you've hit the spot. these cars perform well in the standard tests and
therefore look good on paper, but on an auto-x course, it's a very
different story. In my experience (3500 lb FWD sedan), the rapid
transitions of autocross wreak havoc on heavy cars or those high c.g..
the standard tests don't give you that kind of information. one may cite
the slaloms and high speed lane change manuevers as quick transitionals
but they don't combine the elements that are present in auto-x....rapid
accel, hard braking, tight cornering, etc, and laps around a road course
don't integrate all these factors well either. I'm not saying I wouldn't
drive one of these beasts in a heartbeat given the opportunity, but I
can't see them as surprisingly competitive in FS. the f-cars will have a
few hundred pounds advantage and near similar performance (remember
there's not much performance advantage between 6 and 5.5 sec 0-60 times
on an autocross course, i.e L98 vs LT1 vette, they're both fast!!)
On Thu, 28 Jan 1999 23:32:09 -0600 Brian M Kennedy <kennedy@i2.com>
writes:
>
>The latter three are beasts! 350-400hp; 387+ torque;
>0-60 in 5.1 or less; .86g or better; 55/45 weight distribution, etc.
>
>The E55's numbers, both acceleration and slalom, are better than
>an M3's. And I think the M5's are better than the E55's.
>The cars are heavy, but seem to overcome it in the standard tests.
>Thoughts on how these big boys are going to do in FS?
>
>
>Brian
>
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