keen on contrast with 3.0tt.

It's an '08. It's specced almost precisely the way I would have ordered one: Jet black, black interior, black carbon fiber leather trim, CWP, PP, moon roof and (amazingly) rear sun shades. The one option it has that I wouldn't have gotten is nav, so I am suffering with iDrive--it's bad, but not as bad as Audi's system.

This was a car that the dealer had to pull from another store, so I got a decent but unspectacular deal on the cap cost. It's a lease, which means I got BMW's 0.00025 MF--that's 0.6 percent interest, which is pretty hard to beat. Two year residuals were terrible, but three year numbers weren't so bad. If I like this car, I may end up just buying it out--the total amount of interest/rental I'm paying over the life of the lease is less than $1000.

Compared to the 335? Puttering around town, there's not THAT much difference. This car actually has a higher-strung engine, so at part throttle in a highish gear it's not quite as punchy as the twin turbo. Just taking it easy, there's a bit more gear whine, the clutch is a bit sharper on engagement, and the shifter is a tad heavier. The engine is kind of touchy until it has some heat in it; in the cold, it's a bit stumbly. Oh, and the gas mileage is laughably bad. So, you kind of think, what's the big deal?

But.

Then you get on it, and holy christ it's fast. Like I said after my initial drive, the engine is really the defining characteristic of this car, and it's a honey of an engine--it revs amazingly quickly, has power all over the place, and makes a sound that is...well, it's like that scene in Bullitt that you watch over and over again, where the Mustang is charging up and down the hills just outside of San Francisco, and the V8 makes this great low, staccato roar, which is awesome, and then during the shift there's a brief beat, a moment of quiet, and then BOOM the roar is back, except instead of a movie it's enveloping you, and then you look down and you're going 70 over the limit. Whoops.

I mean, this car is hilarious. It's a BMW sedan, except that some guys in Germany were thinking to themselves "what would a BMW sedan be like if it were also an American muscle car built in the 60s?" This is that car.

Oh, the snow tires are the "Sport Edition" A7s, made by ASA and/or Hankook, according to the warranty cards. The wheels are 8" front, 9" rear, which fill out the wheel wells better than the non-staggered setup, and also have the advantage of fitting my existing Dunlop Wintersport M3 tires, which I swapped onto these wheels. Can't remember the tire sizes exactly, but they are 225 (45?) front and 255 (40?) back.

That's freaking awesome JST. Did it come with the 18 or 19 inch wheel pkg?

Congrats on the new tires :)

I think JST mainlining V8's was bound to happen.....

Ed

"No one ever says I want to be a junkie when I grow up."

:D

Sounds awesome. Count me as extremely envious. :D

18s. I like the 19s better, but not enough better to try and get them swapped onto the car.

It also has Sirius and the iPod adapter, which I forgot about, above.

For 99 percent of drivers 90 percent of the time, the 335 makes more sense, which is why they are having trouble selling these. I just have the misfortune of having two obsessions: 1) V8 muscle cars, and 2) BMWs. Since this car combines the two, it's hard to pass up. Even so, I would probably have gone with the G8 GXP if it were going to be available before Feb (if ever).

I knew they were having trouble moving them, but I've seen less and less inventory listed on dealer websites lately. I wonder if they are just delisting them. I guess it's possible that they have sold a bunch.

The 335 is awesome but a bit soft and a great daily... A v8 m3 is something else, something to keep wishes of exotics and dedicated sports cars at bay, as it is as good or better (and I haven't even driven it, but I've driven plenty of other M's so I can extrapolate).

I'll take a coupe (with no sunroof) in alpine white or interlagos (is that offered?).