.

 

Ricky-

The penalties and risks for racing on the street aren't worth it. Take your friend down to the local 1/4 mile drag strip or better yet, go to Summit Point Raceway (do a search under 'racing') and kick his butt on a real track!

 

Agreed.

 

One of my good Friends has a 02' M3 with 334hp and he did not beat me by much 1-1/2 car Lengths from 0 to about 130. But he DID beat me. i have also raced a newer Trans Am ram air and beat it by a good 2 car lengths but that guy Was a SHI*Y driver. And my Z is NOT stock. If you can drive you should win but you Should do it on a track if you can

 

Seriously, i really cant see the M3 racing happening like that....especially w/ just a grounding kit and pop charger as MODS on your car.... not 2 put u down, but its kinda farfatched....

i also have a LIL trouble believing the Trans Am WS-6...but it could make since if he was a bad driver....


---------
but to the guy racing the older version of a M3... id say, the only way ur gunna find out is racing him.... its not gunna matter if u know how may horses he has, not much u can do about it.

 

Easy to believe the WS-6.. I raced a 1998 Camaro SS and only lost by half a car length from 0 ~ 120.... He was running DRs, and was stock otherwise. That was with some MAJOR issues on my car.. Ill spare details since very few of you would understand (LT1 details...).

I think you have this..the Z is stanced better for launching, its not a family sedan Insert performance in the middle so I dont offend anyone and until recently the M3 was not that fast. Should be able to get him.. i think it would all ride on the launch Good luck!

Been street racing for 5 years now, well over 2 or 300 times (Easily) and no life threatening occurances have ever occured. Just play it smart, and safe.

 

Sorry Not all my Mods are listed I also have a cat back coustom Exhaust about 305-310 hp im having it dyno next week

 

You really think a hot air intake, cat back exhaust, and grounding kit are going to add 18-23hp?

 

I don't know where you got those numbers, but they're pretty impressive. Are you sure those aren't from the E36 M3 Lightweight?

The E36 M3s have less power, and actually weigh more. Having driven both cars, the Z is a little faster. However, if in fact the M3 is a Lightweight, you won't stand a chance.

 

here how a altima does agaist one..........

http://www.altimas.net/forum/showthr...threadid=28521

 

i Dont know that is why i amy having my Z dynoed next week(not all mods listed still trying to work things out on some others before i post them)

 

What I don't understand is someone just tried to say the M3 has 240HP and runs a 5.5~6 0~60 yet under a 14 sec 1/4 mile.. umm.. unless this thing weighs less than a mustang (maybe under 3000 Lbs) which I seriously doubt, they don't have enough HP to pull that one off.

Now I know that they have a 333HP 3.2L I6 that comes in the newer M3..

The E30 (80s Style) Had a 192HP 2.3L engine
The E36 (Mid 90s) Had a 3.0 286HP engine....
Then in Summer of 1996 if recieved the 3.2L pumping out 333hp!

Unfortunately for US the imported versions were detuned to 240HP because of emissions, etc.. so it wasn't until summer of 1996 that we got the untuned 333HP version!

At the 98 Geneva Autoshow..they unvieled the E46. However its still in design from what I just read...

Maybe this will help out some on the confusion... People are mixing up details of the old ones and the new ones.. Post 1996 they are mid 5sec 0-60 and mid to low 13s.. before 1996. You won't have a problem Good luck!

 

I don't think the US E36 M3 ever got the euro motor legally. Only the 240HP version. I owned a '96 E36 M3.

 

Well, the only "special edition" in '95 was the Lightweight (also known as the LTW in USA Bimmer circles or the CSL in Europe), which shed about 200lb off a 3175lb car. The LTW also had some adjustable aerodynamics peices too. And it has a shorter final drive (3.23 instead of 3.15). One other "special" feature of the LTWs is that the engines were hand selected from each batch of e36m3 engines produced and only the top 10% dynoed engines made their way into a LTW. While they were still rated at 240hp, they probably put out closer to 255hp. There are very few of these in the USA. But the easy way to tell a LTW is by the large rear wing and, if it has not been re-painted, it will be white with checkerboards painted on the driver's front quarter and passenger's rear quarter. If it is a LTW you will probably get edged out.

If it is a regular '95 e36m3, then it will be a close race...as it is true that a '95 will pull a mid 5 sec 0-60 and low 14 sec 1/4 mile. You may edge him, but not by much. Somehow BMWs seem faster than the sum of their parts...see the numbers Car & Driver got with the new Z4 3.0 Sport!

 

I think the trick to remember with mid 96 production is the key fact that a majority of the 96 models sold during the first half of the year were built late 1995

According to the sites I visited they all got Euro spec after mid 1996...hmmm seems strange that OBDII went into play around the same time.. could be a coincedence

 

None of the legally imported US e36m3's had the Euro motor. All US-spec e36m3's had 240hp motors. Once the e46m3 came out, the US got the high hp Euro motor. http://www.edmunds.com/ can give you the US-spec hp/torque ratings by year.

Prior to the 333hp e46m3, the Euro e36m3 engine put out 321hp and 258 ft-lb in the double VANOS 3.2L '96+ cars and 286hp and 238 ft-lb for the single VANOS 3.0L '95 cars. The Euro e36m3's also had 6sp trannies and later years had the optional SMG-I tranny (predecessor to the current SMG-II in the e46m3) that North America didn't get.