Is the squeaky-clean, push-button, microchip-managed future of motoring grim? It’s hard to say. Ignition keys are disappearing. So are clutch pedals. And toxic gases. And the risk of violent death.
Your outlook may depend on whether you’d rather pilot a real 427 Cobra or an X-Wing fighter, the prices of which are about the same. Luke Skywalker can’t drive a stick, but his switch-throwing skills are legendary. Then again, Carroll Shelby could probably kick Luke’s bony butt. The debate rages.
We put our bony butts in two examples of the future of push-button, high-performance driving. Summoning the Force to safely pick a champion, we headed for the coiled back roads of California and the corkscrewing ribbon of Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca.
The new BMW M3 is well-known to us and to you, now that you’re digesting our fourth—fourth! When will your letters pleading for more ever end?—comparison test of the M3 in 15 months. Like a solid Hollywood franchise, BMW’s ranking joy toy and its 414-hp V-8 fusillade have us churning out endless popcorn sequels. The M3’s lineup includes a sedan and a convertible, plus a coupe. Our coupe, base price $59,625, has silver-blue paint over rust-colored leather, with $13,895 in options. Almost all the boxes were checked, including the Premium, Technology, and Cold-Weather packs, plus the new $2900 “M double-clutch transmission with Drivelogic,” a $10 way of saying paddle-shifted seven-speed with programmable shift maps.
We’ve seen the M3 dispatch a Mercedes-Benz C63 AMG and an Audi RS 4, a Lexus IS F, and the stupendous Nissan GT-R. So much for the prelims. This time, the M3 is pitted again a Porsche sneering, “I must blake you!” ?The revamped, direct-injected Porsche 911 Carrera makes 345 horsepower from its six-cylinder engine and has an optional transmission called PDK, or Porsche Doppelkupplungsgetriebe. It’s a 10-euro way of saying a “double-clutch” seven-speed, and it costs $4080 on top of the Carrera’s $76,395 base price. To make the 911 and M3 prices better match up, we begged Porsche for a stripper Carrera (the Carrera S has 40 more horses and starts $10,600 higher). Porsche complied—perhaps for the last time—lending us one with a $750 XM radio and $140 floor mats and painted, fittingly, in New York–taxi yellow. You talkin’ to me?
The dilemma: how to sit in judgment. Should we pick the car that best re-creates the analog, gear-jamming, life-in-your-hands rush of the old days in the digital, fingertip-operated, safety-netted world of today—or the one we just like better? Here’s our answer.
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