BMW M4 - "Ultimate Racetrack" on Aircraft Carrier

[Buddy Revell]

Incredible commercial!

[Sedan_Clan]

Awesome! The takeaway here is.....becuz 6MT!

[karussell]

Its seriously just an awesome machine all around. the noises it makes are all good. only the mezger has anything on it in the sound department.

my take away from this is the standard brakes are good enough to keep it on the aircraft carrier. and hoonage spec is mt4life.

i can't wait to throw old set of winter tires on it and have rain day. just drift all day and night in this car.

[TC M3]

FANTASTIC

[flyga3]

Schweet! And with a 6MT! Bravo!

[F80NJM3]

Amazing video - Test drove the car and I have to say it sounded amazing.

[///M Power-Belgium]

The best car and ///M commercial....ever made ! And i like it.....a lot !

[d_dot]

holy shit!!! Dope

[richb811]

Awesome video!!

[bradleyland]

Originally Posted by watson335i

But I will say this... that driver has some serious B*llz to do that.

Hate to spoil the fun, but the whole "racetrack on a carrier" thing isn't real. The video is a composite:

* Footage of a real M4 (in some cases; other times even the car is CGI)
* Footage of a real aircraft carrier
* CGI layering of the racetrack and sometimes the car

How do I know? Cost of production, and historical precedent.

Cost of production: This production would have cost more than most blockbuster films if they had actually obtained (rented or otherwise) an aircraft carrier and constructed an actual track on top, then filmed this at sea.

Historical precedent: BMW is known to use CGI in their advertisements in the past (as is every manufacturer).

Originally Posted by exmowner

The fact they used a 6 sp is telling in itself. Why not use this opportunity to market the DTC? My guess is it would be difficult to pull off the same vid with that level of control!

6sp forever!!!!!!!

The choice of transmission was clearly made for dramatic purposes. Watching someone slam through gears is a lot more exciting than watching them slap paddles.

There's no maneuver conducted here that couldn't be done with the DCT transmission. The opposite really; DCT makes it easier to do a lot of this stuff because you can downshift mid-turn without lifting.

I had an at-length discussion with one of the BMW Performance Center drivers about this exact topic (he used to drift professionally). He said that the only option taken off the table with the DCT is a clutch-kick drift initiation, which he said wasn't a huge loss because of the flexibility of the S65. He was just as likely to use the handbrake or just flick it in hard and left-foot brake if he needed more rotation.

For anyone who hasn't been there, when you do Performance Center Delivery, there's an opportunity to ride along on a "hot lap" in an E90 M3 (at least that's what they used to use). It's more like a drift lap though. The drivers are definitely driving for fun, not for speed. All the cars are DCT optioned, because they burn through clutches too fast in the 6MT (according to the Q&A session we had).

[lawgone]

0-60 times are good but if you have a catapult why not utilize it to make it even better?

[Dinh335]

it's missing Kenny Loggins "danger zone"

[i001947]

Sure, B all U can B with a M4 and US Pothole City streets. So Fing stupid!

[Kwando]

Rad.

[Franko's B]

Originally Posted by RPiM5

I wished the M4 really sounded like that. Sounds like they took the sound bite from a Ferrari F430. Lol!

I don't know of too many 430's that are turbo charged that sound like that hmmm...

[The Automotive Enthusiast]

Are they using Active Sound Design for this too? If so, I think there may have been an issue. Scratch on the CD, maybe? It sounds like it's sitting at redline the whole time....

[nick3753]

Originally Posted by Rev ///Me

Are they using Active Sound Design for this too? If so, I think there may have been an issue. Scratch on the CD, maybe? It sounds like it's sitting at redline the whole time....

Of course, it's a promotional video. When he stopped the A/S didn't kick in either. It's like in movies when cars are racing and they keep downshifting when they want to go faster. Awesome video nonetheless. Exciting and creative, even though much of it is "movie magic".

[ersin]

Originally Posted by Lups

Hahaha, is this some kind of Top Gear needs a boost day?

They're trying to get rid of the Stig again. Unfortunately, wrong car.

Cheers.

[AlexN]

1:01-1:04
They forgot to photoshop the driver in the car..

[Lups]

Originally Posted by ersin

They're trying to get rid of the Stig again. Unfortunately, wrong car.

Cheers.

Yes, I remember that episode well. I loved the show for years.

[pkimM3r]

Originally Posted by ELPhilly

Yes, it sounds like that. It's mechanical and guttural. It sounds especially nasty with the m performance exhaust, but even stock, it sounds great.

How do I know? I picked up my M4 with the ED group and drove it for a week in Europe on the bahn, b-roads and the ring and spa. I drove mine, but also listened to the cars all day at the race tracks and drove behind them for hours on end on said b-roads.

I have a gopro clip of my Nurburgring instructor saying, "They really made these engines sound awesome, didn't they?" I'd post, but I'm still wandering around Europe.

i believe that is active sound lol

[bradleyland]

Originally Posted by Rev ///Me

Are they using Active Sound Design for this too? If so, I think there may have been an issue. Scratch on the CD, maybe? It sounds like it's sitting at redline the whole time....

The sound has definitely been "enhanced" in post production sound engineering.

* I can hear some reverb with tight delay and rapid decay.
* It sounds like they've pumped some of the lower frequencies (<50Hz).
* There's an augmentation track with some high-pitched whine (resembles a turbo whine)

None of these are egregious (IMO) however, as exhaust sounds are notoriously difficult to reproduce through speakers and headphones. You "feel" exhaust as much as you hear it. If they got the character right, that's exactly what you need to "experience" the exhaust through a video.

So far, we have one person supporting the viewpoint that the audio sounds like the car, and one that disagrees. I've not heard the S55 in person, but the M235i (N55) I test drove sounded pretty damn good. I'd be amazed if the S55 sounded worse.