It's hard to explain to people the "why". Cliff notes: it's 6MT isn't geared for the autobahn and the brakes were a nightmare.

So, I like to cruise at about 130-140mph when I'm going somewhere. I did this for hundreds of hours in my SRT8 with zero issues. In the M3, 6th gear is rounding 6000 RPMs. The engine simply works too hard at high speeds in manual. DCT would have remedied this. Conversely, my brakes on the SRT8 juttered non-stop. I tried everything. It was faint, but still there. So, I sell the SRT8 after 18 months of loving ownership and guess what- my brand new M3's brakes do the EXACT SAME THING! Furthermore, they make a VERY loud squeal when tracking. Like, the second I get on the 'Ring, it squeals non-stop. As soon as I'm off the track, it never happens. Then, there's some design flaw where rocks always get stuck between the rotors and metal brake shield and makes terrible noises and is sometimes a PITA to remove. Nearly everyone in the forums has this issue. So, I decided I wanted to get something with really good brakes, steerable, but at the end of the day is a track-centered car that won't rev high on the autobahn. 6.2 blown-liters kind of solves that. I imagine when the ZL1 gets here I'll spend the next 6-8 weekends at the N-Ring and H-Ring to make up for lost time. So psyched for the ZL1. SUCH a monster!