Quote:
Originally Posted by SteveC
You guys aren't reading my texts
What I said was.....
an M135i isn't an M car when it comes to handling.
An M135i may shine vs. other RWD BMWs, but it doesn't shine when pitted against SOTA FWD or AWD on slippery Welsh B roads, where the Beemer will have both traction and grip issues
The M135i is a great car, but in certain conditions its 320bhp can become a handful
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You were talking about the M3 handling better than the M135i on damp Welsh B roads and my point was simply that having owned both an M3 and an Alpina B3S, I have had scarier moments in the wet in those cars than in any of my other sports cars and expect the same to be true of the M135i (most of my other cars were either AWD (two consecutive late 90s Imprezza Stis) or FF (Alfa Romeo 147 GTA, Golf Gti, Megane Rs 265 Trophy), though the BMWs were also far scarier in the wet than my Boxster S as well...).
The point I was making is not that "Real-Ms" are bad cars but that as RWD cars with more than 320hp, both the M-Cars AND the M135i have the same tendency to lose grip more quickly and unpredictably in the wet than many other sports cars out there (though I don't have any interest in Mercedes, I would suspect the same is true of any of the AMG63 models). People who know M-Cars well buy them DESPITE this inherent shortcoming because there are so many other great things about the car that more than make up for it (in the same way that people buy 911s DESPITE the inherent disadvantages of putting the engine behind the rear wheels).
All it means is you need to drive high powered BMWs at slightly more sane speeds when the roads are filled with water (a lesson seemingly lost on Jeremy Clarkson when he spun out an M135i on drenched test track at 120mph....)