I admit the gaskets is a downside to them but once they have been done I haven't heard of any other engine related fault. They don't burn any oil, they can cope with more power than a de.
I'm not saying the de is a bad engine its just not as good as the HR variant.
Performance wise, recently at snetterton 300 my uprev'd HR was bang on match for my friends e46 m3 manual on the straight which a revup de is not capable of without quite a few mods.
The whole argument about de's having more torque as well is not completely true as the Hr actually makes more torque throughout a wider band of the rev range rather than just peak figures. 😃😃
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