[protovack]

Expect to see a significant increase in power and acceleration once you get into the 10-20k mile range. People will deny it, but I notice a significant bump in power once an engine is broken in. You can't judge a car until it has 10k miles on it. I've driven dozens of cars over the years, it happens with every single one of them down to the Chevrolet Trax I drive daily. Off the lot is was so stiff and slow. 15k miles later and it feels zippy. Second, you definitely have not gotten into the performance modes yet. You have to be in track mode, and even then, in the performance traction modes to actually get full torque. All the other modes, including tour, and sport, do not give you full access to all the engine's power. And in track mode, the throttle response is very linear. It does not artificially inflate the throttle input. This is intentional, so that you can modulate the throttle on the track. So to a novice who doesn't know, he might think the throttle response is "sluggish" in track mode. They would be wrong, its intentional, and actually if you really get into the throttle with the nannies off, you'll get full torque.

You have to remember that a car like the M3 is tuned to "feel" fast. Along with most european sports coupes and sedans, the throttle is calibrated to give you a "rush" on first press, and possibly cause you to chirp the tires coming away from a stop light. Laypersons will assume it is the faster car, but get out on an open track and the 1LE will simply dominate.

GM engineers could have tuned the car to feel faster off the line, but there are many good reasons not to do that. If you really feel like the throttle response isn't too your liking, there are several throttle controller voltage boosters on the market that will amplify the throttle signal and give you that intense response.