Facts and figures
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Without a V8, you can forget it
23.09.2008 |
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There were all sorts of scores to be settled within this unusual group. Would the BMW M3, with its new double-clutch gearbox, go hard enough to beat the Lexus IS-F? Could the Evo X regain some credibility having been greeted with a strangely lukewarm round of applause until now? And would the mighty Alpina B5 S, with its 530bhp twin-turbo V8, just monster them all, including the impressive and recently tweaked Jaguar XKR?
I was especially interested to see how fast the IS-F might go, having just taken delivery of one as my new long-term set of wheels. On the road my example feels a fair bit quicker than the raw numbers in our road test suggest, but on the other hand there’s not a lot of point arguing with the stopwatch, particularly as they very rarely answer back.
My hunch turned out to be right, though, because in the event the IS-F absolutely flew down the runway, hitting 60mph in 4.85sec and 100mph in 11.04sec; that’s over a second faster than it recorded to 100mph in our road test. And it carried on flying during the standing-mile sprint, where it only lost out to the massively more powerful Alpina by the narrowest of margins, hitting 159.63mph vs 160.19mph for the B5 S (and a mere 155mph for the M3).
Further down, the battle between the Evo X and the M3 raged as hard as ever, even though the M3 we ended up with was the heavier, less rapid convertible. Unquestionably a saloon or coupé M3 would have gone quicker, but we wanted to test one with the M-DCT gearbox and only a convertible was available.
In the end the BMW acquitted itself pretty well considering it was in hair-dresser spec, beating the Evo by half a tenth with an overall time 0f 16.65sec.
The BMW wasn’t fast enough to put one over the Jag, though. The XKR muscled its way gracefully down the runway with its four exhausts emitting probably the most cultured sound of the day. It was quick,
too, with a 0-100mph time of 11.75sec and an overall time a tenth inside that of the
M3 (16.55sec).
too, with a 0-100mph time of 11.75sec and an overall time a tenth inside that of the
M3 (16.55sec).
The only slight disappointment was that it couldn’t quite crack 150mph over the standing mile; in the end it clocked an infuriatingly close 149.88mph.
That just left the Lexus and the Alpina to fight it out at the top, and it was quite some struggle. Off the line the IS-F was marginally quicker, clocking 2.07sec to 30mph vs 2.20sec for the B5 S. It held that advantage until about 75mph, at which point the Alpina just blew its way past. By 100mph it was two and a bit tenths clear of the Lexus, and basically that’s where the
gap remained.
gap remained.
After a big stop from each of them and a half-decent reaction time during both runs, the B5 S was still 0.3sec clear at 16.0sec vs 16.3sec for the IS-F. The moral victory still belonged to the Lexus, however, because under no circumstances did we expect it to get so close to the mighty Alpina. ◊
Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X FQ-360 GSR
0-100-0 16.70sec
Price £37,999
Price £37,999
Power 354bhp at 6500rpm
Torque 363lb ft at 3500rpm
Kerb weight 1560kg
Gearbox 5-spd manual
Terminal speed 144.4mph
BMW M3 Convertible
0-100-0 16.65sec
Price £55,300
Price £55,300
Power 414bhp at 8300rpm
Torque 295lb ft at 3900rpm
Kerb weight 1885kg
Gearbox 7-spd automatic
Terminal speed 149.9mph
Jaguar XKR
0-100-0 16.55sec
Price £70,995
Price £70,995
Power 416bhp at 6250rpm
Torque 413lb ft at 4000rpm
Kerb weight 1665kg
Gearbox 6-spd automatic
Terminal speed 149.9mph
Lexus IS-F
0-100-0 16.30sec
Price £51,155
Price £51,155
Power 417bhp at 6600rpm
Torque 372lb ft at 5200rpm
Kerb weight 1700kg
Gearbox 8-spd automatic
Terminal speed 159.6mph
Alpina B5 S
0-100-0 16.00sec
Price £69,950
Price £69,950
Power 530bhp at 5500rpm
Torque 534lb ft at 4750rpm
Kerb weight 1720kg
Gearbox 6-spd automatic
Terminal speed 160.2mph
