bmwusa.com's new 3er page

[jrt67ss350]

Who said above the coupe is more sporty!?! The 3 series is a sports sedan, first and foremost...that's the sporty heritage of the 3.

Actually, that's not exactly true. The 3 series was available only in coupe form for years before the 4 door sedan came out. It's "true" heritage is in coupe form.

To be more specific, its true heritage is a coupe with the 4 cylinder. It was only because of its success in the American market that BMW introduced the 6 cylinder 325 and the 4 door sedan. BMW felt that if they introduced a more powerful 6 cylinder version and later a sedan that more people would buy it - it worked.

 

[epj3]

Eww too much technology. It's a car, not a space shuttle.

 

[Average Jae]

it was hard to track down the specs, (i guess i just don't knwo where to look) but i saw that not only did the CSL lose 160 or so lbs. actually according to topgear, its 95kg, thus over 200lbs lighter, and also did get 7 more horses to 350 over the euro M3, which has 343. add the other go fast at the track goodies, and no wonder CSL gets much better track time! oh and the price tag too.. there are so many factors involved in making a car get the fastest track time that it really is hard to single out one factor, saying that's it! cardboard trunk floor only gets you so far..

as for the horsepower deal. i could see why people talk about BMW horses are different. it is not that BMW has "special horses", rather the fact that they are very conservative about their figures. its just that everyone talks about what the manufacs put out as their specs. they don't really list the horsepower @ the wheel. (which is what really counts) that's prolly why the zhp can make up the whopping 43 horse power difference, (sure you can bring up the weight thing here too, but i think there's more than meets the eye.) i wonder what the hp @ the wheel numbers are for stock G35, TL, 330, etc. rather than what we see on the brochure.

 

[aNoodle]

Actually, that's not exactly true. The 3 series was available only in coupe form for years before the 4 door sedan came out. It's "true" heritage is in coupe form.

To be more specific, its true heritage is a coupe with the 4 cylinder. It was only because of its success in the American market that BMW introduced the 6 cylinder 325 and the 4 door sedan. BMW felt that if they introduced a more powerful 6 cylinder version and later a sedan that more people would buy it - it worked.

Well, in that vain, the "true" heritage of the sport sedan isn't the BMW 3 series at all...it's the bicyle or carts with stone wheels.