3.0si Manual VS 3.0i Automatic...

[t20lau]

Hey guys and gals...

Me and DannyBoy met up this morning to repair his broken rear spring! All went well but I found it a little hard to do than my si for some reason, the arm didnt seem to want to give way like the si one did! Anyways, all was completed in a couple of hours...

Had a little drive in the i to make sure all was well! Then had a mega picture session to see the difference in ride height (pic's will be up 2moro)...the si is noticable lower (although I have lowered it LOL), the i was obviously more comfortable!!! I'll try get a how to guide up soon so if anyone is wanting to replace their springs they can...

Anyways, once all the tools were away we decided we'd see the difference in performance...

Basically, the auto had the advantage setting off, but the two were quite evenly matched to about 60, mid range the si was stronger! All in all the differnce was marginal!!!

Was nice to meet DannyBoy, had a good day and hope to see him again in future! I'm sure theres going to be plenty of images and maybe vid's up soon!

 

[DannyBoy]

10am on a Sunday morning!!!


Rear off side wheel. The spring upon removal.........




Amazes me BMW have this sort of an issue with springs which really shouldnt happen after 30k.....


The near side spring. We had to cut it with a hacksaw to remove it.


Job done.....


The rest are fairly self explanatory and yes I know the car needs a clean.

I've always wondered about the 231 bhp engine and the new 265bhp variant and the potential difference in performance. Well now we know and I have 2 videos of the cars in action as Tom says. One is a drag up to 100mph the other a rolling start from 40mph to 100mph (both conducted on a private road of course). Some interesting results and I will post them as soon as I can, only problem being the files are 85 meg each and I dont know how to cut them down in size or quality. Can anyone point out some free video editing software? I'll have a play and get them uploaded.

 

[ElegantSpoon]

Will be good to see the videos

Windows has its free movie maker and if you have an apple theres iMovie!

You can always upload them to youtube once your done.

 

[DannyBoy]

Nice one Spoon.

Heres the rolling start from 40 mph to 100mph.

Up to 85 theres nothing in it, afterwhich the 265 starts to pull.....

 

[Wondermike]

Nice vid, thought there might have been more in it than that, very interesting.

PS You can embed your vids here too

[youtube]wXPGPWKAxHY[/youtube]

 

[Zed_Steve]

Nice vid I wouldnt expect there to be too much in it tbh. The si seems to pull away quite nicely in the end.

 

[GP20]

You need to release the e-brake first before you try to take out the spring. Lightly step onto the control arm with your foot and the spring should easily come out without any hassle (especially since it's broken and shortened).

 

[ElegantSpoon]

Nice one Spoon.

Heres the rolling start from 40 mph to 100mph.

Up to 85 theres nothing in it, afterwhich the 265 starts to pull.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXPGPWKAxHY

Still working on the drag from 0 to 100mph.......

No worries

Its a good video, I'm surprised how the Si just suddenly seems to pull away.

 

[DannyBoy]

It didnt to be honest, when I moved the camera to the steering wheel I'd taken my foot of the pedal, hence why Tom seems to fly away all of a sudden. He did pull slowly as we can see to begin but he does have an extra 30 bhp and thats to be expected.

 

[csmith319]

Just wondering how the comparison was done - i.e. what gear was the manual in when you guys floored it. The auto would kick down and essentially give the best performance it could, whilst the manual would need to be in the right gear from the start.

I'm more suprised that it was so even to start with - would I be right that maybe the manual was in a higher gear, therefore had to get into its stride a bit - when it did (and therefore was in the right gear for the speed) it shot off.

I would expect a manual 3.0si to be considerably quicker than an auto 3.0i...

 

[DannyBoy]

The auto is a 5 speed the manual 6. I was in 3rd gear, the box did kick down as you can see at the start but changed straight back up again at 55 whereupon I actually take out a bit of Tom's lead.

I think people conceptions of autos being slow and boring are old hat in this day and age, BMWs autos are going to shift quicker than your average joe. Performance wise, the cars are basically identical till about 75 where the extra grunt of the si comes into play.

Wait till you see the 0-100mph.......

 

[ElegantSpoon]

Wait till you see the 0-100mph.......

Were waiting

 

[cj10jeeper]

Interesting. The Si clearly accelerated first, then was partially caught. As the Si later moved away a glance shows the auto was only pulling some 4000 rpm so had backed right off.

Just goes to show that in real driving the auto is not far off, especially as the Si is newer (so probably in better tune) and has all those extra horses.

 

[GP20]

Which gear was the 3.0Si in when the race started?

 

[DannyBoy]

As promised here is the 0 -100mph drag. Both cars were being floored as you can see from the way in which the 3.0si's nose dips on the upchange.

You may notice the Lotus behind (wing mirror) sadly he wasnt having any of it!

[youtube]y9_2Txwn_JI[/youtube]

Had a good day and was nice to meet Tom. Looking forward to future meets and beating lots more 3.0sis! oke:

Suspension was quite an easy job in the end and hopefully there will soon be a "how to" post so Mr BMW stealer can stick it!

 

[Wondermike]

Just goes to show that in real driving the auto is not far off, especially as the Si is newer (so probably in better tune) and has all those extra horses.

So an Si auto with the 6 speed box would be faster still, now we need to see Si auto vs ///M :fuelfire:

Looking forward to future meets and beating lots more 3.0sis! oke:

:rofl: nice vid

Auto box :winner:

 

[E85]

very interesting!

 

[Smokin]

Autos always seem just to have a very slight lag--even BMW's. It's not much, but I notice it.

Autos will get off the line and through the first couple gears quicker, but by the time you hit 6th with the manual, you've caught up.

Also, were either in sport mode?

 

[csmith319]

Sorry to be contrary - but seriously, I think the best is not being got out of the Si in these two comparisons - no way an auto 3.0i is going to be faster, off the line, in any gear etc.

It may however be more difficult to extract the best out of the manual... but if you're in the right gear and floor it at the same time, the manual will win.

It was pretty obvious in the drag from 0 that the Si's start was completely fluffed.

 

[t20lau]

Been the guy driving the si I have no reason to lie about the results! I'm as suprised as any of you, BUT the truth is the auto box meant the i set of smoother and so picked up first, but as you can see in the vid there's nothing really init off the line!

We did find that mid range the si was quicker and on one strech I would have been able for pass even though the i started off in front...

All in all, I can say the si is quick to a point, but off the line its very tight! But if you look in the book time, theres only 0.5secs between them, not exactly something you can see!

Alot off people expect a 0-60 of 6.2 to be a hell of a difference from 5.7! well I can tell you having raced my Astra VXR against an si, the VXR is only slower setting off as its FWD! But once I tuned my VXR the VXR is no doubt quicker, I was talking to DannyBoy about this yesterday and I miss my VXR simply cause the si "feels" slower, however I must say this is only to 60! I did a sterch of private road in the VXR once and topped out at 80 before having to break! I did the same run in the si and topped at 108! So what ppl need to understand is 0-60 speeds are marginal upto about 1, maybe 2 seconds...BUT when you get over 60 its a different story!