Fun weekend car

[Torinoman]

I didn't mind the suspension on my 05 GTO. Wouldn't hook at all, but it did awesome burnouts.

The rear suspension isn't bad so long as you stick with the two piece drive shaft and don't need anything bigger than a 305ish tire out back.

I was really referring to the front suspension with it's garbage radius rod setup. Its a terrible design as a result of the bean counters cutting costs, and it doesn't belong on a modern 'performance' car IMO. At best you can hope for mediocre handling but almost always you end up with dreaded steering wheel shake and fucked up tire wear. I really can't believe they don't at least use a proper one piece lower A arm like most other MacPherson strut cars. GM even did a performance concept version in like 2005 that was almost identical except that it had double A arm front setup. Its bad and they know its bad and its the sole reason i got rid of my 04 GTO. I got to the point that I hated driving it.

[Ratt]

ATS-V's are sweet l, kinda small especially in the back seat (3 series size). Get a used Golf R... The Mk7s are running mid 11's with a tune and downpipe.

Did they ever fix the issue on the Golf R where the stability and traction control could never be fully turned off, and even in sport mode it was super invasive?

[JC316]

The rear suspension isn't bad so long as you stick with the two piece drive shaft and don't need anything bigger than a 305ish tire out back.

I was really referring to the front suspension with it's garbage radius rod setup. Its a terrible design as a result of the bean counters cutting costs, and it doesn't belong on a modern 'performance' car IMO. At best you can hope for mediocre handling but almost always you end up with dreaded steering wheel shake and fucked up tire wear. I really can't believe they don't at least use a one proper one piece lower A arm like most other MacPherson strut cars. GM even did a performance concept version in like 2005 that was almost identical except that it had double A arm front setup. Its bad and they know its bad and its the sole reason i got rid of my 04 GTO. I got to the point that I hated driving it.

Again, 192K on mine and the wheel never shook. To me it handled better than my 4th gen fbody. Must have gotten lucky and got a good one, or you got a bad one.

[Torinoman]

Again, 192K on mine and the wheel never shook. To me it handled better than my 4th gen fbody. Must have gotten lucky and got a good one, or you got a bad one.

Again? You never mentioned anything about mileage or wheel shake before.

Anyway, wheel shake was notorious issue in those cars. And most other cars with a similar suspension.

Handling better than an F-body isn't hard. Those things have about 0 torsional rigidity and a solid rear axle.

[jakesford]

Did they ever fix the issue on the Golf R where the stability and traction control could never be fully turned off, and even in sport mode it was super invasive?

Yeah, in prior gens, traction control was fully defeatable but stability wasn't. Finally the Mk7 Golf Rs the stability control has a sport mode and fully off mode from the factory. On the Mk7 GTIs, they only get the sport mode, but you can add the fully off option with VAGCOM.

[Y2KSilverGT]

I daily an e60 545i 6MT and would argue it is the most fun daily driver out there. 300hp 4V motor comparable to a 99 cobra. Sounds pretty good with just a magnaflow out back. Handles excellent and I think looks great with the sport package ( no chrome + slightly lowered)

That being said it doesn't come close to 500 HP supercharged v10 big brother M5

Just letting you know the baby brother came be had VERY cheap due to everyone scared of high mileage BMW V8 . Just note these cars would also be hard to unload as well due to the bad rap on V8.

The best bang for the buck seems to be high mileage C5. I'm sure you know that and are thinking about going a different direction.