i'd put my money on the Z. I have 255/30/19's on the back FYI and 225/35/19 up front.
I took the car out today in the nice weather for about 5 hours..... NW corner for the win.
Anyway, here's my impressions.
Suspension:
Sloppy compared to the STi. Lots of understeer. I got scared a few times around 100mph that i took no problem with the STi.... and people say the STi is prone to understeer...
Lean... has a lot of it.
Steering response, quick at first, but slow on long sweepers.
Power:
the sti would smoke it... and probably jeffie's Z as well. I'm not used to having to downshift 2 gears on the highway to accelerate quickly either... miss the turbo in 6th gear, thats for sure.
Gearing is probably the issue here. The M's gears are stupid long. I'm finding myself driving around town in 3rd where i'd be in 5th in the sti.... normal 35-40 mph driving. then again, the spedo is indicated to 190.... lol i took it up to 130, and was at about 5k in 6th gear.... redline is 8000, but i've gone well past that already without hitting a limiter.... don't know if one exists due to the chip, but don't want to risk going any more than 8500 yet... lol
All that said, the car is a fucking blast to drive. The looks you get in it, the exhaust note at 8200rpms.... the auto-angleing passenger mirror when you put it in reverse... the car is sick. I'm more than happy with my decision and won't be missing the STi until winter
To fix the understeer problem,
265's up front, 285's in back next year. These tires will be toast by then anyway... lol
power, i can live with. It's more than enough to keep me happy for now