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Originally Posted by titan
hah its ok I have very thick skin and well aware that my views often provoke reactions :D
Putting aside early years of car ownership, where the wife and I ran the SIDC (subaru club) - many years ago...we had an M3 from new. A fantastic car to jump into from an impreza because you appreciate things like build quality. The M3 was a slower car in terms of country lanes A to B though...
Another kid on the scene so I dobbed it in for an E60 M5. Another fantastic car in many ways but also very limited in others.
Eventually got rid of that and very quickly ended up with an X5, trailer and dedicated evo track car. Along the way got fed up with my evo breaking, so bought an M3, that was a tale of woe indeed and shortly after a CSL.
I'm no pro driver but to put some weight on my words, I've done a lot of trackdays, taken the M5 and M3 round the 'ring at okish speed, taken the evo round at 7:45 and managed to squeeze 2 trackdays out of the CSL in a relatively short period of ownership. So its not like I'm an internet forum hero who's never driven them.
I picked up a perfectly good M3 for £12k. The CSL I grabbed for £22k. Even I can grasp basic maths ;-)
In terms of its quality of build, practicality and performance it is near-as-dammit on an equal par with a stock M3, hence my comment "its not worth £10k extra". You are paying for the prestige and rarity.
Does anyone think that a V8 Atom is worth £150k when you can pick up an SC-300 Atom for £45k?
Just stand back and try and take an unbiased view. I love the quotes of weight being a factor - 1385Kg vs 1570Kg I think they were. 'course, everyone ordered theirs with aircon and electric this that and the other, so effectively reducing the lightweight advantage to negligible. And the M3 owner only has to take out his front seats to save a bucket of weight - man those things are HEAVY.
I really enjoy my CSL and think it does very well as both a road and a track car, and its built well enough. But the original question was about real world difference between M3 and CSL, there's been lots of "chat" but I'm not sure anyone other than me attempted to answer the OP in context.
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Agreed, and I thank you for that, it's been the most informative post on here by a long way
Quote:
Originally Posted by _Nathan_
Given the only real weight adding options were radio, xenons and ac there is little chance of speccing one up to near a normal m3.
Mine with 2/3 tank with ac and radio was 1420kg, still heavy but not m3 heavy.
I maintain the quicker car on the road from a to b will be the one with the least cautious driver...
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Let's just put this into context here...
When you refer to someone being the 'least cautious driver', I'm guessing that your referring to the fact that you would drive a normal M3 worth 10-15k faster than you would your 25-30k CSL?
Well if you spare a thought for those that might not be able to afford a CSL just yet, you'll soon realise that what is 30k to you, might be 10k to others, and in fact most of these cars are indeed our 'pride and joy' and are all driven with the same degree of caution.
It would be wonderful to drive a normal M3 like a loon and think 'oh well it's only 10k if I put it in the ditch'. But sadly that's not the case here.