[CAR ENGINE]
MATT FARAH: If you've seen many episodes of Tuned, you'll
know that the kind of shops we visit put a really big
emphasis on horsepower--
everything is 700, 800, 900, 1,000, 1,200 horsepower.
It really never seems to end.
But today we're at Monticello Motor Club, which is one of my
favorite places to drive a sports car.
And Turner Motorsport, who is based out of Massachusetts,
has graciously brought us two vehicles.
On my right, we have a Frozen Gray M3 street car that's been
modified by Turner to their liking.
In fact, it's Will Turner's personal car.
And on my left, we have the 2011 Continental Series GS
Class Championship-winning car, the number 96 Turner
Motorsports M3.
And today, I am fortunate enough to get to drive both.
And we're going to find out why, while other companies put
an emphasis on horsepower, Turner's
priorities go like this--
breaking, grip, handling, and then horsepower.
Sometimes horsepower isn't everything.
And for a company that spends most of its time on the
racetrack as opposed to the street, it's starting to make
a lot of sense.
I'm Matt Farah, and you're watching Tuned.
I'm pretty excited right now because while we drive a lot
of huge horsepower cars, we do not drive cars by people who
are really about going racing.
And that's what Turner does.
They build
championship-winning race cars.
And so they really haven't focused too much on giant
power with this car.
It's more about the dynamics.
Well, I'll start with the power.
Its stroked.
527 horsepower, normally aspirated engine.
It's stroked to 4.6 liters, which is very nice, with an
Akrapovic full exhaust, high flow cast.
But that's really it for the power department.
Huge StopTech brakes right out of their Grand-Am car.
Six piston front, four piston rear.
Big 14 inch discs, drilled discs.
And then in the suspension tuning, we've got the brand
new KW DDC suspension.
And what DDC stands for is dynamic damper control.
So when you see some really top end cars where you can
adjust comfort or sport, usually you can't do that with
an after-market suspension.
You have to get under the car, turn some knobs,
maybe turn a wrench.
Not so here.
You've got a button right here.
And it's on comfort right now.
I'll go to full sport.
Three settings--
comfort, sport, and sport plus.
You can connect with your iPhone or your iPad and adjust
it via the KW app.
Which is super cool because while the button just has
three modes-- comfort, sport, and support plus--
the app, you can actually adjust front and rear bias.
You can adjust sides independently from each other.
You can make preset settings.
You've got to give props to this transmission because it
shifts really fast.
You know, the AMG cars, they have that wet clutch.
And it works.
I mean, you shift with the paddles and it works.
But it doesn't give you the race car feel the same way
this transmission does.
It shifts so fast.
Just pop, boom, boom, boom, fires off shifts so fast.
There's 120.
Passing 130.
There's 140.
And I'm out of juice.
Oh, these brakes really bring you down nice, don't they?
Big break upgrade, so key if you're going to
be doing track time.
These are basically full on race brakes.
There's a little bit of understeer coming through the
tight corners, but that's how it goes with street cars.
I like this car a lot.
There's no turbo lag, no supercharger heat buildup,
just all-motor, 527 horsepower, 407
pound-feet of torque.
That's about 113 horsepower more than a stock M3.
I'll be honest, I do not know what this car does,
acceleration numbers.
But it feels significantly more muscular
than a regular M3.
It sounds more muscular.
It feels like it was done by somebody who goes racing, not
by a dino tuner, a tuner that just wants big power for the
sake of big power.
Now don't get me wrong, there is nothing
wrong with big power.
I personally am a huge fan of big power.
But when you're on the track, something about balance,
something about the harmony.
It's all in harmony.
Everything this car's doing is totally predictable and
progressive.
For those of you asking me to drift, hey, go [BLEEP]
yourself.
I'm in an open track session.
Just judging on how good this car is, it makes me very
excited to drive their race car.
They do a lot of racing.
They're racing every weekend.
And I get to drive Bill Auberlin's race car.
Very famous BMW factory driver.
He's been driving with Turner for many years.
And he is one of, if not the best BMW driver out there.
Maybe Joey Hand, but Joey Hand used to drive for Turner.
These guys are employed every top, top notch BMW
driver there is.
And today, I get to drive their car.
How [BLEEP]
cool is that?
[TECHNO MUSIC]
KEVIN HOLMES: Here you're going to see on the dash,
pretty standard, attack--
MATT FARAH: Attack, speedometer?
KEVIN HOLMES: Nope.
MATT FARAH: Oh, no that's just--
KEVIN HOLMES: Gear position.
MATT FARAH: Oh.
KEVIN HOLMES: OK.
It'll only do it when--
MATT FARAH: When the engine's on, OK.
KEVIN HOLMES: No, when you're actually rolling.
It needs the engine on and wheels rolling
to calculate it.
It's a conversion.
Not conversion, it's not actually at
different gear positions.
MATT FARAH: OK.
KEVIN HOLMES: There's a lot more information here.
MATT FARAH: Do I need any of it?
KEVIN HOLMES: Nope.
MATT FARAH: OK.
KEVIN HOLMES: No.
MATT FARAH: Good to know.
KEVIN HOLMES: It's gear diff temp, gearbox temp, fuel
pressure, oil pressure, oil temp.
MATT FARAH: I can't believe people scroll through all this
crap while driving.
That to me is like-- like, I talk while driving.
And that is hard for a lot of people.
KEVIN HOLMES: Yeah, I mean Bill Auberlin will actually
change pages because we have three pages in here.
This is the race page, practice.
And he'll go over, and he'll be watching the lambdas.
Pretty much for a race, we're on the race page.
Engine temp, fuel remaining, ground speed, gear position,
attack-- those are the only things that we're really--
MATT FARAH: OK.
And this is shift lights up here?
KEVIN HOLMES: Yup.
So they'll come in from the outer to the center.
And they'll get progressive, and they'll start flashing red
when it's time to shift.
And that's when you can shift.
MATT FARAH: OK.
And what's all this other crap?
So cool suit, which I'm not using right now.
But cool suit's the best thing ever.
It's great.
KEVIN HOLMES: Pretty much.
And then you've got--
MATT FARAH: This is--
KEVIN HOLMES: --ABS maps.
And then you've got the helmet blower on your right, which
that we'll plug in for you because it works
awesome in this car.
MATT FARAH: What's the clutch like on this thing?
The pedal feels OK.
KEVIN HOLMES: Yeah.
It's OS Giken double disc clutch, works
pretty much like standard.
MATT FARAH: OK.
You have an awesome mirror.
KEVIN HOLMES: Yup.
Mirror's really good.
We'll adjust the outer mirrors once you get happy.
MATT FARAH: And this is brake bias, which I'm not using.
KEVIN HOLMES: Correct.
MATT FARAH: What's it set to now?
Standard?
KEVIN HOLMES: Well--
MATT FARAH: Whatever.
KEVIN HOLMES: No.
MATT FARAH: No?
[LAUGHING]
KEVIN HOLMES: No, that's something we work a lot.
But it's all set up right now.
It's good to go.
MATT FARAH: OK.
And I'm on map number three.
Is that what I want?
KEVIN HOLMES: Yup.
That's our full power map.
MATT FARAH: Full power map, all right.
Good.
So I'm pretty much not going to mess with it.
I'm just going to start it and then just go drive it.
KEVIN HOLMES: Yes.
Absolutely.
MATT FARAH: All right.
I can do this.
Sure.
Go.
[CAR ENGINE]
MATT FARAH: All right.
My first time in a real professional race car.
I've got slick tires, try to heat them up a little bit.
I'm going to take it easy because--
I'll be honest--
I'm nervous as hell.
OK.
Tires are a little slick.
Brakes are way different from the street car.
Interesting pedal pressure.
This is the coolest goddamn thing I've ever gotten to do.
All right, the throttle by wire requires a lot less pedal
pressure than I thought.
A heel toe down shift, that's OK.
Shifter feel-- oh, it does not like to be on and off the gas.
OK.
You got to kind of give it the old boot.
OK.
I'm pretty sure there's heat in the tires now.
I have no traction control.
But according to Will, I have a really badass ABS system.
Wow, those brakes.
Once you get some heat in them, those are some
ridiculous brakes.
This car weighs 3,310 pounds.
With a full tank of fuel It's actually barely lighter than
the street car.
I'm trying to think of statistics right now, but all
I'm thinking is, go faster and don't die.
It's just over 400 horsepower, but you'd never know it.
It feels fast as [BLEEP].
Looking out of the car, it feels like the in-car view
from all those races I've always watched.
Wow.
This is why race cars are so much better than street cars.
I finally feel like I get it.
And you know what?
I'm glad it's stick.
In the street car, I'm a big fan of the pedals.
[CAR ENGINE]
MATT FARAH: Woohoo!
Yeah!
These brakes are unbelievable.
I love it.
The throttle's a little bit like an on-off switch.
But that's OK because once the tires get heat in them, you
can just go through corners so fast.
[CAR ENGINE]
MATT FARAH: Oh, this is the greatest day of my life.
Oh, fast street cars are one thing.
Professional race driver, that is the best job in the world.
Oh yeah, buddy.
Other than just simple getting used to and stuff it's really
not very difficult to drive.
I mean it honestly just feels like the best
M3 I've ever driven.
I will never be a racing driver, but it's so great to
pretend even just for one day.
Hell mother [BLEEP]
yeah, buddy!
[CAR ENGINE]
MATT FARAH: Woo!
This car started out as a bone stock M3 right off the
production line.
And now listen to it.
The slicks are really, really sticky now.
Obviously they're Continentals because this is a Continental
Series car.
[CAR ENGINE]
MATT FARAH: So how about it then?
Flat out, down the front straight.
[CAR ENGINE]
MATT FARAH: Oh, I'm psyched.
It is not nearly as forgiving as a street car, and it's
properly intimidating to drive.
But goddamn is it fun.
It's not that it has melt your face horsepower.
It doesn't.
In fact, it's really not all that fast in a straight line.
But the sound, the directness of everything, the way your--
my senses are going crazy in this car.
[CAR ENGINE]
MATT FARAH: Driving a real race car is--
it's like the automotive equivalent of
doing ecstasy or something.
All your synapses are just firing like crazy.
Adrenaline's going.
You just never want the session to end.
Oh, it's so unbelievably good.
I'm sorry I'm sweating up your helmet, Will.
But I just don't want to get off the track right now.
They're going to have to drag me out of this car.
[CAR ENGINE]
MATT FARAH: And there's the checker.
That's my last lap.
I'm going to cool her down now.
Oh, man.
That was just about the best thing I've ever done.
It's crazy.
It's really crazy.
Once you aren't scared of the car anymore, it's so fun.
Now I know why people get addicted to this stuff.
Tried to talk, think I even might have
succeeded in some talking.
But it's crazy.
Crazy good.
So much better than any street car, man.
It's not even like crazy fast in a straight line.
But huck it through a corner, and it [BLEEP]
sticks.
It's in one piece.
Success.
I need to go apologize to somebody for
staying out too long.
As we conclude our second season of Tuned--
a season full of street cars over stuffed with horsepower--
there's a lesson to be learned from these two Turner M3s, a
lesson that can only be learned by driving cars built
by people who spend most of their time racing.
When building a fast street car, lots of horsepower is a
good thing.
But not as good as creating balance.
With Turner's Frozen Gray M3, everything feels upgraded to
an equal degree.
The engine, chassis, suspension, brakes, and tires
are all in harmony with each other, elevating the
performance of the M3 in all areas, whether you're driving
on the street or on the track.
No aspect of the car feels like it's overshadowing the
driving experience or creating an instability.
It's the same feeling I get from driving the race car.
Though the experience of borrowing a $250,000 race
machine three days before it needs to run is an
intimidating as experience as I've ever had.
The car itself feels wonderful.
Once you trust the slick tires, it's not scary.
It's just fun.
You feel everything through the controls.
You hear everything through the uninsulated body.
And every aspect of the car is under your
control at all times.
Horsepower is a wonderful thing.
We've certainly experienced plenty of it this season.
But while horsepower is fun to use in short bursts, nothing
puts a smile on your face every time you drive it like a
perfectly balanced sports car.
With these two machines, Turner Motorsport
has achieved that.
And I have to say, I like it.
I missed the checker and took an extra lap.
I'm sorry.
KEVIN HOLMES: No, no, no.
Come here.
MATT FARAH: My bad.
It was my first time in a proper race car.
KEVIN HOLMES: Consider your wrist slapped.
MATT FARAH: I got very excited.
KEVIN HOLMES: You got a little carried away?
MATT FARAH: Well, trying to drive and talk, and there's a
camera in front of my face.
I'm sorry.
KEVIN HOLMES: That's OK.
MATT FARAH: My bad.
KEVIN HOLMES: Yeah.
Don't do it again.
MATT FARAH: That was the greatest thing ever.
KEVIN HOLMES: That car's pretty insane.
MATT FARAH: Real race cars are awesome.
KEVIN HOLMES: Not just a real race car, a champion.
MATT FARAH: Like a proper real race car.
KEVIN HOLMES: A proper winning race car.
MATT FARAH: I didn't stall it.
I didn't crash it.
KEVIN HOLMES: All positives.
MATT FARAH: It's the best thing ever.
KEVIN HOLMES: So when are we going to
catch you in the Series?