Well, everyone knows already, I own a new 2015 m3. This is the first car ive ever owned that is brand new, and I can finally say I realize why people buy new now. It's a very good feeling to have a car optioned 100% the way you want it, and I think this is part of the reason I like the car so much.
Ill break this down into some quick reviews of the main categories, and then a small write up of my overall impressions over my first 1300 miles. I did do PCD and while its a pretty tame driving experience, it was a lot of fun and was very very well done, and the people working there were amazing to deal with. I would recommend it to anyone doing US delivery.
Handling / Steering
The star of the show, amazing. Immediate impressions are that the car is very very stiff, yet very controlled at the same time. I am a big believer in the new active suspension systems, and think that this is why BMW was able to make the car so stiff and still ride very well. The chassis is stiff as hell, and is a huge change from the e9x, which was very solid and stiff in its own right. The shocks keep the body movement laterally and vertically completely in check, its almost surreal feeling at first.
It gives you a ton of confidence, and the level of grip is tremendous. I am able to take a couple of big sweeping on ramps very quickly and the car feels like it isn't even trying. Turn in is excellent, and the car has undetectable amounts of understeer in normal situations. On the limit, im sure you can get it to understeer, and I will have a better feel for this when I take it to the track this weekend.
The steering IMO is excellent. It's not super busy or active like a 997, which is different if you are used to that sort of thing. It is very very accurate and evenly weighted, which is important to me. I do not like variable assist steering, and so this steering is very good for me. Its easy to put the car where you want it, and as ive been able to get the car to slide just a little, to me its easy to feel when the car is going to break away a little. I find no issues with the steering, but I suppose it could have a little more road feel, but that's just nitpicking.
Power / engine
Awesome. Different than the n54 and the s65, sort of a hybrid between the two. Not as much of a rubber band feeling as the n54, which hit you with an early wave of torque which you just rode to redline. The fun was early, and didn't go away, but didn't build either. The s65 was nice to rev to redline in very low gears, but to me it ran out of breath early, it just didn't have the juice to be in such a heavy car.
This engine has a much more linear feel than the n54, and in some ways at lower RPM more linear feel than the s65 as it builds quickly and continues to build through the midrange to around 6000 RPM. At that point its hard to really tell how the engine feels because the car is so quick all im thinking about is making sure I shift before I over-rev the car haha. But overall, less gob smacking torque at low RPM than the n54, but simply a monster that continues to build to a powerhouse at the upper midrange which is really where I spend most of my time driving it on the street. Perfect blend of torque and linear power IMO. Its also very fast, and faster than my FBO 1M and way faster than my e9x m3 dct.
Sound is very good from inside the car, both the exhaust and intake noise. The exhaust and intake is much louder than the e9x in stock form. The car sounds good from the outside, but not great. Not as good as the e9x does. But inside matters more to me, and I like the added volume of the exhaust. The negatives include the cold start sounding shitty (about 15 secs) and the fact that the car sounds a little raspy when cold. Overall, its less of a refined sound than the e9x and more racy and unconstrained, which I like.
Transmission
Excellent. very easy to drive smoothly, despite a light clutch. not as light and springy as the e9x, which I found annoying to drive at lower speeds as the revs drop extremely quickly. The rev matching feature is pretty damn amazing, its perfect every single time. I am not ashamed to say I will be trying this on the track, and seeing how I like it. 6mt ftw, and makes it fun to drive.
Interior / Exterior
Both are very good. The interior exceeded my expectations by a fair margin. The full leather is excellent, and gives the car a very expensive feel. The constrast stitching etc really adds to the feel. The CF trim also looks awesome, while the aluminum trim IMO looks like shit.
The exterior looks great, and looks better in person than in pics. Im glad I went with mineral white, as the color has a ton of depth and shows the lines really well.
Tech
The sound system is OK, not great, not bad, but OK. The I-drive system is great, but there are some annoyances. The way the car streams music is irritating, and is not well designed imo. Its still a bit of a ***** to use the Idrive when driving to me, and I don't really like the way that you change radio stations. But, first world problems for sure.
Overall
Loving it. Ton of space, doesn't feel heavy, very fun to drive and very luxurious. Couldn't have designed a DD sedan with track time mixed in any better IMO. Gas mileage has been great so far, and I love the engine and feel the car is very balanced. As big of a change in power the engine is, the chassis and brakes are equally improved. I didn't include a section on the brakes because I haven't tested them for realz yet on the track. Coming soon.
What's next?
A new set of forged CSL style concave wheels in wider widths so I can run some wider tires. PLUS, a video of an upcoming track day including a few friends. On track will be two gt3, my f80, an e46 m3 track build and two e46 m3 track cars.
Thanks for reading, and will link pics in a sec.
Ill break this down into some quick reviews of the main categories, and then a small write up of my overall impressions over my first 1300 miles. I did do PCD and while its a pretty tame driving experience, it was a lot of fun and was very very well done, and the people working there were amazing to deal with. I would recommend it to anyone doing US delivery.
Handling / Steering
The star of the show, amazing. Immediate impressions are that the car is very very stiff, yet very controlled at the same time. I am a big believer in the new active suspension systems, and think that this is why BMW was able to make the car so stiff and still ride very well. The chassis is stiff as hell, and is a huge change from the e9x, which was very solid and stiff in its own right. The shocks keep the body movement laterally and vertically completely in check, its almost surreal feeling at first.
It gives you a ton of confidence, and the level of grip is tremendous. I am able to take a couple of big sweeping on ramps very quickly and the car feels like it isn't even trying. Turn in is excellent, and the car has undetectable amounts of understeer in normal situations. On the limit, im sure you can get it to understeer, and I will have a better feel for this when I take it to the track this weekend.
The steering IMO is excellent. It's not super busy or active like a 997, which is different if you are used to that sort of thing. It is very very accurate and evenly weighted, which is important to me. I do not like variable assist steering, and so this steering is very good for me. Its easy to put the car where you want it, and as ive been able to get the car to slide just a little, to me its easy to feel when the car is going to break away a little. I find no issues with the steering, but I suppose it could have a little more road feel, but that's just nitpicking.
Power / engine
Awesome. Different than the n54 and the s65, sort of a hybrid between the two. Not as much of a rubber band feeling as the n54, which hit you with an early wave of torque which you just rode to redline. The fun was early, and didn't go away, but didn't build either. The s65 was nice to rev to redline in very low gears, but to me it ran out of breath early, it just didn't have the juice to be in such a heavy car.
This engine has a much more linear feel than the n54, and in some ways at lower RPM more linear feel than the s65 as it builds quickly and continues to build through the midrange to around 6000 RPM. At that point its hard to really tell how the engine feels because the car is so quick all im thinking about is making sure I shift before I over-rev the car haha. But overall, less gob smacking torque at low RPM than the n54, but simply a monster that continues to build to a powerhouse at the upper midrange which is really where I spend most of my time driving it on the street. Perfect blend of torque and linear power IMO. Its also very fast, and faster than my FBO 1M and way faster than my e9x m3 dct.
Sound is very good from inside the car, both the exhaust and intake noise. The exhaust and intake is much louder than the e9x in stock form. The car sounds good from the outside, but not great. Not as good as the e9x does. But inside matters more to me, and I like the added volume of the exhaust. The negatives include the cold start sounding shitty (about 15 secs) and the fact that the car sounds a little raspy when cold. Overall, its less of a refined sound than the e9x and more racy and unconstrained, which I like.
Transmission
Excellent. very easy to drive smoothly, despite a light clutch. not as light and springy as the e9x, which I found annoying to drive at lower speeds as the revs drop extremely quickly. The rev matching feature is pretty damn amazing, its perfect every single time. I am not ashamed to say I will be trying this on the track, and seeing how I like it. 6mt ftw, and makes it fun to drive.
Interior / Exterior
Both are very good. The interior exceeded my expectations by a fair margin. The full leather is excellent, and gives the car a very expensive feel. The constrast stitching etc really adds to the feel. The CF trim also looks awesome, while the aluminum trim IMO looks like shit.
The exterior looks great, and looks better in person than in pics. Im glad I went with mineral white, as the color has a ton of depth and shows the lines really well.
Tech
The sound system is OK, not great, not bad, but OK. The I-drive system is great, but there are some annoyances. The way the car streams music is irritating, and is not well designed imo. Its still a bit of a ***** to use the Idrive when driving to me, and I don't really like the way that you change radio stations. But, first world problems for sure.
Overall
Loving it. Ton of space, doesn't feel heavy, very fun to drive and very luxurious. Couldn't have designed a DD sedan with track time mixed in any better IMO. Gas mileage has been great so far, and I love the engine and feel the car is very balanced. As big of a change in power the engine is, the chassis and brakes are equally improved. I didn't include a section on the brakes because I haven't tested them for realz yet on the track. Coming soon.
What's next?
A new set of forged CSL style concave wheels in wider widths so I can run some wider tires. PLUS, a video of an upcoming track day including a few friends. On track will be two gt3, my f80, an e46 m3 track build and two e46 m3 track cars.
Thanks for reading, and will link pics in a sec.
Aucun commentaire:
Enregistrer un commentaire