C3 vs. M5

[Hijinx]

Oh, man, what a morning. Drove the '73 in to work today for the first time since gettin her back from shop. Was toolin down the highway and this older M5 BMW comes scootin up behind me. I noticed his plates read "ZOOMM". Grey haired dude behind the wheel.

Welllll, he switches lanes and does a quick shot around me and back into my lane. I can see his eyes on me in his rear view, we're running aroun 70. Soooo, I tap the pedal a bit harder and scoot up a little closer behind him when I see the tell-tale puff from his exhaust pipe.

I push a bit harder and he's gettin nervous because he aint pulling away. In fact, he's loosin ground fast, we're comin up on traffic and he starts shuttin down. :cry

I am just laughin my a** off. :L I could actually see the dejected look on his face in the rear view. I guess he thought he was goin to just blow by me and not get taught a lesson. I started to pull up and holler whether he felt he should give me his vanity plates or not. I suspect I can imagine his response (single finger salute).

You just gotta love that!

 

[RalleyRed]

Hijinx,

I love it, they all think because our vettes are so much older there's no way we can put'em in their place.

Which is somewhere behind us!

Rick

 

[jmp]

Really? I would have thought the M5 would outpull the 73 (no offense). 'Course I don't know what you've got under the hood, or if you've tweaked it some, but the M5 is pretty d@mn fast, esp for a sedan.

 

[Hijinx]

I think its more of a power to weight ratio issue. That sedan is fairly heavy. My motor is in good shape but not high horsepower. I actually expected to see him pull away. It was an older M5, I'd say early 90's. Regardless, it sure felt good.

 

[wolf_walker]

The expectations of his are likely from the fact that so many vette owers refuse to actually DRIVE the cars. Say what you will, it's a race car, hang all the AC and leather you want on it, it's a race car, and meant to be driven as such atleast some of the time.

I'll quit ranting...


That said, good kill!!

 

[Mr Mojo]

One of those M5's passed me on the PA Turnpike. I didn't think anything of it, till I got behind him and saw him hit it. SO I hit it and stayed on him till about 130mph, then I backed off as well as he since we were coming up on traffic.

This was in my '93 with the economy gears!

He never pulled on me at all.

Those are nice cars for what they are, but they ain't no 'vette!

 

[Hijinx]

Yea, if traffic had been lighter and I had completely buried the throttle I would have walked past him with no problem. I have to stick with what Wolf said. They are race cars to some extent.

 

[vettepilot]

Nice looking Vette you have there... ( THAT is still my favorite body style of all the years) even over my own ZO6.
I think many people who have either never driven a Vette, or haven't driven one in a long time have a problem understanding why they are still a much beloved sports car. The automotive magazines didn't do the Corvette (and most still don't) justice when the "lean" years fell upon them in the mid to late 70s and early 80s. All people seem to remember are the stories of reduced HP and in the case of the new C4 the digital dash. So those tooling around in their Euro-lux sedans think they will have a hayday with any Corvette. Then when they get their butts handed to them they can't figure it out. Laughable isn't it...
Then along comes the C5, it out accelerates, out handles, and gets better gas mileage than all those big bad CeeeDans... Oh, and did I mention at the fraction of the cost also?
Save the Wave!
Vettepilot

 

[page62]

Any old C3 (except perhaps a stock '75 L48) could outpull that old M5. But in some sort of a handling competition (like an autocross), the contest could easily go the other way.

One thing many people neglect to mention is the changeover from gross HP ratings to SAE Net HP in the early '70s. This made the "lean years" cars appear more anemic than they actually were!

 

[Hijinx]

Oh, man, I would have eagerly jumped on a road course with the M5. After all the suspension mods I have done of late, I would be hard pressed to believe that he could have hung with me for long at all. I'v spent a lot, but she corners like she is on rails. I know that the M series have suspension mods as well, but I dont think that M5 could have hung with me at speed through an S curve in any way. I was impressed with the handling of my C3 when I bought it. Now that I have put a few grand into the suspension, its stiff, but boy does it handle!

Vettepilot, thanks. I really like the early C3 design over everything else as well. I would love to have a white C5 to put in the garage next to her. I think they would match nicely. Although, a nice '57 wouldnt be bad either!

 

[MoeJr]

Way to go! Lots of people think that after 71 or 72 that Vettes were stones for the next 10 years but in fact they weren't bad considering the times and what else was available. Any 73-80 C3 is capable of good performance with just some minoe tweaking of what is already there. Most of the deviation in HP ratings were due to different timing specs and carb settings. An afternoon of tuning can yield a marked improvment. My .02