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Originally Posted by bm323
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Are you saying that a steering can't be communicative unless driven at the limit on a track?
Then I would say that this would be a very undesireable steering concept. Development engineers for a car like the M3/4 want to create a steering system that communicates with the driver under normal driving as well as on track. A communicative steering is probably the most important thing for a driver to be able to enjoy driving a car. If you haven't, try driving a Lotus or a car with a purely mechanical steering system and you will most likely start to appreciate how much steering feel and communication can do to enhance the sense of driving, even on a normal drive.
BMW M engineers have also strived to achieve this:
http://f80.bimmerpost.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=960886
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EPS systems can often convey a somewhat synthetic feel, and this is precisely what we did not want. The driver of the BMW M3 or BMW M4 should have a good sense of the nature of the road surface. He wants to be able to feel when he is driving over a drain cover in the road or when the surface material changes. This steering is responsive enough to convey these impressions very clearly – when we began its development, I didn’t expect it to be able to do this to the extent it does.
Similarly, the driver is able to immediately feel any transitional responses in the steering, the moment he enters the marginal zone when the car begins to skid due to over or understeering. This makes it possible to drive the car very precisely at its limit: not only by DRM racing drivers – although Bruno Spengler and Timo Glock are very impressed with the steering.
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PS. The only difference in the links you provided was that they probably agree with your view on the F8x EPS (have you driven the F8x BTW?). Couldn't see that they used the term communicative any differently. They just happened to have a different view on the steering than Solstice. Just like Chris Harris also found the "feel" to be better than in the E92. Things like "feel" and "communicative steering" is a field of engineering where there is a grey line between objective and measureable qualities and subjective opininions (for instance CH liked to have the steering in Comfort, others prefer Sport, that's a area where the subjective opinion of the driver sets them apart). Just like how some like some kinds of food while others really don't. Neither is wrong or right, it's all down to us humans being different.
So, as much as I'd like solstice to say that the steering is great and point him to others saying it is. I can't say the he is wrong, because that's how HE feels.