It's definately the slower times. The VXR was the pre-release barge they brought over for the shows, it's not the final spec that will hit the market. That said, the VXR has more power so from a sheer performance perspective it's pretty much on par with the 3 MPS as the fastest hot hatch that'll be available (excluding those with $60- $70K to waste on a r32 or 130i). The XR5 has real character pure and simple, for the $7K saving you can invest in an ECU flash, I/C and CAI and blow the VXR off the road... and still have change. VXR is pretty hot though too, from a raw performance perspective it's pretty nice, chassis tuned by Lotus might have something to do with it.