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Originally Posted by Pharmacist
Great minds think alike! I too just bought an 08 e90 m3 today to replace my Z that was wrecked last fall. fully loaded with edc, idrive/nav/mdrive, executive package, extended novillo leather, gray paint, black interior, 18 inch wheels.
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Nice! I want to see pics!!
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Originally Posted by Pharmacist
I'll post a more detailed comparison later, but I agree with a lot of your points. Seats are terrific and offer tons of lateral support. brakes are actually better on the Z. Can you believe it, bmw still uses archaic single piston sliding calipers on their M models?  |
I too will post up a more specific comparo soon as I've had a chance to drive it a bit now (about 500 miles). And yes, I have to say that braking on the Z was fantastic. The M3 is sticky though especially at lower speeds. In fact, it's a little too grabby at low speeds coming up to a red light. Oh well... nothing a new Brembo big brake kit won't solve right?
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Originally Posted by Pharmacist
The engine is terrific! Have you tried taking it over 8000 rpm yet?
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Holy crap no! Hahahaha I was just fooling around yesterday and stomped the throttle in 3rd gear. The RPM's were climbing, the car was absolutely moving but I had a LONG way to go on the tach and I was already close to 90mph and running out of road! I will test this out under better circumstances though
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Originally Posted by Pharmacist
Note though that neither sport nor sport plus throttle modes affect the engine tuning in any way. These are just throttle maps. These are just throttle maps that affect the ratio of pedal displacement to butterfly valve angle. You can get the same response in normal mode, but you just have to push the throttle a bit more. This isn't like the M5 where the power button actually did produce more power. In the M5 full throttle pedal only gives about 80% throttle valve opening, releasing about 400hp or so. The power button allows 100% throttle valve opening and releases the whole 500 hp.
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Noted. I have found this to be case through normal driving.
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Originally Posted by Pharmacist
Personally I found sport to be good for fun drives, and normal to be good for tame cruising, and also probably for adverse weather conditions with low traction. Haven't yet tried sport plus but i read it's very twitchy and makes the car undriveable.
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I have my M mode settings set to all sport I think. I haven't tried the sport + either and it's probably better utilized under track conditions. Especially with the stiff sidewall of those run-flats! Wait, did you say you had 18's? I have the 19's with the Michellin Pilot Sports. Stiff.... very stiff.
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Originally Posted by Pharmacist
I'll trade you a gas gauge for a dipstick. the M's analog gauge is way better than the Z's stupid LED gauge, but the Z had that magical mysterious device called the dipstick. None of that stupid digital gauge crap.
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Agreed again but I digress... I am actually not going to do my own oil changes if you can believe that! I know but I think with the M3 I'll just take it in. I just took it in for brake fluid and filters etc. and the tech told me I still had 10k miles before I was due!
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Originally Posted by Pharmacist
The iDrive is appalling!!!!!!!!! Whoever the hell came up with this stupid nonsense?!?!?!?!?! I love all the adjustability and customization you can do with it, but you need a computer engineering degree just to figure out how to navigate those endless lists of menus, submenus, inframenus, etc........... Can you imagine operating that damn knob scrolling through menus while going down the highway surrounded by speeding cars????????? Apparently 09 and newer cars have an updated system that is a bit simpler and more user friendly. Oh, you also forgot to mention that 08 nav is dvd based. There is no hard drive, so you can't store music and stuff like that.
Nevertheless, getting idrive is very important because it gives you Mdrive which enables access to sport steering, sport plus throttle, and the programmable M button.
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Ok.. I was with you on this at first BUT you actually do get used to it rather quickly and learn the lay of the land so to speak and it IS very handy. I actually find it to be much better than my old touchscreens that I've used on both my old vehicles. Certain things take longer but it's decisive and clear.
A quick note on the shifter... Yesterday I finally had the misfortune of sitting in bumper to bumper traffic for awhile and I have to say WOW.. it almost feels like an auto. I'm serious here. Where my 6MT Z fell down completely was in godamn bumper to bumper traffic. Ugh! But the M? I left it in second and almost came to a complete stop on several occassions and it didn't even start to shudder or stall. I was so amazed that after awhile I started laughing about it because I couldn't believe it.
Now the gas mileage... err...
