Z4M coupe v Porsche 911 997.1 C2S comparison.

[buzyg]

It’s very much each to their own preference, but in 13 years I’ve not intentionally driven out of sport mode in any circumstance. I tried non-sport mode when I first bought the car and found the first centimetre of dead travel of the pedal very frustrating for throttle modulation, especially when pulling away gently or during heel-and-toe at normal road speeds. I’m sure that not using sport mode contributes to the “kangarooing” often demonstrated by inexperienced Z4M drivers when pulling away with a cold engine - engaging sport mode gives them a throttle that reacts when pressed and often solves the problem.
At road speeds when decelerating gently, brake pedal travel might be considerably less than a centimetre and braking sustained for reasonably long periods. In such circumstances, progressively shifting down the box using heel-and-toe is unnecessarily difficult with an insensitive throttle. On the track where the brake pedal is depressed much further and for very short periods, and the requested throttle openings are much bigger (using the full rev range of the engine), the insensitive throttle in non-sport mode is much less of an issue for heel-and-toe during aggressive deceleration.
With sport mode engaged, the throttle response to initial pedal application is more akin to a cable-controlled throttle. It allows for predictable and precise throttle modulation throughout the pedal travel, which in turns assists with both gentle and aggressive driving.
Many other BMWs of the early 2000s have the same frustrating throttle map characteristic with very little throttle opening during early pedal travel. It seems to be a consequence of early BMW fly-by-wire throttle design since it is absent from their earlier cars with cable driven throttles and from their later cars with more considered throttle maps.

Edit to add: looking back through this thread, I’ve posted a few times over the years. Each time I’ve said essentially the same thing, so at least I’m consistent even if the throttle response in non-sport mode is not

I appreciate, from past experience, that some need to get every last little bit out of the car. Personally I have still never tried Sport mode, so no idea what I'm missing. The car, as is, suits my bimbling around just fine. Life has moved on, since I used to race Karts. Over Ten years now since I was on a track in any thing and you really don't need sport mode on the road, if you have adapted your driving to the standard map. It's pointless IMHO

[TomK]

With sport mode engaged, the throttle response to initial pedal application is more akin to a cable-controlled throttle. It allows for predictable and precise throttle modulation throughout the pedal travel, which in turns assists with both gentle and aggressive driving.
Many other BMWs of the early 2000s have the same frustrating throttle map characteristic with very little throttle opening during early pedal travel. It seems to be a consequence of early BMW fly-by-wire throttle design since it is absent from their earlier cars with cable driven throttles and from their later cars with more considered throttle maps.

It's funny we both spend most of our time on track with this car yet have the polar view! As I mentioned a few years ago the non sport map of the e46m3 was awful imo with a large dead spot at the beginning of the travel, the Z4M I don't find it like that at all, and I find the sport mode too aggressive. It's a personal thing clearly!

Hopefully our friend Martyn will get the MSS70 ecuworx tool out soon enough and then we can all play with the map on a graph to our hearts content . My line will be linear I think!