BMW M5 Comp vs. BMW M3 Comp: The Ultimate Track Test
German luxury has never been this fast, but more power doesn’t always make performance better.
We have heard a lot about BMW and their lineup of M cars. The competition pack is BMW’s latest offering to make those plush German interiors get just a little bit more rowdy. Some people might say that the M3 and its bigger brother the M5 had enough power to begin with. Well, BMW says you’re wrong. These packages boast a variety of power and performance upgrades. BMW even plans on making the competition pack standard on the M3 in the near future, eliminating the regular (obviously, far from it) M3 altogether. So, the real question is: How do these cars really perform with these new upgrades? Well, the folks at Car Wow over in the U.K. took it a step further by presenting us with a little head to head comparison.
This comparison features a standard M5 Comp vs. a M3 Comp with a little twist: an extra 90 horsepower. This is thanks to some serious supporting mods and tuning from Evolve. To present the figures, this puts the M5 at 625 HP and the M3 at 540 hp. This makes the weight and off-the-line performance crucial when deciding which car will claim victory in these figures. But, will the added power make or break the M3?
As to standardize the test slightly, the AWD M5 has been put into 2WD mode, making it 100% driven by the rear wheels. Even in its suffering performance, the M5 is able to fly past the M3 with a time of 12.5 seconds for the quarter mile compared to the M3’s slouchy 13.0 secs. The secret to success: traction.
With the increased power, the M3’s grip simply wouldn’t cut it for an effective and clean launch. A standard competition pack M3 was capable of running a 12.2 in the 1/4. This is further exemplified when the M5 is put back into AWD mode and manages to run a blistering 11.1 1/4 mile time even damp U.K. weather. Thus, without traction, added power serves no useful purpose other than efficient burnouts off the line. However, not all is lost, because the rolling race is still to be had.
ALSO SEE: BMW M4 by Dinan Drive Review: 550 Horsepower of Rowdy Fun
Although close, the M3 Comp does ease out the M5 Comp, but just barely. It seems that the 85 HP difference between the cars was not sufficient to overcome the nearly 600 pound difference between both. These results will also be telling in the next test: braking. The M5 Comp comes equipped with the expensive and brutally effective carbon-ceramic brakes while the M3 Comp comes with standard steel discs. However effective the brakes, the weight difference is simply too much, making the M5 lose out over the M3 by several car lengths.
It seems that there was a clear answer obtained from this test: The recipe to a fast car is a lot of power and a lot of traction — and as little weight as possible. If off-the-line launches are your style, the M5 is the obvious winner here. But a properly seasoned M3 might just do the trick and tick all the right boxes at a lot less money.
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