<...continued>
I'd wasted almost two hours going back and forth from the main dealer so I was keen to head out onto some of the best local driving roads in the Yorkshire Dales. The weather was also superb!
So...what about the car. The first thing that struck me was the quality of the ride - it really is very good! It's completely customisable in that you can select one of 3 modes for suspension, steering, throttle mapping and gearbox and then save them to the M1 M2 or M3 setting for quick recall. I actually found the Comfort was by far the best for the suspension; it was still firm enough for non-track work and was really compliant over the bumpy stuff. I spent most of the time with the other settings in their most aggressive mode.
The second thing that struck me was how good the brakes are. I mean really, really good. Absolute massive power but with awesome feel and feedback. I couldn't get them to fade no matter what I threw at them. Probably the highlight of the car for me.
That may give you the impression that the rest of the package was a little underwhelming.... and unfortunately it was. Don't get me wrong, 444bhp and 406ftlb is never going to be boring but combined with what must be the pinnacle of DCT development, it just left me feeling a bit disconnected from the driving experience. It was like the whole drive train had a big gooey piece of elastic in the middle of it. Like the only thrill you could really get from it was going really fast but that soon becomes pretty tiring both in terms of concentration and NVH. I tried various combinations of settings but none really solved the fundamental problem for me which was not having a manual stick to stir.
Not to be dissuaded I did over 250 miles in total and averaged 11.2mpg
. I did find on occasion that the performance was a little inconsistent. Every now and again, full throttle through second and third just felt ballistically quick - then 4th gear hooked up just perfectly and it felt EVEN FASTER!!! Almost face bendingly fast.... but somehow also a bit sterile in it's delivery (and in the noise it made). Other times, it would feel like perhaps the ECU was dialing back the power quite substantially. Could be a number of reasons for it but I wasn't seeing any traction control lights flashing.
Overall, the time I had with the car did give me a really great insight into it. Would I pay £60k for one? No way. Would I have DCT? No way. I actually think the manual would be a totally different experience...and surely one for the better.
But in any case... thank you BMW...it was a blast!
I'd wasted almost two hours going back and forth from the main dealer so I was keen to head out onto some of the best local driving roads in the Yorkshire Dales. The weather was also superb!
So...what about the car. The first thing that struck me was the quality of the ride - it really is very good! It's completely customisable in that you can select one of 3 modes for suspension, steering, throttle mapping and gearbox and then save them to the M1 M2 or M3 setting for quick recall. I actually found the Comfort was by far the best for the suspension; it was still firm enough for non-track work and was really compliant over the bumpy stuff. I spent most of the time with the other settings in their most aggressive mode.
The second thing that struck me was how good the brakes are. I mean really, really good. Absolute massive power but with awesome feel and feedback. I couldn't get them to fade no matter what I threw at them. Probably the highlight of the car for me.
That may give you the impression that the rest of the package was a little underwhelming.... and unfortunately it was. Don't get me wrong, 444bhp and 406ftlb is never going to be boring but combined with what must be the pinnacle of DCT development, it just left me feeling a bit disconnected from the driving experience. It was like the whole drive train had a big gooey piece of elastic in the middle of it. Like the only thrill you could really get from it was going really fast but that soon becomes pretty tiring both in terms of concentration and NVH. I tried various combinations of settings but none really solved the fundamental problem for me which was not having a manual stick to stir.
Not to be dissuaded I did over 250 miles in total and averaged 11.2mpg
. I did find on occasion that the performance was a little inconsistent. Every now and again, full throttle through second and third just felt ballistically quick - then 4th gear hooked up just perfectly and it felt EVEN FASTER!!! Almost face bendingly fast.... but somehow also a bit sterile in it's delivery (and in the noise it made). Other times, it would feel like perhaps the ECU was dialing back the power quite substantially. Could be a number of reasons for it but I wasn't seeing any traction control lights flashing. Overall, the time I had with the car did give me a really great insight into it. Would I pay £60k for one? No way. Would I have DCT? No way. I actually think the manual would be a totally different experience...and surely one for the better.
But in any case... thank you BMW...it was a blast!
North West Surrey
