RDX M3 GTR

RDX Performance M3 GTR, at home on Mugello.

For several weeks, RDX had been a name that kept popping up on my radar. There are a lot of tuning garages out there and a lot of cars to choose from, so I wasn't able to pick up everything I wanted. Returning from a short break, I still had my eye on these cars. I contacted Jesse at RDX Performance to see if I could get one for testing, and he happily obliged, sending me the most recent cars from their back catalog, and one car that has yet to be released, the BMW M3 GTR seen above.

At first glance, the car looks well enough, but my experience tuning a GTR for an S-Class series has taught me that a car can look good and still be hard to drive. The replica paint is traditional blue and white, and aside from the usual layer shift, looks very well done. Again, I've put many a great-looking BMW into the sand traps, so I kept my expectations in check while we pulled it out of the paddock.

On the warm up lap, the BMW appeared to be steering very well, when I suddenly remembered I had not made note of my personal best, nor what type of car I used to set it. Oh well. It wouldn't matter ultimately, but I like to know what I'm up against. In typical editorial style, I blew the first corner and couldn't get close enough to see the ghost. Meh, I'll see next lap, if the car is fast enough to keep up with it, that is.

Crossing the starting line again revealed the awful truth, my personal best was set in a S-Class 22B. This could be bad, a rear-wheel-drive BMW trying to beat my personal best with an all-wheel-drive Goliath. Usually, the S-Class RWD cars are faster on mid-to-large tracks, but I need not remind everyone that my limited skill means I am usually faster with an AWD car.

On the third lap, I was settling down with the BMW, and started to focus on the handling. Neutral balance coupled with excellent turn-in was the order of the day. It may not lap faster, but it sure felt good to drive. I was very surprised when I hit the inside rumble strips in the low speed curves, and discovered that the car didn't snap sideways.

If you are careful enough with the steering inputs, you can even run over them in the high-speed sections with no loss of traction. This is a very good handling BMW. So good, in fact, that I found myself running in front of my 22b ghost, easily beating my best time on Mugello. Wow!

As a fan of European cars and BMW in particular, this car was in my top category for RDX cars I've been anxious to drive. After doing so, I've found that the car is a resounding success. If you are a fan of BMW's, you owe it to yourself to try to pick one of these up. During the reservation process, Jesse told the community that this car would not disappoint, and was he ever right. The car is fantastic and a blast to drive.

Unfortunately, though, the car is sold out, and that is a shame. Maybe I can convince Jesse to let us do something with this car after testing has been completed...

Discuss this article in our forums.

ForzaTimes.com's mission statement is to bring you in-depth coverage of tunes available on FM2.

We will be featuring several new releases in the coming weeks, as well as going through existing catalogs of cars. Please bear with us, as there are over 100 tunes already out there, and more being released every week.