[Jamesons Viggen]

I have my first N55 F30 loaner today. It's a decked out Sport too.

Some thoughts...

This has to be leather right? It's got the HUD/Nav, all the toys...why does this feel barely a notch better than my leatherette

The Sport steering wheel...sorry to offend, but once use to the M-Sport wheel, this feels clunky and made of pleather.

The sound. Yes, it does sound much better than the N20. But my N20 with exhaust sounds surprisingly close as it replaces any engine sound with exhaust note and now the two exhaust notes are rather close.

HK sound system...def better, not sure if it's worth the money better, but still better.

Tires just don't cut it, not by the size and certainly not sticky enough compared to a staggered summer setup.

Looks...MG is a nice color. But the Sport body work in this color just does not have the presence of EB with the more aggressive bumpers. This car gets totally lost in the crowd which could be a good thing, makes for a bit of a sleeper.

This is an '12 with 3k miles more than my car. Feels a bit less well put together.

Speed. The Sport auto does a good job of making the engine feel even better than it is. Light throttle brings kick downs that make it feel very responsive. But go WOT when holding on to one gear as if a manual and it's got more nut than my N20, but not to the extent it emulates when doing a 2-3 gear kick down.

Handling, have not really put it through it's paces but it does not feel as eager and light on it's feet compared to the N20. It's not NIGHT and DAY, but it's there.

In the end. I can see people sweating this car over the 328. But it's also been a bit over hyped by some fanboi'ism out there. I could see this car with bolt ons and a tune being a bit more to my liking, more like the blown S52. If this car had 80hp more, than I could see it being heralded over the N20 the way it's been hyped.