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Red de ijsbeer, koop een M3
Toen ik mijn leaser bestelde had ik mijn eerste M3 net verkocht. De BMW verkoper begreep mijn leed en schreef op de order "inclusief proefrit BMW M3". Het heeft even geduurd, maar die belofte werd onlangs ingelost. Kort na het ritje schreef ik een Deense vriend van me een mailtje met mijn bevindingen. Uiteindelijk is dat een aardig testverslagje geworden. Vertalen doet misschien een beetje afbreuk, dus ik laat het even zo. Einstein, mijn broer, maakte de foto's en Rayban was ook mee, gewoon, voor de leut.
Thursday two weeks ago ended on a high note. You see, my BMW sales friend came through on older promise, in a big way! He rang me shortly before closing the showroom, so I could have what I had longed for the past two years: one hour of e92 M3. I left my desk even swiftlier than usual and Coopered down to the dealership, where a well experienced '07 M3 in Silverstone blue with Novillo leather and no less than 63.000 km on the ODOmeter was waiting for me. Here are my thoughts on the current "baby" ///M.
First off, there's the functional interior with excellent seats and the ugly navi bump in the middle. I'd order mine without: it makes for a much cleaner interior. There are quite a few nice buttons to play with, one of which controls the two stage electronic dampers. The comfort setting is too soft for me, sports is better, hardest is best. It's very easy to drive, courtesy of a super light and friendly clutch. Steeringfeel through the almost overly fat steeringwheel is not the best I've ever sampled, but it does tell the most important things, when you need to know them. On that fat rimmed steering wheel there's the magic "M button" which you can preprogram to the settings you prefer. I propose to relable it to "warbutton".
The engine is a real belter. Torque and power come in trainloads at a time. Too bad the diff is too long to let the engine shine the way it deserves to shine. 3rd reaches over 180 kmh, 4th all the way upto 240 and if you just touch the loud pedal in 5th the Vmax limiter kicks in. A real shame. Also, when I say loud pedal I mean to say the one on the right. Because, unforunately, it's not loud. It needs a waaay louder 'saust system, perhaps with electronic butterflies, so you can engage stealth mode if so desired, but also give the V8 its true voice when you want to let your hair down.
The car does the M party trick really well though: select 3rd, start at 3500 rpm and floor it. It simply sucks in air (probably enough to fill a small swimming pool), some cattle and three passing cars and grinds them into horsepower. At 8300 rpm it stops grinding and you have to choose another gear. Which exposes another let down: the silent rev limiter. No "duh duh duh duh" shot guns firing through the exhaust: it just stops pulling. Select another gear and it does the same trick again, piling on speed like an avelange, devouring whatever stretch of road happens to be in front of you, pulling the horizon closer in no time. This engine truely feels like it could handle a 7th and 8th gear. The inductionnoise is heavenly: low down it creates a deep bassy throb, which evolves into a gigantic slurp at the top of the revrange. I can only imagine what this engine sounds like with the carbon airbox that Zee Zjermans fit to it, which increases capacity by a further 10 litres...!
Then to the handling: that is simply excuisite. You can drive it on the limit, cleanly, VERY fast, with the DSC in M sport mode acting as a safety net. I never encountered any understeer, although I assume that in tighter corners or relatively slow trackwork the 1650 kgs will make itself felt, as will the lack of camber in this factory suspension setting. If you want to hooligan about and paint fat black lines everywhere you go you just switch off the DSC and away you smoke. It really is ridiculously easy to powerslide and drift. This is where you notice that the steering, though light and ever so slightly dead in feel, does communicate, because it's very easy to let your right foot, that angry polarbear under the bonnet, the marvelous 100% variable locking ///M diff and the steeringwheel create the most melodic of all symphonies: a simply intoxicating shot of adrenaline!
This and a GT3. What more could you ever want or need?! So I say: get yourself an M3 and save another polarbear!
Toen ik mijn leaser bestelde had ik mijn eerste M3 net verkocht. De BMW verkoper begreep mijn leed en schreef op de order "inclusief proefrit BMW M3". Het heeft even geduurd, maar die belofte werd onlangs ingelost. Kort na het ritje schreef ik een Deense vriend van me een mailtje met mijn bevindingen. Uiteindelijk is dat een aardig testverslagje geworden. Vertalen doet misschien een beetje afbreuk, dus ik laat het even zo. Einstein, mijn broer, maakte de foto's en Rayban was ook mee, gewoon, voor de leut.
Thursday two weeks ago ended on a high note. You see, my BMW sales friend came through on older promise, in a big way! He rang me shortly before closing the showroom, so I could have what I had longed for the past two years: one hour of e92 M3. I left my desk even swiftlier than usual and Coopered down to the dealership, where a well experienced '07 M3 in Silverstone blue with Novillo leather and no less than 63.000 km on the ODOmeter was waiting for me. Here are my thoughts on the current "baby" ///M.
First off, there's the functional interior with excellent seats and the ugly navi bump in the middle. I'd order mine without: it makes for a much cleaner interior. There are quite a few nice buttons to play with, one of which controls the two stage electronic dampers. The comfort setting is too soft for me, sports is better, hardest is best. It's very easy to drive, courtesy of a super light and friendly clutch. Steeringfeel through the almost overly fat steeringwheel is not the best I've ever sampled, but it does tell the most important things, when you need to know them. On that fat rimmed steering wheel there's the magic "M button" which you can preprogram to the settings you prefer. I propose to relable it to "warbutton".
The engine is a real belter. Torque and power come in trainloads at a time. Too bad the diff is too long to let the engine shine the way it deserves to shine. 3rd reaches over 180 kmh, 4th all the way upto 240 and if you just touch the loud pedal in 5th the Vmax limiter kicks in. A real shame. Also, when I say loud pedal I mean to say the one on the right. Because, unforunately, it's not loud. It needs a waaay louder 'saust system, perhaps with electronic butterflies, so you can engage stealth mode if so desired, but also give the V8 its true voice when you want to let your hair down.
The car does the M party trick really well though: select 3rd, start at 3500 rpm and floor it. It simply sucks in air (probably enough to fill a small swimming pool), some cattle and three passing cars and grinds them into horsepower. At 8300 rpm it stops grinding and you have to choose another gear. Which exposes another let down: the silent rev limiter. No "duh duh duh duh" shot guns firing through the exhaust: it just stops pulling. Select another gear and it does the same trick again, piling on speed like an avelange, devouring whatever stretch of road happens to be in front of you, pulling the horizon closer in no time. This engine truely feels like it could handle a 7th and 8th gear. The inductionnoise is heavenly: low down it creates a deep bassy throb, which evolves into a gigantic slurp at the top of the revrange. I can only imagine what this engine sounds like with the carbon airbox that Zee Zjermans fit to it, which increases capacity by a further 10 litres...!
Then to the handling: that is simply excuisite. You can drive it on the limit, cleanly, VERY fast, with the DSC in M sport mode acting as a safety net. I never encountered any understeer, although I assume that in tighter corners or relatively slow trackwork the 1650 kgs will make itself felt, as will the lack of camber in this factory suspension setting. If you want to hooligan about and paint fat black lines everywhere you go you just switch off the DSC and away you smoke. It really is ridiculously easy to powerslide and drift. This is where you notice that the steering, though light and ever so slightly dead in feel, does communicate, because it's very easy to let your right foot, that angry polarbear under the bonnet, the marvelous 100% variable locking ///M diff and the steeringwheel create the most melodic of all symphonies: a simply intoxicating shot of adrenaline!
This and a GT3. What more could you ever want or need?! So I say: get yourself an M3 and save another polarbear!
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