Highly strung naturally aspirated engines tend to get pretty lousy gas mileage. See also the Honda S2000. The fact that the GM LS series V8 engines really don't rev all the high, have decent torque and throttle responsiveness below 2000rpm, and have a simplified low-friction OHV valvetrain with a single camshaft rather than four all works in the Vette's favor as far as fuel mileage. It's also significantly lighter than the M3 is as well. The M3 is up near 4000lbs I think, vs 3100/3200 for the Corvette? I've not looked at the gearing, but I don't think 6th gear in the M3 (or 7th with the DCT) is a "cheater" fuel mileage gear like it is in the Vette either. So all of that adds up.
Back when I bothered to keep track, my S2000 overall got a cumulative 20 MPG and that was including autocrossing and track days back in the day. My Z4M, with the same S54 engine as an E46 M3, got 15.3 MPG on the first tank and 12.5 MPG on the second tank, which included an autocross. :yikes: Unfortunately, on my trip back down from East Bay I lost one of my gas receipts, so I have no record of the highway gas mileage.
My buddies got 15 pretty much all day long, Z06 makes so much torque and has a super high overdrive 6th gear, so you can cruise at 75 all day long at 1200 rpm and sip fuel! M3 will be doing almost twice as many RPM's at 75!
How fast are you cruising on the highway? I've yet to be able to break 20mpg average at 80 - 85mph.
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