Quote:
Originally Posted by Asymmetrick
Thank you for your comment. I am happy you are raising this point since this highlights a common misconception.
The answer to your "why" question is in your own sentence: "When I sign up for a track event". In other words, you are saying that you are actively selecting what you believe are "optimized driving conditions" (in this case, ideal driving surfaces) to enjoy your sports car. I am making the exact same argument.
You have reduced my whole point to "not driving in the rain" when in fact I was arguing that "reviews conducted in the winter on cold, wet, rural roads" are not the most informative for top of the line performance cars. This is especially true when a large fraction of CSL reviews from one specific region of the world were conducted under poor driving conditions: it provides a skewed/false perception to car enthusiasts.
Finally, it is important to understand that people who purchase the highest performance cars are typically highly-competitive enthusiasts who spend large amount of money to get the absolute best performance out of their track days (i.e., shaving a few tenths off their record, etc). You won't accomplish this in wet/cold conditions. If you are going to use your car in poor driving conditions, you don't need a CSL, a GT3, or a black series AMG. A lower variant of those cars equipped with PS4S will do just fine under suboptimal driving conditions and this will save you a lot of money.
I don't recall comparing the performance of the GT3 and CSL in my post. Maybe you mixed up my post with someone else's...
Btw, I don't disagree with this point. The GT3 is a superb sports car. In fact, it has be because it is substantially more expensive than a CSL.
A base (zero option) 911 GT3 is 184K USD/150 GBP and a fully equipped M4 CSL is 146K USD/125K GBP (excluding ADM). This is a huge price difference which raises the question whether the GT3 is the proper car to compare to the CSL.
I would argue, performance-wise, that the 911 GTS with lightweight package is a more appropriate comparator (even thought it is still substantially more expensive than the CSL with the same specs/options). The proper comparator for the CSL when considering only price (ie, with matching options/specs: CCB, Carbon Roof, PASM, SportDesign Package, etc) in the Porsche 911 lineup is the Carrera S.
So, for the price of a comparably equipped 911 Carrera S, you get a M4 CSL; a car that outperforms the Porsche massively.
Glad to hear you have a good flexible setup. The F80 is a great car that is –in my opinion– underappreciated. I hope you enjoy your track days, even in the rain.
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Porsche has significantly raised prices on the entire lineup since the 2022MY. The GT3 base price used to be 162k! For anyone with a 2023 allocation it's now 184k and there is yet ANOTHER increase that hasn't been posted yet but applies to MY2024 GT3/GT3RS that had their production pushed because of production issues which adds another 6% to the base price. So for MY2025/26 barring any further increases it will be near as it makes no difference 200k to start.
Which makes the M4 CSL a very compelling option but the problem is BMW is making it a limited run. IMO BMW should be cranking M4 CSLs out because the 992 911s have become way too expensive.
And more to the point of comparison a 992 GTS is a more apt rival but in favor of the GTS.