As if the turbos werent bad enough.....All hope is lost for BMW and ///M : http://www.bmwblog.com/2011/09/23/ac...nto-the-cabin/

 

No where in that article does it say they are "faking" the sound of the V-8, on the contrary, they are reproducing the sound of the V-8 in the cabin because the car is so well sound proofed. They are actually making it less obnoxious to the outside world, I don't see the problem.
Let's face it the S85 bone stock sounds pretty tame too, it's no until you add on the RPI gear that the true beast emerges. All car companies (including BMW and their M division) need to comply with noise laws around the world, the result is a tamer sounding M car.

 

I dont think that is the case. I believe it says, and a journalist proved it in an Automobile magazine article, the exhaust sound is a soundtrack played through the cars sound system. That = fake tune and not and ///M.

When the journalist unplugged the subwoofer, he found that the exhaust sound virtually disappeared, it had nothing to do with sound proofing, but the lack of any sound at all. And while the e60 got a more tamer tune with the S85 and some wanted to make it louder visa-vie the RPI setup, this is not the case on the M6 which is much more agressive and needs no such work. Im reminded of this daily as anyone can clearly hear me coming way before I emerge.

It has nothing to do with being a good citizen, this has to do with the fact that M does not have the expertise to build turbo cars and offer them to compete with its own former NA cars. Is it now the case that an M5 should sound muted to the world too while offering insane power? The aural experience is as much a part of a super saloon, GT or exotic car as any other attribute is, and this is an unbelievable let down. Just check out the M5 board to see the reactions of that crew. I dont think we'll be seeing, errr, hearing that Maserati or Porsche or Ferrari doing such to meet any noise standards, its just plain gimicky nonsense from a company that has lost its focus on Performance and Motorsport in favor of Green madness and luxury focus as the F10 non-m clearly exemplifies.

 

Fake M5? Read this:
"Quote: It's a shame the V10 had to go. We're unlikely to see an engine like that again. But the new 2012 BMW M5 is more than just a great engine, it's a better overall sport sedan."
http://www.insideline.com/bmw/m5/201...rst-drive.html

 

"The system?s digital signal processing exchanges data directly with the engine management, allowing it to reflect the engine?s revs and torque, and the car?s speed over the road. The result over a smoothly driven journey is a discreet soundtrack in keeping with the harmonious and assured characteristics of the V8 powerplant. A stamp on the accelerator, meanwhile, prompts an immediate audible response to match the instantaneous ? and typically M ? burst of power from beneath the bonnet."

While I agree you will not see manufacturers like Porsche, Maserati, Ferrari matching BMW in it's noise level commitment there is a reason for this. They are low volume car makers that for the most part don't have to meet the same stringent requirements as higher volume car makers such as BMW, VW, Mercedes, etc. Aside from CAFE standards (which Ferrari and Maserati get around by being owned by FIAT and Porsche gets around by having VW and Audi in their stable) they don't have to meet the same requirements allowing them to "play" a little more.

Bottom line, regardless what the M5Board or anywhere else complaints are: "times they are a changin'" and people will have to get used to it. I am sure if there were forums in the early '70s there would have been an equal uproar from the death toll of the muscle cars. What people seem to forget was just how shitty muscle cars really were, they couldn't turn, they got crappy gas mileage, and they were built (in typical union way) shitty.

 

BTW, I am in no way implying that the E6X M5 and M6 were not special cars, they are, they will be remembered as icons - the end of a VERY illustrious era in motoring. And definitely a benchmark of REAL F1 technology making it into a street car (the S85 was F1 derived). Heck, I still love the E39 M5, fantastic car, fantastic engine (as evidenced by Turner motorsports using the M5's V-8 in their current M6 race car)

 

And read the 20 other articles out, yes they all pann the new M5 as a great car, but they nearly all say that its lost what made it special, its just a different type of car for a different client, and it has alienated its core constituency. The only reason to buy an M, imho, is for the engine!! 90% of the rest of the car is the same as the non-M, save some luxury items and additonal bs here and there, its the heart of the M that made all of us want one. For me, and I suspent many others, this negates the entire history of M, you can now get an AMG made by BMW, big wow :thumbsdown:

http://www.automobilemag.com/reviews..._m5/index.html

"The biggest disappointment with the M5 is turbo lag. Yeah, yeah, how typical that I'm complaining about a turbocharged M5. Actually, I'm not complaining about the fact that the M5 wears turbos: I'm complaining that the S63TU engine has so much more lag than the non-Valvetronic S63 did. In that silly X6M (and the slightly less silly X5M), the turbos were among the most responsive I've ever experienced. Not so in the M5 - the lag is significant enough that you have to drive around it."

 

I do enjoy our oppositons so dont take it as anything other than jovial banter, but I think you need to realize that there are no different rules for any automaker. Actually, Ferrari has already stated that its replacement for the Enzo will be a twinturbo powered car, but I can assure you that they will not be piping engine sound into the vehicle to make you think you are driving a non-turbo Ferrari. They have to meet every standard that BMW has to, and remember, BMW also has Mini and i which will help them meet alot of standards. The M5 and M6 are such a tiny fraction of the annual cars they produce that they have almost no impact on overall compliance. I trully believe this is BMW just trying to outsmart themselves, thinking they're doing something good with technology when its opposite to what the market wants or demands. I agree old muscle cars were crappy in most ways and not looking to go back towards that timeframe, but hell, there aint a damn thing wrong with the E60 M5 or the E63 M6 that made them have to go FI with the twinturbos and all the problems they've made for themselves and apathy they are introducing into their core constituents. And the really really funny thing about the new engine is, if you read the Automobile article, you find that the journalist that tested the car in real world situations returned a fuel economy of 10.8mpg! That right, you can read it on line to anyone that believed the car was going to give them 28mpg which was the reason for the switch to FI...I can get 9.8-10.8 on avg in the S85 all day long without all this technocrap....so you have to ask yourself at the end of the day, why oh why did they do this???? I wish I knew...

I know you're not, I actually wished you did own one, you would really, really see things differently and may be as adament as I am at the wrongful actions taken by BMW and M to destroy a legend for no real reason at all.

 

Man, what a bucket full of S_ _ T. Sorry, kids about the language. I am floored that BMW has to use a sound system to reproduce an exhaust note. That will distort my MUSIC. And the fact that my music system affect an exhaust note, that is completely insane. Maybe I have the option in I-drive to say,"Sound like a Lambo" "Sound like a Ferrari" "Sound like a Ricer" "Sound like a Bugatti." This is a complete joke.

Clearly, BMW fired their muffler tuning department. :thumbsdown:

I would think that with FI engines, you might have to use the sound system to create noise canceling to quiet done the exhaust note inside the cabin and not the other way around. Somebody at BMW is sitting on their finger.

Regarding the turbo lag, I'll have to drive it to see. The jury is still out on that.

 

Possibly so, I have driven them, DBae's was a BEAST!!!! No doubt. Time will tell if it is a wrong decision by BMW. I don't think they (or we) should judge it fully on this model, there will be improvements and I am certain the LCI F10 M5 will be the real "supercar killer"