Our Interview with BMW M3/M4 Project Manager and Product Manager at NYIAS 2014

[PABrian]

Originally Posted by CanAutM3

Each individual parameter (engine, suspension and steering) can be independently adjusted between Comfort/Sport/Sport+. Those are the three buttons framed in silver to the left of the shift lever. The chosen settings are shown at the bottom of the tach. If you don't opt for the adaptive suspension option, you don't have the possibility to adjust the suspension (damper) stiffness, but still can adjust the other two parameters. The auto rev match is linked with the engine (throttle sensitivity) setting. No auto rev match when engine is set in Sport+.

Any combination of those settings (plus DSC and DCT settings) can be programmed in the two M buttons.

Hope this helps clarify

This is just like how it is in the M5/6. The one issue with this is that auto-blipping is tied into gas pedal sensitivity. For some (me included), driving around with the engine set to Sport+ is just uncomfortably sensitive. It's much easier to drive smoothly in Comfort, and you lose nothing. Auto-blipping really should be a user-selectable feature through the Settings menu in iDrive. Really, genuinely would not be difficult in the slightest to implement that and it would allow even more customizability.

[solstice]

Originally Posted by OttosBMWBrian

This is just like how it is in the M5/6. The one issue with this is that auto-blipping is tied into gas pedal sensitivity. For some (me included), driving around with the engine set to Sport+ is just uncomfortably sensitive. It's much easier to drive smoothly in Comfort, and you lose nothing. Auto-blipping really should be a user-selectable feature through the Settings menu in iDrive. Really, genuinely would not be difficult in the slightest to implement that and it would allow even more customizability.

I agree that bundling auto blipping with the throttle mapping modes is a bad idea and it should be a separate switch, maybe a botton on the shifter even to have a logic placement.

However I disagree with that the auto blipping is a cause to select the DCT over the MT. I grew up with MTs, there was nothing else in Sweden at the time, everyone drove MTs even taxis and public service cars. It was pretty much only handicap equipped cars that had autos and maybe ambulances. Rev. matching is second nature wether I drive a car or is riding a motorcycle but to me it's not as big of a deal, it doesn't really add much to the ability to control the car. The third pedal is the key for me and I'm actually looking forward to de-learn blipping and let the computer take care of that part. See, not all MT owners are against progress where it makes sense, maybe I'm just getting old

[JoeFromPA]

I agree solstice: Really looking forward to auto-blipping in comfort and sport.

I actually like the arrangement BMW chose, though it should be programmable.

However, for me, I most enjoy fine blipping during the most aggressive driving (which is often when I'm most likely to make a mistake and give too much or too little throttle, btw, but that's where the skill lies). So I want to rev-match myself when I'm driving aggressively = sport plus is perfect.

The rest of the time, even in mildly aggressive driving (sport mode), I welcome the fine control of the clutch and gear shift while looking forward to the smooth downshift AND clutch longevity granted by perfected rev-matching. The experience, in those situations, is that I still have complete control and there's no actual control lost by the computer rev-matching for me (I'd be trying to do the same thing it's doing, just not doing it as well or quickly. Like ABS actually.)

[ybbiz34]

Originally Posted by Boss330

What time was that?

I can't remember any official statements or hints from BMW about 300lbs lighter....???

I think he (the poster you quoted) might've been conflating the initial 3,300-lb DIN weight with the anticipated weight savings of the F82 over the E92.

"BMW M4 Coupe features DIN curb weight of 1,497 kilograms (3300 pounds), around 80 kilograms (176 pounds) lighter than a comparably equipped predecessor model."

http://f80.bimmerpost.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=923203

Regardless, we've established that the DIN curb weight doesn't mean much for the States (at least based off the answers from the interview this thread is based upon).

[bob330i]

Originally Posted by CanAutM3

I am guessing both will be offered as they are both already mentioned in the Canadian ordering guide. The interviewee most likely made a slip of the tongue.

oooo, I just looked at some images of Tanzanite Blue. Me likey.

[CanAutM3]

Originally Posted by solstice

I agree that bundling auto blipping with the throttle mapping modes is a bad idea and it should be a separate switch, maybe a botton on the shifter even to have a logic placement.

However I disagree with that the auto blipping is a cause to select the DCT over the MT. I grew up with MTs, there was nothing else in Sweden at the time, everyone drove MTs even taxis and public service cars. It was pretty much only handicap equipped cars that had autos and maybe ambulances. Rev. matching is second nature wether I drive a car or is riding a motorcycle but to me it's not as big of a deal, it doesn't really add much to the ability to control the car. The third pedal is the key for me and I'm actually looking forward to de-learn blipping and let the computer take care of that part. See, not all MT owners are against progress where it makes sense, maybe I'm just getting old

There might be a technical reason they chose this particular setup. Maybe the throttle response is simply too sluggish in "Efficient" and "Sport" modes for effective human induced blipping. Just speculating here...

[solstice]

Originally Posted by CanAutM3

There might be a technical reason they chose this particular setup. Maybe the throttle response is simply too sluggish in "Efficient" and "Sport" modes for effective human induced blipping. Just speculating here...

That's not that far fetched since the pre-tensioned turbos only work in sport+. Turbo cars without antilag are definately a bit sluggy and weird in blipping.

[bradleyland]

Originally Posted by CanAutM3

There might be a technical reason they chose this particular setup. Maybe the throttle response is simply too sluggish in "Efficient" and "Sport" modes for effective human induced blipping. Just speculating here...

That sounds like a poor excuse to me. If I could heel-toe rev-match a downshift in my 1995 GTI with the 115 HP 2.0L wheeze-box of an engine, I could reasonably expect to be able to do the same with the S55.

[solstice]

Originally Posted by bradleyland

That sounds like a poor excuse to me. If I could heel-toe rev-match a downshift in my 1995 GTI with the 115 HP 2.0L wheeze-box of an engine, I could reasonably expect to be able to do the same with the S55.

It's not about power but throttle response and linearity. Your 1995 NA four banger is both responsive and linear.
Great car by the way, I had an Mk1 GTI, one of the most fun car I've owned and just 110 hp. But less than 900kg...

[JoeFromPA]

Originally Posted by solstice

That's not that far fetched since the pre-tensioned turbos only work in sport+. .

Um....what? Sorry did I miss this somewhere? This tech is de-activated in comfort and sport?

[solstice]

Originally Posted by JoeFromPA

Um....what? Sorry did I miss this somewhere? This tech is de-activated in comfort and sport?

Sorry it's in Sport and Sport+ when driving agressivily.

"In "Sport" and "Sport Plus" settings, the turbochargers are "pre-tensioned," which means that they keep spinning at a high rate of speed even after you have taken your foot off the throttle. This trick ensures ultra-quick response times fully comparable to those of a naturally aspirated engine. To bring engine revs down, cylinders are deactivated. The system doesn't work for extended time, but it operates under racetrack conditions and whenever the car senses quick bursts of acceleration and deceleration."

[CanAutM3]

Originally Posted by solstice

Great car by the way, I had an Mk1 GTI, one of the most fun car I've owned and just 110 hp. But less than 900kg...

I am with you, those were great cars

My last GTI was a Mk2 with a modified 16V engine stroked to 2.1L. It put down 188whp at 8600RPM and it weighed just under 1000kg . God, I loved this car .

[solstice]

Originally Posted by CanAutM3

I am with you, those were great cars

My last GTI was a Mk2 with a modified 16V engine stroked to 2.1L. It put down 188whp at 8600RPM and it weighed just under 1000kg . God, I loved this car .

Nice!!!
Such engaging, communicative and agile cars. Stiff suspension, nice crisp gearbox, great supportive seats and rev happy little engines. Very good driver position with superb view all around. Great cars.

[bradleyland]

Originally Posted by solstice

It's not about power but throttle response and linearity. Your 1995 NA four banger is both responsive and linear.
Great car by the way, I had an Mk1 GTI, one of the most fun car I've owned and just 110 hp. But less than 900kg...

I loved my GTI's, but the 2.0L 8V revved like a tractor (and was just as reliable, ha!). You could mat the pedal, take a sip of your Slurpee, and have brain freeze before it hit redline I just don't buy the excuse that the S55 has such poor throttle response that one shouldn't be expect to be able to do it manually.

Without question, the computer is going to do a better job rev-matching for 99% of us. I love to toy around with it, but I'm no Stig Blomqvist. Still, rev-matched downshifts is something I do for fun. I'd really like the ability to handle it myself, regardless of throttle mapping.

[solstice]

Originally Posted by bradleyland

I loved my GTI's, but the 2.0L 8V revved like a tractor (and was just as reliable, ha!). You could mat the pedal, take a sip of your Slurpee, and have brain freeze before it hit redline I just don't buy the excuse that the S55 has such poor throttle response that one shouldn't be expect to be able to do it manually.

Without question, the computer is going to do a better job rev-matching for 99% of us. I love to toy around with it, but I'm no Stig Blomqvist. Still, rev-matched downshifts is something I do for fun. I'd really like the ability to handle it myself, regardless of throttle mapping.

Stig Blomqvist! Who outside of the nordic countries know about him other than if you owned an Audi Quattro, the real one, impressive. My dad raced him a few times in rallye cross competitions, Per Eklund as well Got beaten badly. I've watched Stig several times in hill competitions. They don't make drivers like that anymore, I remember him with smoke coming out of his ears talking about having barely enough speed to turn the car when he got team orders to stay behind Hannu Mikkola trashing through the forest at 200 km/h or when he drove a Benz 450SL in the safari rallye. Good times.

I don't think you can't rev. match. Obvisouly you can but it could feel a bit clumsy like turbo cars without antilag tend to do.

[Carl L]

Originally Posted by solstice

I'd be very positively surprised if I get 20 mpg combined taken that I got 18 mpg from my N54 car. Very similar engine with 130 hp less, power doesn't come for free. I'm expecting similar mpg as my E90 M3 ( 15.5 mpg ), likely one to two mpg better anything above that is a bonus unless I'm cruising on the hwy where it should return around 30 mpg on cruise control.

That logic is totally flawed. So many of the latest engines produce FAR more power than equally sized older ones and yet return much better economy.

It'll do better than 18mpg combined unless you permanently drive like a hooligan.

[Carl L]

Originally Posted by camber

So basically a CSL is a given.

I'll wait.

Good luck with that given that neither the CSL nor GTS came to the US. Waiting For Godot may be worth a read....

[solstice]

Originally Posted by Carl L

That logic is totally flawed. So many of the latest engines produce FAR more power than equally sized older ones and yet return much better economy.

It'll do better than 18mpg combined unless you permanently drive like a hooligan.

We'll see how flawed it is when we receive our cars and start commuting with them. I hope you are right but can't say I'm optimistic. As usual mpg figures will vary wildly between posters. I'll trust it when I see mine.

[bradleyland]

Originally Posted by solstice

We'll see how flawed it is when we receive our cars and start commuting with them. I hope you are right but can't say I'm optimistic. As usual mpg figures will vary wildly between posters. I'll trust it when I see mine.

Turbocharged engines are particularly susceptible to these variations, because they're effectively variable displacement engines. The EPA cycles are driven by testers who drive rather conservatively. They have acceleration/deceleration targets that are geared toward your average car, so when they drive performance oriented, turbocharged cars, they don't hit boost. Contrast that to your typical M3 owner who bought the car for a reason.

When I had my 135i, I could get 24 MPG, or I could get 18 MPG. It was entirely up to how I treated the go-pedal.

[mkoesel]

Originally Posted by RPiM5

Azurite Blue is a new color. Unless it was a typo and they meant Azurite Black.

I think it was indeed an error (not necessarily a typo). It should be Tanzanite Blue or Azurite Black as seen in the German catalog:

http://www.bmw.de/dam/brandBM/market...2975025706.pdf

Citrin Black, however, is not mentioned in this catalog, so it's not clear if that will replace one of the above two in our market or if that too is an error in the report.

Note that the Frozen color options are also named in this catalog. We've seen the Frozen Red and Frozen Brilliant white on test cars, and perhaps the black too.

Originally Posted by CanAutM3

There might be a technical reason they chose this particular setup. Maybe the throttle response is simply too sluggish in "Efficient" and "Sport" modes for effective human induced blipping. Just speculating here...

I was thinking about it differently. Maybe the complexity of programming the ECU to allow both you to enable/disable the automatic rev matching in any throttle mode is what ruled it out. That would be six different combinations to test instead of three and perhaps they just had to settle on drawing the line somewhere.

I guess we'll find out soon enough if the aftermarket can fix this. I'm not sure if coders have attacked this yet for the M5/M6. Given the 6MT take rate for those cars, I'd guess no. For the M3/M4 it should get more investigation.

[Goat Rodeo]

Originally Posted by ake

That might also be my thought. My dealer will tell me I'm crazy putting it off, then on, and now maybe off again. Especially unlikely is if it starts in comfort mode all the time and that cannot be changed by default.

Don't do this. It was the same story with the E9X, where I was told it was the same as "Normal" mode without EDC. I had a 2011 w/o EDC and a 2013 w/ EDC... the difference was night and day.. 2013 w/ EDC is so much more comfortable day to day but handles just as well. The difference is EDC adjusts the suspension thousands of times per second. I rarely switch modes - but the lack of impacts from the road is so nice.

[Carl L]

Originally Posted by solstice

We'll see how flawed it is when we receive our cars and start commuting with them. I hope you are right but can't say I'm optimistic. As usual mpg figures will vary wildly between posters. I'll trust it when I see mine.

I definitely agree that the proof is in the pudding with regards to the F8x fuel consumption.

However, your logic will remain flawed as it's based on a belief that "more power in a newer but very similar engine = more fuel used". Just about every car released in recent years disproves this. A prime example from BMW themselves would be the 3 liter liter twin turbo diesel which uses the same block but has gone from 35mpg to 45 mpg in Europe despite weight increasing by 300lbs and power going up by c.50 bhp and 50 lb/ft. (sorry to be that guy )

I *hope* BMW manage better MPG than what is being circulated as the current range of our E9xs is pathetic.