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Another go in M's sacred cow, this time the self-shifter.
Car & Driver
October 2014
By: K.C. Kolwell
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Mick famously preaches that you can’t always get what you want, which couldn’t be truer of the new BMW M4—and in more ways than one. We’d hoped to test a model without the $8150 carbon-ceramic brakes and $1000 adaptive dampers because we wanted to see how a more affordable M4 ($70,000 or so) would fare. Unfortunately, that will have to wait: Every single M3/M4 (which isn’t an algebraic way of expressing three-quarters) currently in the BMW press fleet is fitted with the pricey grabbers.
All isn’t lost. We were able to run our gamut of tests on the twin-turbo M4 at our home proving grounds, where this example proved a little quicker, a little grabbier, and a little heavier than the M4 we recently put up against a Porsche 911 down South. The launch-control program bundled with the $2900 dual-clutch automatic transmission is difficult to engage, and if the car isn’t happy with engine or transmission temperatures, it won’t go into hole-shot mode at all. More annoying was that we never could be sure whether the problem was with temperatures or some lapse in following the fussy procedure. At least the transmission responds to commands without delay.
Full article available at link.
Car & Driver
October 2014
By: K.C. Kolwell
Mick famously preaches that you can’t always get what you want, which couldn’t be truer of the new BMW M4—and in more ways than one. We’d hoped to test a model without the $8150 carbon-ceramic brakes and $1000 adaptive dampers because we wanted to see how a more affordable M4 ($70,000 or so) would fare. Unfortunately, that will have to wait: Every single M3/M4 (which isn’t an algebraic way of expressing three-quarters) currently in the BMW press fleet is fitted with the pricey grabbers.
All isn’t lost. We were able to run our gamut of tests on the twin-turbo M4 at our home proving grounds, where this example proved a little quicker, a little grabbier, and a little heavier than the M4 we recently put up against a Porsche 911 down South. The launch-control program bundled with the $2900 dual-clutch automatic transmission is difficult to engage, and if the car isn’t happy with engine or transmission temperatures, it won’t go into hole-shot mode at all. More annoying was that we never could be sure whether the problem was with temperatures or some lapse in following the fussy procedure. At least the transmission responds to commands without delay.
Full article available at link.
