BHack

Well, the all season tires on the car have a pretty hard rubber compound, hence why they have such terrible grip. Because of that though, they don't wear nearly as fast as a performance tire would. I checked them after the 8 runs and didn't see any extreme wear. The edges were torn up a bit from the lateral G's but nothing serious.

I don't see the point of the V6 mustang, it's like you get the big bloated chassis and crappy suspension without the big motor. Seems like a chick car to me.

Leejo what kind of car are you driving where the tires at that expensive?

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leejo

I drive an '02 BMW 530i sport. The 1200 price can easily go up. I have Continentals on it now. They seem pretty soft, but you can get softer for the car, for sure. I have to be pretty religious about rotating the tires 'cause I wear the rear ones down fast

Ditto on the chick car. That's who I mostly see driving it. Zero back seat too. I mean, my car has ample room in the back and would smoke the ever-loving crap out of the mustang I drove. Especially in curves, but even straight I think it would be pretty sad.

BHack

yea those beemer tires are $$. You should definitely do one autocross just to see how your car competes. You won't absolutely destroy a set of tires in one day.

Not sure how good a 5 series would do, pretty heavy and some of those autocross transitions are FAST. I'm trying to get my roommate to bring out his 2000 M5. I drive it often for giggles: obviously lots of power but even with sport mode on I don't think he'd be any faster than my car, just so much weight.

There was, however, a 95 M3 out there that was fast as hell. I talked to the guy and he had done quite of bit of mods to it though. He worked for BMW and it was chipped, had crazy suspension and tires, and strut/sway bars to stiffen things up.

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leejo

maybe I'll do one right before I'm ready to sell this one

I would like to see how the M5 does. I bet pretty well. I've driven a few 3s when mine was getting some work done and they feel like go carts. Definitely more nimble than my beefy car. Still, my car handles pretty damn well, and an M is going to have stiffer this and bigger that. An M3 would be a ton of fun.

I did have the opportunity to drive my car pretty aggressively in the Blue Ridge mountains a while back. Whee! I'd love to get it on a track where I didn't have to keep an eye peeled for oncoming traffic or worry about going in a ditch.

Nikolas

Insert plug for karts. :]

Seriously though, that's pretty sweet BHack. Check out Rocket's multiview recording and get sucked into the timesink of online racing!

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Mirfee

Back when I test drove a V6 Mustang Pony, I quickly (obviously) figured it was a poser car. All the styling, none of the performance.

Later, I did a comparison between V8 GT Mustang and 350Z. I did the GT first, and what a difference from the V6. All that weight suddenly felt like it had a point. But, on the twisty roads, it didn't like to transition very well. I always felt lik I had to baby it a bit (no surprise for a muscle car).

Then I got in the Z.

Dayum. No point in getting a Mustang after flying in that Nissan fighter jet. Wow. Best performing car I've ever had the pleasure of tossing around.

I expect it would perform far better than the Mustang in AutoX. But it still would suffer next to the lighter small bore cars. Of course, my goal is high speed road course track time, so the Z would be happiest there.

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leejo

Yeah I caught a video of an autocross run and it looked a little like racing in a phone booth. My happy place is flinging a car through mountain roads.

BHack

The Z's at brooksville were running very fast. But it is hard to tell how much of that is the car and how much was aftermarket parts. From watching it run the course, it really looked like it was dragging its ass around the cones. There weren't many STOCK stock cars there. At the very least, almost everyone had performance tires. Alone, those make a huge difference. I know the one Z I watched run obviously had aftermarket suspension, wheels, and tires.

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munchkin

Sounds cool, Bhack. My brother and I used to throw an old Datsun down some dirt roads for kicks, and I'd love to get into some kind of motorsport one day.

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