230K vs 2007 GTI vs E46 330Ci

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Adam230K

MB Enthusiast
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Ok i know there's a few people on here that wont like what i'm about to say but it was done on motorway and no speed limits were exceeded.

First up, on my way home from a friend's, had about 30 miles of motorway, and we were almost at standstill because it seemed as if there was a few military trucks carrying some sort of part belonging to an aircraft. I happened to be at the front of this queue along with a 2007 GTi with "Pirelli" written on the back of his car (i didnt understand at the time that this means its a 230bhp version of the golf gti!!), and a bmw 330Ci. It took about 45 minutes for this thing to move out of our way and upon taking the exit and i immediately saw an opportunity to floor it. And to my surprise (a wonderful surprise i might add) i noticed both cars completely inline with me and keeping up, so into second gear and i was giving it more beans, and the 330 started drifiting slowly behind, and i had a smile on my face. This smile was QUICKLY removed when entering into third gear now doing about 80mph, the golf was EXACTLY by my side, and it seemed if i kept going he would've started pulling passed me. But i backed off into 5th gear and continued cruising, moved into the third lane, which left him and the 330 (which was further behind than u could imagine now) to battle out the inevitable loss of the 330 vs the gti.

I really enjoyed it, it was amazing to see the difference in power i got from using straight through (much wider, 2 and 3/4 inch up from my old 1.5 inch) piping and the HKS high-flow sports catalyst that MiJ had installed for me, but (and i shouldn't be) i was quite disheartened about the fact that a gti could keep up (ok i know its new and it had 230bhp, but i've never thought much of gti's!!).

Thought i'd share that with you guys :) please try not to bash me about being unsafe and telling me that a kid could've jumped out infront of me on a motorway ok?? :eek:
 
Fair play...


we all do it a little, I had a blast with a Type R and I was in my ML..... I kicked down and looked ahead so with with him for much longer than he thought !!!

I know they are quick as I have had a 330 ci and its on par with a type R. Mine was a manual however and they are somewhat quicker than an auto's (bm autos are not as good as Mercs...)

I also had a big CAI on it, too be honest it sounded great especially roof down. No idea if it 'did' any bhp improvements...

All is well and if as you say you backed off at 80 and road clear etc :) :)
 
I kinda backed off cuz i wasn't prepared from the very start for an actual race, it just suddenly developed into one and i was quite worried about it turning into a 100+ sturbborn pull! (i've had a few in my time). The GTI was so stubborn, and my stubborness was gonna continue with him (i wish i did now), but it might've ended in him actually over-taking me to be honest, but i cant believe that the bmw couldn't beat us, he kept up, but was drifting away, and u could tell he was flooring it, but his car couldn't keep him in the game.
 
I had a race against an R8 whilst driving an R8......I shall have to say, the R8 came out on top
 
Was it definitely a 330i? I would have expected him to have been all over the pair of you - especially as the speed rises I would expect his advantage to strengthen.

Still the 330 has my favourite of all exhaust notes. Niiiice.
 
The Beemer has 230BHp peak but being n/a probably can't muster as much torque over as wide a rev range, allied to it being a heavier car means...

nice one rage..;)
 
IIRC (and this was YEARS ago!!), GrahamC230K test drove a 330 back-to-back against his C230K and was pretty underwhelmed.

I think that some cars are quicker on paper than they are in real-life situations. Bearing in mind that C230K is close to 200bhp and slightly lighter than the 330, I bet there's not much in it.

As DM has said, the torque makes all the difference. 230Ks pull from low down very well, the BMW probably needs to be right up in the revs to realise it's full potential.

Will
 
I'm very sure it was a 330Ci and a GTi "pirelli edition", i was stuck in traffic with them for 45 mins, and i do know what you mean, the 330 has this "presence" about it, the exhaust note is quite nice, i could hear it quite well.

I have to say i was gob-smacked x2, in the sense that i thought the 330 would be quicker, and the gti would be alot slower. I guess if the 330 has about 230 bhp, and mine had 192 stock, with the exhaust it probably has 212-222bhp, and yes mine is slightly lighter, and when i got home i checked out this "gti pirelli" on the VW website, and aparently it has 230bhp with 300nm of torque, thats almost identical to the 230k, think mine has 280nm stock?

But it felt could ripping the car for the first time (properly) since i put the new exhaust in, it has a bloody good note, i really loved it :rock:
 
I had the 330i engine in my X5 and it was lovely. It developed its peak Torque @ 3500rpm of 221 lb/ft. It wasn't peaky at all and very linear in its delivery and made my X5 with a manual reach 60 in 8.1secs and have in gear acceleration similar to my E220cdi. I would imagine it would propel a 3 series at quite a lick.

The golf generates 206lb/ft torque but I don't know at what RPM/range but performance wise I can't imagine a 330i and GTi would be that much different considering power to weight ratios must be similar.
 
Actually the golf has the same torque (check the site) and is lighter. If it wasn't for the upgrade on my exhaust, i'd probably be the same as the 330 or slightly behind it to be fair.
 
I love oppertune engine tests, call it a regular health check :devil: .

I'm far more relaxed but hate impatient people. I was driving to London and about a mile before the hatfield tunnel I had a purple 993 Carrera sat very close to me and then received a flash of the headlights. Which was just plain rude :D . Ease to the side aftyer I had cleared the traffic and he put his foot down, so did I and I just eased awy in the inside lane, as we got into the tunnel the noise was fantastic. V8, Flat 6 falling behind and then suddenly an absolutely gorgeous HOWL from a few car lengths back to see a Maserati Quattroporte slowly gaining on me.

Given another mile or so and the Maserati would of pulled past but he won the moral victory for sounding absolutely gorgeous, put me and the Porsche to shame.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=VoMPZH7Wzj4&feature=related&resnum=3

Most fun though was in 1 litre Yaris against a 1.1 Saxo. Imagine a scene from Le-Mans in super slow motion and below 90mph :crazy:

Dave!
 
Rage said:
no speed limits were exceeded....into third gear now doing about 80mph
:rolleyes:

Just because a GTi has 230bhp, and just because the BMW was a 3 litre doesn't mean their drivers cane them all the time. It's not actually a requirement...
 
:rolleyes:

Just because a GTi has 230bhp, and just because the BMW was a 3 litre doesn't mean their drivers cane them all the time. It's not actually a requirement...
If you have a 330ci that does 0-60 in 6.8 (auto) or a GTi that does it in 6.6 (man) I doubt you feel the need to...if you have a car that is 1.5 secs slower you may have to!
 
Hey my car does it in the 6ish second margin too, have a look:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDa4v3u8_6Y

I love it when people underestimate mercs ;)
I think you are proving my point about how hard the relative drivers might have been trying! No one is doubting how much you had your foot down.

I'll know in future to look for car data on YouTube as it is clearly more accurate than manufacturer supplied or car magazine tests.
 
I'm not proving your point at all. If my car does the same 0-60 times as the other cars that happened to be near me at the time (330 and gti) then it means they will also need to give their cars the full beans to even keep up, or stand a chance of passing me.

The reason i did the test and put it on youtube is cuz when i bought the car, it was saying 7.6secs or something in the owner's manual, and it felt alot faster... so i just asked my brother to film me doing 0-60 in the appropriate zone to see if it was true... which it clearly wasn't.

Its not like they were driving M3's ... cruising next to me to make me feel good about my car, and then flooring it to put me back into reality. (Had that done to me before) :)
 
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Mercedes tend to be slightly conservative in their 0-62 times, which are a load of cobblers anyway. Much more meaningful is 20-70 times. These can accurately be timed with a stopwatch and demonstrate the real acceleration of the car ignoring off the line traction.

0-62 is all about initial traction and gear ratios long enough to get to 62 without a change to 3rd.
 
Just curious Rage , what do you reckon your 0-60 is then ?
 

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