I would not call it a kill, but here you go. I friend of mine attended a DE at Buttonwillow a couple of weeks ago and we had a chance to run together in the same group as they combined the A & B's. First thing I noticed is that the low eng torque of the STI (300 ft pounds) really helps the car come out of the corners fairly quickly, but what I found interesting is that after coming on to the front straight I would pull on the STI by 5- 6 cars and keep pulling away and this happened consistantly (it was from 60 to 110 mph). I thought it would have more top end since they run 104 in the quarter mile. This might be due to the throttle response of the M3 and possible lag/heatsoke for the STI. BTW, my LTW does have cams. Thought this may be of interest for the NA guys...

I instructed a student at that same school, and while he was driving his E46 M3 (with PSS9 suspension and SSR Comps/Dot-R's) with me in the passenger seat, we followed that same STi around for a whole session.

I didn't observe quite the same as you though. We were easily pulling him on the front straight, and we usually had better exit speed. Where he KILLED us, however, was on corner entry. We'd go into a corner right behind him, and come out 1.5 CL's back but starting to close the gap, which means his entry speed was superior until the apex. Turn in was quite impressive.

Both cars were being well driven, so I'd say it was down to the cars, not the drivers.

with exit. Although I was would easily pull away from him only for him to catch up as I got into traffic. I do admit when was driving 8/10th as I got lazy during the session he would close rather quickly, for a stock car the STI does rather well, and it does boil down to the driver as I noticed when the gray S54 M Coupe and the other STI in my group (driven by Gary) showed me as I gave them the pass signal....BTW Lee was my instructor, I am not sure if you know him or not.