This is the most ridicules post I've seen lately. Have your ever driven a V8 5-series? G35 may have more torque than 530 but 545 is a completely different animal. It will easily destroy any Infiniti sedan including the mighty M45. It is weird that M45 is considered to be slower than 545 but much faster than M/G35 and somehow G35 is became faster tp 60mph that 545. Something is going on here. It is the second time G35 is presented as being a faster car than 545 on this board. For god sake go drive the G. Compared to 545 it has NO torque at ANY RPM. Hei, my old 540 was faster than G35.

To Pontiac guy: The powertrain in your old car is bad, it is very bad. More or less torque does not really matter when the powertrain is so bad. The 530 powertrain is pretty good, not very powerful but good. In real life situations BMW will feel much faster and powerful. Keep in mind that 0-60mph for Grand Prix is around 8 sec. 530 will do 0-60 in 6.5sec. Big difference and I do not even want to get into I6 vs. V6 discussion.

 

It's important to understand the relationship between torque and horsepower but it's just as important to understand that torque is usually represented with an rpm figure too. If a car has a higher torque figure but it comes in at a higher rpm, it's not necessarily "better" than a car with less torque at a lower rpm. BMW usually engineer their cars to provide torque at a lower rpm than many other manufacturers.

The following links will help explain what I can't ever seem to explain very well:

http://www.epinions.com/auto-review-41B8-B...-3A19AD8A-prod4

http://forums.autoweek.com/thread.jspa?for...=23571&tstart=0

http://www.pumaracing.co.uk/power1.htm

 

This is the most ridicules post I've seen lately. Have your ever driven a V8 5-series? G35 may have more torque than 530 but 545 is a completely different animal. It will easily destroy any Infiniti sedan including the mighty M45. It is weird that M45 is considered to be slower than 545 but much faster than M/G35 and somehow G35 is became faster tp 60mph that 545. Something is going on here. It is the second time G35 is presented as being a faster car than 545 on this board. For god sake go drive the G. Compared to 545 it has NO torque at ANY RPM. Hei, my old 540 was faster than G35.

To Pontiac guy: The powertrain in your old car is bad, it is very bad. More or less torque does not really matter when the powertrain is so bad. The 530 powertrain is pretty good, not very powerful but good. In real life situations BMW will feel much faster and powerful. Keep in mind that 0-60mph for Grand Prix is around 8 sec. 530 will do 0-60 in 6.5sec. Big difference and I do not even want to get into I6 vs. V6 discussion.
[/quote]

At least please allow me the opportunity to genuflect before your clear superiority.

I am clearly not worthy in all other respects.

 

Always willling to add my opinion
2 cars ago has a pontiac grand prix GTP - the 3.8 with the supercharger
I don't care what you guys say - that car would move
I remeber the 0-60 times printed by the car mags in the 6.5 sec range
Handling - not really
FWD - yeah
but slam on the gas and it would go
did a much better job with highway acceleration than it did from a stop
IMHO was a great drive train for less than $24,000

yeah it was a pontiac - so lots of gadgets - even had HUD - which I liked but not enough to get it on the BMW

but as for power it was a great car
My 530xi wants to be above 4,000 rpms - the pontiac did not care

 

At least please allow me the opportunity to genuflect before your clear superiority.

I am clearly not worthy in all other respects.
[/quote]

I am sorry if I was not respectful enough but some of your statements just sound strange. If you say something like BMW V8s do not have much torque compared to 5.5 liter AMG engines, I would accept it with no problem. Here is another try: "Yes, you will be disappointed with the low-end torque of the Acura TL. This the way Honda does business ... high-rev engines with generally flat torque bands. Sounds fine. I have no problem with it and no one would.

"either in I6 or V8 versions" is just plain wrong. BMW V8s are very different from BMW I6s. That?s how BMW does business? Very powerful V8s and just OK I6s.

 

Think the original poster was talking about the non-supercharged 3.8 - but I agree with you that the GTP powertrain was a very different proposition, and was decent value for money.

 

OK, who are you posting under dgjk's handle? You are not the dgjk I know. Are you his split personality? And, I should mention that the supercharged Pontiac's are one of the types of cars that I like to torment with my 85 RX-7. There is nothing as much fun as a stealther. Driving a really good stealther is like driving a really good practical joke.

 

Don't be hatin' on Pontiac!

The Trans Am was KITT in Knight Rider!