Oh, the Laguna Seca, the one track known worldwide for the famous Corkscrew just as the Nurburgring is known for Nikki Lauda’s crash. It’s a thing of beauty to watch and drive the fastest cars in the world on it. That’s if you’re a gearhead, of course!
The guys from TC Kline Racing took their M4 to the track to see how it would fare against other rivals. Needless to say that they had their work cut out for them as there were some pretty interesting rides on the circuit at the time.
Amongst them (and amid the plethora of Mustangs) there was one McLaren MP4-12C and that, my friends, is a proper supercar. How did the M4 stack up against it? Better than anyone expected, to be honest.
Let’s face it, the M car is nowhere close to supercar status but it does have impressive numbers in its corner. Furthermore, the driving experience is amongst the best you can have at the moment if you’re not willing to pay in excess of 100 grand. But what do the specs tell us?
The BMW M4
Unlike its predecessor, the BMW M4 uses a 3-liter inline 6-cylinder biturbo engine under the bonnet, making 431 HP and 550 Nm (406 lb-ft) of torque. It’s also lighter than the E92 M3 that used a naturally aspirated 4-liter V8, tipping the scale at 1,560 kg (3,439 lbs) with the DCT gearbox (that’s heavier than the 6-speed manual).
That means we get a power to weight ratio of around 287 horses per ton. That’s for the stock car. If you want it properly prepared for the track you can remove the rear seats, the front ones (and replace them with lighter ones) and save a couple more pounds. This car, however, is stock featuring only a TC Kline double adjustable suspension, some Apex wheels and Hoosier R6 tires for better grip. That’s all.
The McLaren MP4-12C
When it comes to the McLaren, we’re already talking about a different league. The Brit has a 3.8-liter twin-turbo V8 engine making 600 HP and 600 Nm (443 lb-ft) of torque. That’s for the pre-facelift model, of course. We can’t really tell if this is a facelift version and the uploader doesn’t specify it either, but if it was it would have the same engine tuned to make 25 extra horses.
On the weight front, there’s a noticeable difference as well, as the 12C has to carry around just 1,336 kg (2,945 lbs). You can notice that the power to weight ratio in this case sits at the 461 HP/ton ratio which is really impressive.
You can notice that huge difference between the cars especially on the longer straights where the M4 simply doesn’t have the muscle to keep up, but it’s rather impressive how the driver manages to make up for it in the corners. Check it out!
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