[mattssi]

FWIW, talked to dealer today - M2 is selling for MSRP

[pal]

GT350 definitely seems like a special car - sorta like an American e92 M3 with a high revving V8, 6MT, LSD and a track friendly street car. It's just such a large car though and more a choice against the M4 IMHO. And a compelling one at that.

M2 seems like a great car regardless and its overall polish inside and out combined with ///M driving dynamics do make it a great choice though. It's overall quality and smaller and lighter dimensions will win over a GT350 for me. But then driving a GT350 may change that. It's a close one.

[Spook410]

I read this about the motor in Road and Track's well written 'Performance Car of the Year' article:

"Let me explain. The only way the team at Ford Performance could get 526 hp from 5.2 liters—the fabled 100 hp per liter and then some—was to reengineer the whole thing into a bit of an insane race motor. Flat-plane crankshaft. So I open the throttle, following Webster in his beloved Ferrari up a series of sharp hillside hairpins that seem designed to test second-gear acceleration and broken-asphalt traction at the same time, and the moment the tach hits about five grand, I hear The Sound.

I firmly believe that when human civilization finally collapses and our descendants are nothing but hipster-bearded cavemen on a quest for fire, stories of The Sound will still be told every night, to frighten children and preserve all that is worth preserving of Western civilization. From generation to generation. "What an engine! What a noise!" says Chilton, in much the same way that human beings will ten, twenty, fifty thousand years from now."
-----------------------------------------------------

So I looked up production numbers for 2016: 4000-5000 of the GT350 model. There are going to be enough of these for discounts. I will wait to see what the MSRP is on the M2 I have on order with a refundable $1000 deposit. But this is tempting. Very tempting.

[arsenalrocks]

gt350 owner here, yes there will be about 5000 made each year for non-R and 500 for R.
plan is to do a two year run.

just want to say, coming from m3, this car, at 50k usd base, 58k with tech pack and stripe, is the steal of the century by a wide margin. it surpasses all my expectations.

[TunedM2C]

Originally Posted by arsenalrocks

gt350 owner here, yes there will be about 5000 made each year for non-R and 500 for R.
plan is to do a two year run.

just want to say, coming from m3, this car, at 50k usd base, 58k with tech pack and stripe, is the steal of the century by a wide margin. it surpasses all my expectations.

Pics! Saw one at my local dealer and would have bought it but they wanted $15k ADM. No thanks!

[arsenalrocks]

will take some pics this weekend with the e92 if weather is nice
but in any case, the actual car looks better than pics, it is actually more 3D like than the pics show, especially the tail section.

the real head turner is the sound, in sports open valve open I have never heard anything like it. from idle it sounds like a T-REX locked in jurassic park cage who just got released and saw a female Rex the first time in decades.

Originally Posted by Strongbark

Pics! Saw one at my local dealer and would have bought it but they wanted $15k ADM. No thanks!

[kentgbr]

Originally Posted by arsenalrocks

will take some pics this weekend with the e92 if weather is nice
but in any case, the actual car looks better than pics, it is actually more 3D like than the pics show, especially the tail section.

the real head turner is the sound, in sports open valve open I have never heard anything like it. from idle it sounds like a T-REX locked in jurassic park cage who just got released and saw a female Rex the first time in decades.

Agreed. I saw one (white w/blue stripes) in the detail shop at the local Ford dealer and they fired it up for me. The GT350 looks great in person and sounded incredible throwing revs. If they were not asking $15K over MSRP, I'd consider asking for my M2 deposit back and jumping ship.

[M-Pilot]

I would definitely go with GT350 if the fuel economy wasn't that terrible. Not that I expect 20mpg in city for a 5.2-liter V8 car, but still... They claim it's 14mpg in city, which means I would see around 10mpg with little bit of aggressive driving :/

[kdphan]

not sure if my wife would kill me but if a GT350 became available at under MSRP in my area or several states over, i'll take the next flight over and drive it home. $50k for the base model with stripe is just too good of a deal.

I will then decide if I want to keep the Z4MC

[arsenalrocks]

after two weeks of driving the gt350. I just want to quickly share some of my thoughts, and I have driven M235i on track, very fun little car for sure.

-set my HUD shift light at 3200rpm, in sports mode the thing is already so loud at that rpm, will need ear plugs for the next 5000rpm.
-also begs me ask why can't other car maker think of that, every single manual track car should have the shift light
-sound is very unique and deep, not like any crossplane, not Ferrari, just very unique and you can feel the amount of gas being passed out under you
-has a lot of 'back-fire' when lifting off throttle
-a lot of tq for DD duty, the dyno shows a huge jump in tq around 3500rpm, I haven't hit that yet
-rev is very fast, reminds me of my e92 m3.
-also used shift tone to reminds me of upshifts
-the made in mexico tranny feels better than the made in germany ZF manual
-fit and finish is beyond my expectation in a good way, not perfect, but very very good, but again my car has been sitting in the plant for more than 3 weeks for QA
-steering ratio is too big, the power steering is really not too bad, but of course anyone will take a short ratio hydro set up anyday of the week
-car is big, hood is long and tall, hard to find the front
-magnaride is awesome, don't feel any body roll at all so far

at the end of the day, as a huge BMW fan and owner, I want to say this:

There is really no 'versus' ; at 50k USD base including PDI, you have to be be *crazy* not to take this car. no car at that price will give you as much pleasure, power, handling, and the unreal sound this car gives you. There is no hype, this car is as good as they say it is.

[bluekn8286]

Very good question, I don't even know what to pick. I know it is weird, but it seems like the GT350 with a high revving V8 and manual transmission will be more special in the long run; cars with those specs will no longer exist.

[Spook410]

So.. if it takes ear plugs past 3200 rpm, how could it be a daily driver?

Thinking I should get one of these just for summer.

[Mavus]

Originally Posted by arsenalrocks

after two weeks of driving the gt350. I just want to quickly share some of my thoughts, and I have driven M235i on track, very fun little car for sure.

-set my HUD shift light at 3200rpm, in sports mode the thing is already so loud at that rpm, will need ear plugs for the next 5000rpm.
-also begs me ask why can't other car maker think of that, every single manual track car should have the shift light
-sound is very unique and deep, not like any crossplane, not Ferrari, just very unique and you can feel the amount of gas being passed out under you
-has a lot of 'back-fire' when lifting off throttle
-a lot of tq for DD duty, the dyno shows a huge jump in tq around 3500rpm, I haven't hit that yet
-rev is very fast, reminds me of my e92 m3.
-also used shift tone to reminds me of upshifts
-the made in mexico tranny feels better than the made in germany ZF manual
-fit and finish is beyond my expectation in a good way, not perfect, but very very good, but again my car has been sitting in the plant for more than 3 weeks for QA
-steering ratio is too big, the power steering is really not too bad, but of course anyone will take a short ratio hydro set up anyday of the week
-car is big, hood is long and tall, hard to find the front
-magnaride is awesome, don't feel any body roll at all so far

at the end of the day, as a huge BMW fan and owner, I want to say this:

There is really no 'versus' ; at 50k USD base including PDI, you have to be be *crazy* not to take this car. no car at that price will give you as much pleasure, power, handling, and the unreal sound this car gives you. There is no hype, this car is as good as they say it is.

Thanks for the review! Would you be able to record a video with sound inside the cabin over as large of an rpm range as possible and post it? Maybe add an additional clip with windows down.

[arsenalrocks]

normal mode exhaust is pretty quiet so you don't need ear plugs

Originally Posted by Spook410

So.. if it takes ear plugs past 3200 rpm, how could it be a daily driver?

Thinking I should get one of these just for summer.

[arsenalrocks]

my range is 700rpm-3500rpm for now so it may not impress you.

cold start is brutal, sounds like a bomb went off
filled up gas at costco and when I started it with full tank, the entire gas station full of people were looking at me

Originally Posted by Smooth 330i

Thanks for the review! Would you be able to record a video with sound inside the cabin over as large of an rpm range as possible and post it? Maybe add an additional clip with windows down.

[Mavus]

Originally Posted by arsenalrocks

my range is 700rpm-3500rpm for now so it may not impress you.

cold start is brutal, sounds like a bomb went off
filled up gas at costco and when I started it with full tank, the entire gas station full of people were looking at me

hahaha you paid for the attention grabber so get used to it

[Spook410]

Actually kind of nice to have inputs from someone other than Mustang forumites.

So why such a low RPM range? This thing goes all the way to 8200, yes?

What do you think about the size versus a the 235?

[arsenalrocks]

i am still breaking it in, didn't want to pull to redline until at least 500miles or so. and yes redline is 8250, the oil has to be heated up to a certain temp (i think it is 190f, else redline is 8000)

i much perfer the size of 235i, felt small and nimble, gt350 is so much wider and longer, the visibility doesn't help either, felt like a much bigger car

Originally Posted by Spook410

Actually kind of nice to have inputs from someone other than Mustang forumites.

So why such a low RPM range? This thing goes all the way to 8200, yes?

What do you think about the size versus a the 235?

[M3 Adjuster]

Originally Posted by arsenalrocks

i am still breaking it in, didn't want to pull to redline until at least 500miles or so. and yes redline is 8250, the oil has to be heated up to a certain temp (i think it is 190f, else redline is 8000)

i much perfer the size of 235i, felt small and nimble, gt350 is so much wider and longer, the visibility doesn't help either, felt like a much bigger car

That's because this car doesn't match up to the M2 other than price. It's a competitor for the M4, not the M2. BMWs and muscle cars aren't really competitors as far as I'm concerned but if you want to compare muscle to muscle then it's the M4 not the M2 that compares to the Mustang

[Spook410]

Originally Posted by M3 Adjuster

That's because this car doesn't match up to the M2 other than price. It's a competitor for the M4, not the M2.

Maybe so but I'm a bit ambivalent where the marketing department hangs their hats. If I'm seriously considering an M2 vs. a GT350, they are competitors to me. Other non-competing competitors: Used Porsche 911 or Cayman S or a good deal on a new M3. No longer considering for various reasons: Chevrolet SS, Corvette, Ford Focus RS, and Mercedes used AMG 63 or new C450. So many cars, so little time.

Thing is.. the GT350 is an interesting beast. Wish I could have one for a week just to see.

[M3 Adjuster]

Originally Posted by Spook410

Maybe so but I'm a bit ambivalent where the marketing department hangs their hats. If I'm seriously considering an M2 vs. a GT350, they are competitors to me. Other non-competing competitors: Used Porsche 911 or Cayman S or a good deal on a new M3. No longer considering for various reasons: Chevrolet SS, Corvette, Ford Focus RS, and Mercedes used AMG 63 or new C450. So many cars, so little time.

Thing is.. the GT350 is an interesting beast. Wish I could have one for a week just to see.

I encourage everyone to go ahead.. Because I seriously doubt such a car will keep the imagination of a true Bmw fan. So go have a fling! All it will cost you is money,, and a lot easier than getting a divorce;-)

[GhostyM]

Originally Posted by M3 Adjuster

I encourage everyone to go ahead.. Because I seriously doubt such a car will keep the imagination of a true Bmw fan. So go have a fling! All it will cost you is money,, and a lot easier than getting a divorce;-)

That's funny. 95 percent of us are current BMW owners. We wouldnt be contemplating this if BMW hadn't lost their way.