Ricracing

Here's the linki to Autocars first drive article.

"Harsh ride with 18"wheels..."

colejl

Runflats?

BetterMakeWay

Ok...nice article, now there were 2 lines that poped into my eyes:

The thing that crosses my mind is the fact that i wonder how much of a key role does the turbo setup plays in that touch of breathless over the last 200rpm. And by that they mean 200rpm before the redline right? I'm wondering because i knew that in a NA engine (3000cc unit) the power delivery was indeed linear but still holding tight even at the redline. So you see where i'm aiming? Could the turbo setup be the reason for exactly that lack of uuumpf at the very high end of the rev band? My hunch it's yes. Because the turbos pretty much stop working at that rev range, or you're off the boost as they say....What do you think?

and...

So this is another review of the AS right? If they refere to AS (internal active rack) then i must say that it's worring...why? Because when i test drove the E60 a year ago or so, before ordering, i hated AS, pretty much sustaining the well known critics (less feel, jurkiness, and so on....) and then after my car arrived with standard servotronic i was more than happy. After a while the d-bates on the forum on AS, took another turn, that the newer cars fitted with AS are so much better than the prevoius models, or the cars that are chip updated (wich i hezitate to show my opinion on this , not wanting to start another hot topic). But if the latest 3 seeries coupe, a car designed to be more sporty than our E60s, doesn't get the ultra better new AS, then what's the deal here? Or simply all journalists and test drivers are all plain stupid that can't get aquainted with this "high-tech" system?!

colejl

I think AS is treated like iDrive. Like most things it takes more than a 2 hour test drive to get used to things... AS takes a few weeks to adapt to and to fully appreciate...

BetterMakeWay

Well...that won't do for me...really. If i swap to a petrol engine bmw i want it to sky high rev it...i don't want the hard pitch at the end of the rev-range near red line...i'm fed up with that already in my diesel. I want the power chart to look like ca continuous climb with the slightest pitch at the end (wich is normal at any engines).So...i'm still not moved by the stain in the white sheet that bmw has caused with this turbo petrol engine. For sure it can and will be tweaked up to even grater performance 360+bhp easily, but remember imo the harder you tweak it (easy mods, not heavy ones involving intercoolers or new turbos or whatever) the more feelable will be that pitch at the end of the rev band. I still consider it just a marketing move from bmw.

In 2 hours most of the men that can programe their own tv and know a thing or 2 about computers will pretty much learn almost all about idrive (ALMOST). AS is not treated like idrive for that matter since any proffesional racing driver can adapt way more quickly than the average driver...being a matter of minutes to adapt. The same people that tested the M steering system present on the M5 tests also the AS system on non-M cars. They have pretty much the same time to addapt and pretty much the same conditions to draw a conclusion.