Well he could have smoked him in one of two reasons....1. it was a debadged 320 which he may have knew....2. It was a road with a bunch of turns:-D....those beasts can only run straight give them turns and they cant handle them...its like a drunk Porsche making turns

 

Oh yes coming out of a turn it is easy to break the rear end loose, but its not easy to do so from a straight line from a dead stop. I am just experimenting with a just broken in engine, not that I would want to smoke the tires often. Also are you guys saying it is hard on the drivetrain when I spin the wheels or just when ever I accelerate too aggressively?

 

I tried launch control on my 530 once, and only once. I was on a newly paved road and the tires sounded like I was using a hot cattle brand on a kitten...The noise almost caused me to stain my shorts. From my experience, you can easily light them up on a 530.

 

Aggressive acceleration is not the problem, it is the hard fast shocks - like when the tires start to break, then the traction control takes over, then the wheels grab, then it accelerates again - that overtime will cause more wear. I have a 545i 6 speed manual - so breaking the tires loose is not a problem, if I want to. In fact, you may be better off having some slippage instead of the hard pop on the drivetrain when the tires do grab. On the 545 manuals they put in a clutch delay valve to minimize the shock on the drivetrain if you do inadvertantly pop the clutch without enouph foot to break loose. I think it does more harm than good and is definately annoying for most driving conditions.

Call me conservative, but the car is just too tight and too expensive to go around smoking the rear - if you want to do this, get a cheap Mustang.

I take advantage of the acceleration and the occasional chirp between 1 & 2, but try to avoid the real hard strains.

One thing I wish BMW would allow is to turn off traction control without all of the DSC functions. Unless I am in the rain, I hate when the traction does kick in - just way too much jerking.

 

I tried launch control on my 530 once, and only once. I was on a newly paved road and the tires sounded like I was using a hot cattle brand on a kitten...The noise almost caused me to stain my shorts. From my experience, you can easily light them up on a 530.
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I thought launch control only comes with the M5. Is it on the 545i? I only know of DS mode and the mode where you manually move the shifter forward and backwards while in DS mode

 

With SMG

 

I believe launch control comes on all SMG equipped 5 series cars. It's on my US Spec SMG 530.

 

nicely said ...

thats why so many HIGH powered cars snap axles, or drive shafts ...

alot of times on AWD cars, you're better off launching REAL high revs, than lower ... yes its more wear on your clutch, however if you can get the tires to spin a little bit in an AWD application its easier on the entire drivetrain.

I used to have to launch my quattro audi @ about 5000 RPM to get it to go, otherwise it would bog down due to the traction - which in turn WILL snap the axle, or driveshaft if the power level is high enough.

 

I complained about not getting even a chirp out of my 530 steptronic wheels. Now I hear it's possible with smg. Is it the transmission that limits me? Is this behavior common to all cars like mine or 525 or 520 ?
I am past break in with the car nearly a year old and just got service.

 

mine is a 530i w/ steptronic ...

1. using 93 Octane?

I'm not sure how many people look around & dyno their cars .. probably not too many here, however sometimes you can get an awesomely strong engine, and sometimes you will get a rather weak engine ...

since the steptronic also adjusts to your driving style, it may just be that .... it may also be your tires, have some nice & sticky tires? wide tires? heavy rims?