I don't disagree with what you guys are saying and I still like to see what the magazine guys get for #'s, but again, the guys at the magazines are doing whatever it takes to get the lowest numbers possible regardless of abuse to the equipment. The average enthusiast isn't going to do this to their car because come Monday they still have to drive it.

What I am saying (and Norm said it too) if you perform a mod to your car, you would like to see what improvement if any it had on your car. Let's say you add and ECIS box to your car and your 0-60 drops by .3 seconds those are real world results no matter how you measure them. Now someone else on this board can say, hey, that is a mod that works. .3 seconds is something that is worth x dollars to me.

1/4 mile time is a very important measure of a cars ability to accelerate and I won't deny that, however 95% of all trash talking and ego boosting banter and stop light antics will be settled from a stop light and will end by 60MPH. So if we are going to compare apples to apples and we don't have access to the magazines equipment, why not use a GTech? That is all I am saying.

Before you say it, I know the GTech Pro will measure 1/4 mile time, estimate HP, etc. but I think 90% of the time it is used for simple 0-60 runs. Now you can add all the go fast gear you want to your M3 to increase HP but if it doesn't drop your 0-60 time, really, what good was it?

I hope I didn't start a flame war...this is just my idea to use a tool that is available to everyone so we can discuss how different mod's are working (or not) and to discuss which year M3 is the quickest etc. It would be a common language we could use on the forum. That is all.

Thanks,
Thomas

don't think that's a good idea. Performance is about the hard facts and numbers, and to adopt equipment that could be "wrong" as you put it is not a good idea and only fools the driver. GTech is good for what it is, and the magazines have thousands of dollars worth of equipment and manpower for a reason, accuracy. Not taking anything away from Naveen at all, good times, but take it with a grain of salt. Most mags place the M3's times in the high five second range, after repeated runs with multiple cars, and I've even seen some in the low six-second range. I would hate to see people take these generous GTech numbers as gospel and go up against a car it should be able to beat (by GTech numbers) and get embarressed.

Whether the GTech is right or wrong I think the automotive enthusiast should adopt the GTech as a standard that we can all measure against. The GTech's themselves will all read the same and as long as the user properly zero's the unit out we should all get results that we can compare on a level playing field.

So what if they all read .3 seconds too fast or .1 seconds too slow. If we are all using them then we can compare results. If my car hits 0-60 .4 seconds quicker than yours, then it doesn't matter how it is measured...it is just faster.

Sorry for rambling on, but I get a little tired of people criticising the GTech. It is what it is...that is all. The average enthusiast does not have access to the measuring tools the magazines have. All we have is the GTech.

Thanks,
Thomas

run1: 5.43 N->S (launch @2500)
run2: 5.30 S->N (launch @3000)
run3: 5.43 S->N (launch @2500)
run4: 5.36 N->S (launch @3000)

I have '99M3/2 with NO engine mods (only some brake mods). I am running S-02 (with 6 track days and 12000 miles on them). The temp was about 74 degrees. For those in the bay area, I was on that strip of Mary ave in Sunnyvale, just North of Maude (very empty and wide).

As you can see, I went in both directions on the same road (N->S, S->N). I tried launching with little to no wheelspin (2500RPM), and seemed to get consistently slower results. The 3000RPM launch's had some wheelspin for about 1 second. I did a few practice runs before the recorded ones, and I was consistently get in the 5.3's w/wheelspin.

FYI...
NAveen

appears to be with it's precision and consistency, more than it's accuracy. So it could be useful to an enthusiast who wants to measure before and after mods to get a 'relative' indication of results. As an 'absolute' measurement, however, I'm not sure I trust it, based on what I've read. (I'm sure G-Tech Pro would disagree ;-)

Rgds,
Norm