Take it you don't like the 3 series then.... none of this reversed snobbery please, not all people that buy 3 series buy one only for the perceived image and would rather have a Skoda if only it had a BMW badge on it, good as Skodas are Sounds like your track meeting story is more related to driver ability. Maybe my memory fails me on the lap times. I'd choose neither as a performance car though, as a reasonable cruiser yes.

lol done the bmw thing so no reverse snobbery from me.. .. had m3 evo years back.. the meeting was on good old british back roads..

zt is very very good ... not enuf grunt at std but some pipes and a throttle body cure that ... on track my octy would murder it.. but then again the octy has murdered much greater (allegedly) weapons than that.. never seen 4x4s really perform on track hence my apprehension. have no doubt that on wet/greasy back roads they are better but still feel that many owners use the 4x4 system to mask their own inadequacys - but that is better than crashing i guess... bit like ASR/ESP etc useful to have when you are not concentrating but a hinderence when conditions allow full potential to be realised.

maybe one day i will buy a 4x4 and change my mind would have to be rwd biased as i dont see the point in a car with extra grip that still understeers - and i have to admit the only 4x4s ive done any real time in have been "proper" defender/ml/gwagen/rangie scoobs and evos have never fallen into my hands for more than minutes.

Paul, I found those lap times.

330ci sport vs MG ZT260 at Anglesey, Autocar

55.40 vs 56.05 seconds

FQ320 was 51.65 seconds. Interestingly the A3 3.2 Quattro sport and Megane 225 were also quicker than the ZT 260.

IIRC Paul's Oct was about 50 seconds, possibly just under

Was Paul on road legal tyres?

not quite....

I found this interesting:

Golf RSI

Almost three years before Volkswagen's R32 was introduced' date=' the crew at HPA had completed what is perhaps the most impressive Golf the world had ever seen. Capable of producing twice the power of the R32, this GTI is the ultimate "giant killer," a hatchback capable of running with the world's most exclusive sports cars. The concept was based on a 2000 Golf and included VW's 12V VR6 augmented with twin turbochargers; Audi's Haldex-based all-wheel-drive supplied the grip. The car was assembled with a combination of Golf, Jetta, TT and A3 parts and pieces for the revised floorpan. HGP Turbo GmbH provided the forced induction system with a pair of Garrett ball-bearing turbos and a focus on factory accuracy while utilizing as many factory VAG parts as possible. The only internal engine mods were special hardened "black" race connecting rod bearings and HGP's head spacer, which lowers compression to 7.0:1.

In VW Motorsport testing, the production drivetrain can accommodate up to 750 bhp, so it remained unmolested. Runs with a similar HGP vehicle on the Bosch awd dyno revealed stunning results--with 100-octane fuel, the car made 491 hp with 537 lb-ft of twist. Tuned for 93 octane, the HGP system made 442 hp and 484 lb-ft of torque, still enough to best Porsche's bad boy biturbo. Underpinnings (by order of importance) include Porsche 993 Twin Turbo cast drilled 12.88-in. rotors and calipers up front and Boxster S calipers and rotors in the rear. KW's new Competition suspension features both bump and rebound adjustable dampers and work in conjunction with 8.5x17 and 10x17 KW Cup wheels with Yokohama A520 rubber measuring 215/45-17 and 235/40-17.

[/quote']

Thats right, a standard haldex lc diff running 491hp... not as weak as some people would lead you to believe.

http://www.hpamotorsport.com/projects/rsi.htm

And here is a beetle running 550bhp and a stock haldex lc diff.

Sounds good, so just a TT box in a 4x4, good clutch and you can have a proper fast car?

Looks that way... I've mailed haldex themselves about the power handling, as HPA motorsports say it's tested to 750hp in motorsport applications...

I've found several magazine reviews of HPA cars, all running 400+ bhp, and all running uprated clutches etc but standard haldex lc diffs.

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