What is fastest: E60 M5 vs WRX STi - On snow+ice

[Frank N. O.]

BMW E60 M5: ESP, RWD and big-displacement N/A V10 power.
vs
Subaru Impreza WRX STi (late model): All-Wheel-Drive and turbo-charged boxer-power.

Road-conditions are: Ice covered in snow.
Car-conditions are: Nordic snow-tires without studs for both cars.

Feel free to comment.
Frank

P.S. I chose these cars as representatives for their approach to handling, not to start a brand-fight german engineering vs japanese etc.

[chris]

I would say the WRX STi. It is light and agile. The M5 in comparison is nearly 1755kg. :eek:

[blackice111288]

my thoughts exactly. The WRX is very well balanced, nearly 50/50 weight distribution, plus 300 horses to all the wheels via 3 torque sensing differentials. 13 inch Brembos all around, w/ light weight wheels.

the Bimmer dont come with AWD does it? plus all that weight over the front tires is just asking for understeer.

[chris]

No, the BMW is a rear-wheel-drive.

But in the dry, you can't argue with 507bhp@7750rpm.

BMW has always built rear-drive cars (with the exception of some 3 series models featuring all-wheel-drive). But Subaru has always pushed the idea of horizontally opposed engines and what they call "symmetrical all-wheel-drive".

There was a time when Subaru was very undesirable, the Volvo of Japan almost, but in the 90's it cleverly turned things around and stopped being a producer of quirky, undesirable small cars and started being a producer of desirable cars. :)

Now this is probably some trick post and the M5 probably is indeed faster than the WRX in these conditions (right Frank??). ;) I want to know who compared them.. ;)

[VQ]

I would think that the V8 would have the long line advantage, because the electronic gizmos would take over and would not run out of puff as quick as the rex could, but the balance of the car doesn't matter much in a straight line, if anything should have more weight on the rears if it's rwd.

[Frank N. O.]

Sorry Chris but I was just wondering after seeing some of NRK2's (norwegian TV) tests of AWD/4WD cars on ice and snow, including both Imprezas and Legacys (aka Free-something in other countries, including Australia).

The E60 M5 is rwd, stuffed with ESP-systems and a big V10 and sequential-type gearshift if I remember correctly, but in those driving-conditions I would be sad to hear that a AWD-system is inferior to 2wd/rwd with ESP since I don't think it's good for driving, allthough primarily that's because I'm concerned that the system will encourage bad drivers to drive even wilder and faster than they do already.

It was also a movie-scene were I thought about a chase-scene in Norway and wondered how a big high-tech rwd would do against a smaller (and weaker) but AWD car.

I've thought about similar comparisoms before, like: What is faster on a dirt-road in a forrest: A Dirt-bike or a World Rally Car (note: WRC's only came in 1997 and are allowed to be a lot more redesigned from the base-car than Group-A allowed, so no more Integrales and Cosworths :( )

Frank

[VQ]

Yeah, I think a YZ250 would be quicker then a WRC car, or even a YZ450F

[chris]

I think probably a Xsara WRC would be quicker.

But on the original thought, I think I'll stick with my opinion that on slippery roads, an E60 M5 would be slower than say a Subaru Impreza 22B, to name one in particular.

It's probably most fair to compare the best E60 with the best Impreza.

[VQ]

Well, wait till they possibly make a stripped out, bare essential M5 CSL, which won't really happen, but it's nice to dream.