Motor Trend BDC GT350R Commentary (Update: 2nd Place)

[9secondko]

Oh and yeah, Randy SMOKED the last corner pretty badly lol. That was a half a second right there easily.

Actually I've seen him three time seem to purposely not focus as sharply as he could when it came to pushing the Mustang.

When it's the Mustang, he will start serious, then as he talks about the car, seeming to praise it, he loses concentration, gets more relaxed, etc.

But when he's in the Camaro, he's so serious, pushing it as hard as he can as if his life depended on the time.

It's almost as though he's forced to admit how good the Mustangs are while wanting desperately to justify his bias.

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[Rich]

It is impressive that the GT350R did so well against other cars costing so much more. It is also impressive that General Motors Trend is so enamored with the GT350R.

 

[MCarsFan]

I watch bimmerpost (which is like the #1 BMW website going back to 10 years) closely. No one has even bothered to link the article. I am so happy R bitch slapping GTS. I hope BMW takes the message here and takes this as a constructive feedback.

 

[ThreeFiveO]

Me too

 

[MCarsFan]

Me too

I have been watching BMW's downfall since basically 2011 when they mainstream introduced turbo charging in their lineup and dilluted the brand. AS far as I can see, they have two major problems:

- They have too many models. There is a 1 series sedan and a 4 series grand coupe and apparently in the new line up there is 8 series? The M badge lost its meaning
- Their cars are not exciting anymore. People dont feel passionate driving them (at least I know I dont).

The last true car they have (and thats by a long fucking stretch) is the F10 M5. It has the old hydraulic steering, old differential. It does have a turbo charger but it doesnt sound like a lawn mower. M3/M4 is just so bad. Interior is so cheap and doesn't feel as solid anymore (because they tried to save weight and made everything shallower). They also sound absolutely embarrassing. I dont care what anyone says and its not because they are not 8 cylinders. Their previous 6 cylinders sounded great. This is a side effect of their cross bank manifold design for efficient turbo design. The way turbos are aligned just has a horrible side effect as far as sound goes.

The head of the BMW M Albert (forgot his last name) quit right around this new regime (the young board of directors) came onboard. They are too worried about shareholders and sale numbers and have people with marketing degrees drive the vision of the company instead of people who understand cars and motorsports do the same. Sad really.

 

[BmacIL]

Yet it works for them from a sales perspective. I don't want for any of the current M cars.

 

[MCarsFan]

Yet it works for them from a sales perspective. I don't want for any of the current M cars.

It actually doesnt....

The entire north american sales model is built upon cheap leases to be able to compete the likes of Acura/Infiniti/etc. While that worked in the short term (in 2006-2012), recently the dillusion of the brand and the fact that now everyone with $500 extra in the bank driving a BMW drove a lot of brand loyalists or people who care about the image of BMW away to Porsche. BMW sales has been going down in 5 series for instance (it was down 35% this entire year).

They have spent a lot of their investment money on their infrastructure to be able to build more variations of the same car rather than R&D. In other words, instead of innovating like they have always done in the last 30 years, this time around they spent more time on how they can create 5 different variations of the same chassis core.

It's short sided thinking in my opinion because their entire line up is the same thing really, so many features or core characteristics carry over between models and not one model have a distinct improvement over the other.

I have probably spent several hundred thousand dollars for the brand so when I say all of this, I really feel bad, but it is true.

 

[likeaboss]

I would assume that the Ford GT will be in next year's competition, if they ever start releasing them.

After the results were released Jamaal Hameedi posted on Instagram how he was sad losing out to a $200k exotic and is sending the Ford GT next year! :ford:

It was funny because the Motor Trend editor quickly replied to say that Ferrari, Lamborghini, etc. didn't participate this year because they didn't want to lose to the GT350R. Basically a nice consolation prize response for finishing a close second. I'm completely speculating but I have a feeling they picked the McLaren just to draw them back in for next years competition.

 

[Todd15Fastback]

After the results were released Jamaal Hameedi posted on Instagram how he was sad loosing out to a $200k exotic and is sending the Ford GT next year! :ford:

:ford::first:

 

[Todd15Fastback]

You're not familiar with the bespoke 1LE F1 Supercar tire. It's not the same tread pattern. There's not much info on it and Ive seen it referenced as "G3".

Correct. Totally different tire over the other G2. These look somewhat similar to the MPSS.

 

[nastang87xx]

After the results were released Jamaal Hameedi posted on Instagram how he was sad losing out to a $200k exotic and is sending the Ford GT next year! :ford:

It was funny because the Motor Trend editor quickly replied to say that Ferrari, Lamborghini, etc. held out cars because they didn't want to lose to the GT350R.

Please link that instragram please!

 

[likeaboss]

Please link that instragram please!

Can't it's private :(

Here is his Instagram, maybe he'll accept you as a follower. At one point it was public.

https://www.instagram.com/8_cyl/

 

[icormba]

I wish they compared R to the base model 2017 with the same tires. I am keen to know when both cars have the same tires, how much more R actually provides. Reality is, most people driving them back to back get this immediate feeling of louder car with stickier tires (hence quicker in a straight line and turns). If you actually removed the resonators and changed the tires, i m curious how much more the wheels, suspension tune, aero provides.

I've done just that.

I can say, with 100% certainty, that changing to R-Spec Cup 2's on the GT350 totally enhances the handling capabilities. Huge night and day difference. However, it's still not an R. I still have 70-80+ pounds and nowhere near the downforce the R has. Front spring rates are also supposed to be stiffer on the R, but I'm pretty sure the only reason the R is lower is because of the shorter tire? Software differences and other suspension differences are a big deal. :cheers:

 

[thePill]

First sign you don't know anything about racing: you're going on and on about tire size and completely forgetting about WHAT tire.

Secondly, there was a GT350 in AS at nationals this year and it got destroyed as well. VERY VERY destroyed. As in pretty much near the bottom of the pack destroyed. What do you say to that? AS is dominated by C5 Z06's and C6 Grand Sports. Autocross is 80% driver, 20% car.

Stop talking and actually learn something for once.

Sorry bud.

If an SS is given equal tire to the 1LE, the advantage disappears.

Why on earth would you think a 1LE could manage a better time in AS than the GT350? That is just beyond racing comprehension...

If a GT350 struggled in AS against the Corvette, what makes you think a 1LE is coming to save the day?

Faith?


HA!

 

[Minn19]

I watch bimmerpost (which is like the #1 BMW website going back to 10 years) closely. No one has even bothered to link the article. I am so happy R bitch slapping GTS. I hope BMW takes the message here and takes this as a constructive feedback.

It isn't for M cars. F80 Post is the most active site and they are plenty pissed. They have the same conspiracy theories that some people do around here about MT. Some are going as far to say that the M4 GTS was a pre production car and was to beaten up or down on power. Or that they didn't get good enough factory support and MT didn't set it up right. A couple are even saying that Randy Pobst is past his prime and they could beat his time at Laguna Seca.

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