REV_29K

I pulled up to a set of lights last night and i was waiting to turn left when a Z3 pulled up next to me and asked for a run.
He said that after we turn and when we hit the the straight, we gun it.
Well after we turn and hit the straight my car is only on 30kmh and well under Vtec. At this stage his car pulled immediately in front to where my front bumper was.
Revving through the gears and changing @ 9K rpm after shifting into 3rd my car was ever so slowly creeping up on his car and traffic was ahead so we both stepped on the brakes.
We pulled into the petrol station and agreed that both cars were very similar.
Has anyone else run the Z3 roadster??? I'm curious to know how quick it really is and if it would hand us a spanking as i've been told that it is much quicker than the S.

P.S. my car is stock apart from the K&N replacement filter

esracer

so the z3 had a m3 engine in it??????? I don't know much about bmw's but would that even fit? and if it did he should have killed you, a M3 would kill a stock s2k but that engine in a lighter body would do even more damage.

Planets

a Z3 with an M engine is the M roadster which should have smoked you badly. I'm guessing this was a regular Z3 you ran.

just for reference somebody posted C&D's times in that car the other day, which was something like a 13.1 in the 1/4.

REV_29K

Interesting!! Perhaps he didnt know how to drive....
The body of the car did look alot wider than a standard Z3 tho....
The guards were massive
Maybe he was just messing around with me...
Damn i really wanna turbo charge my ride & then we'll meet again

Mcruiser

If it was equipped with S52 then it has only 240HP. 2001 and 2002 model has S54 that comes with 315HP which would have destroyed you.

steve c

They M roadster is no wider than the regular Z3. As has been mentioned, the S52 240hp cars are a good match, a bit quicker than the S2000. The S54 315hp cars are a lot faster.

Planets

oops yeah, I always forget they made a 240hp version...when I think M roadster I always think 315hp... but yeah the 240hp version would be a good race with the s2k.

dcak

Possibly wider wheels and lower stance make it look wider than a Z3? I don't know for sure, but the ones I've seen look wider, as well.

s2000alex

S54 Z3 smoked my s2000 couple times, S54 z3 can smoked s2000 easy after around 90 mph, S52 Z3 will be very close race with s2000.

but it is kinda hard to tell its a S52 Z3 or a S54 Z3, you have to run it to find out, that's why i like to have friendly and safe races with them all the time, most S52 Z3 drivers respect honda s2000's power too

BillF

What differentiates the exterior of an S54-powered M roadster from the earlier model?

The exterior of the S54-powered M roadster shares all of its body panels with that of the earlier version. Only the curved M badges and RoadStar alloy wheels with Chrome Shadow finish are unique to the newer model.

There were almost 9000 Roadsters built with the smaller engine, but only 1600 with the larger one. I don't know the exact number, but probably somewhere close to half of those were shipped overseas. Your chance of encountering one of the 800 S54 powered machines is slim.

Most S54 drivers respect S2K's, too.