Battle of the Sleepers! Serious Little Beemer - What Gives??
 

So I'm coming home from the airport last night and as I exit up onto the highway home for me (9A for those folks from Jax) I give it the gas for a little fun, as this is one of the only curves on Jacksonville roads. I've now merged on the the highway and there is no traffic out and all of a sudden I see lights jump up on me from behind. I can tell it's some sort of sports car as there appear to be a decent set of fog lights on which are low to the ground. I drop her down a gear and punch it figuring I'd toast who ever the dude was. I wind it up to about 120 and god bless the car is still right on me. We come up on traffic and I slow her down and move over a lane to see what it is.....holy cow it's one of those little tiny BMW convertibles. I'm almost possitive it was not an M roadster because it didn't have the quad exhausts or steam roller tires. We drop it down to about 60 and and we're heading up the Dames Point bridge now (huge suspension bridge for those not from Jax) and both give it the gas and we run up to 130 or so. I can't pull on him and he can't pull on me. What the heck?!?!?! I'm pretty sure this was a new 2003 convertible and I think it comes stock with a 3.0 6 cyl with about 230 hp. The car looked completely stock from the outside (no exhaust mods, or wheel or tire mods). The guy driving the BMW gives me a huge grin and thumbs up before he exits, which I of course return. Has anyone else had a similar experience with these little BMW's?? I would have expected this from an M roadster which comes stock with over 300 hp in a car which would fit in my trunk. By the way it was very nice to see someone driving one of these BMW's for what they're worth, they really are awsome driving machines.

Sleepers... They come in more forms than just Mustangs...

I think it did better than even an M would have done. Would have been cool to find out what he had. Are you sure it wasn't a Z8? http://www.bmw.com/bmwe/products/automobiles/z8/

400HP V8

I was thinking it might be a Z8 too. Those things are sweet, but a little pricy at 130k.

the Z4 is out if im not mistaken and...the Mrodster is supposedly a low 13 sec car out of the box not sure on that...but i have my doubts a Z3 could break 13 ...where are you?...
ooops saw your sig ,thats Mrodster times for sure...certainly no Z3 ,short of custom turbo ,nos or SC , none of which id expect a BMW owner to add to that car, i dont see it hanging with you

Hmmmmm a Z8, the whole race was pretty much a blur but I'm pretty sure it wasn't a Z8, but maybe. I've only seen a few in the day light and they have always been silver. This car was dark, I want to say dark green. I did get a pretty good look at it and I know it had a single exhaust outlet (dual tips)......no, now that I think of it more for sure it was the little guy, not the Z8 or M Roadster. The only thing I can think of was I was in 5th gear most of the race and maybe that had something to do with it.

Sounds like an m3. I know some of the older ones only had dual tips on one pipe.

OK folks, next to Mustangs the only other cars I'd like to own one day would be a BMW, and that will only happen if my car tastes ever mature beyond a 16 year olds (no offense to anyone with that comment I hope). That being said I know this thing was one of the little convertibles, a Z3. Though the race was a blur because of the speeds, it was directly in the lane next to me and I had to look down to wave to the driver, and at that point we were doing reasonable speeds. It was no M3 or M5 or Z8. I'm telling you all, or I should say y'all since I now live in Jax, that this was one of the little guys with the new 3.0 6's in it. I know now that I should have followed the guy when he got off the highway to see what the heck he did to it. BMW's are really intended for serious drivers, they are great machines and have received unfair reputations because all the freaking yuppies always buy them. When you purchase them you can get them with all kinds of great sport options, which are intended for real drivers (not that BMW offers any sort of 100 hp upgrade from the factory). So I really would not doubt that someone buying one of these little cars for what they are intended for, would go out and do some serious mods to it, yet keep it low key because he holds some kind of "respectable" job (again no offense to anyone).

z3's are real nice, the craftsmanship is remarkable.........it is really unfortunate that it has such a poor reputation among many enthusiasts (or maybe it isn't, the sleeper/underestimated thing can be pretty fun).......

if i liked convertibles and had the means, i'd get one..............but i don't like convertibles, so if i had the means, i'd prolly get an M-coupe (i really like "ugly" hatches)

remember, Germans build thier cars for top end!

couldnt have said it better.

Don't doubt BMW's. I love the cars, and if I had the money I would buy one. I got to drive my cousins 323ci. It's one of the 'lower' end BMWs but that thing moves at top end speed. Of the line it's not that quick but once I was around 50mph it just kept pulling and pretty damn quick. I was on a side street and was with my dad so I couldn't test it's full capabilities, but I do admit it was a nice car. Do you know if it was a roaster (Z3, Z8 etc) or a cabriolet (3-Series, 5 Series, etc)?

§am.

BMW guys often do swap you know, just like honda boys! ;)

turbo
 

turbo kits are actually readily available for z3 i know...that might be your culprit