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Originally Posted by SCBimmerKid
100% will never do anything else other than Performance Center Delivery. I had such an awesome time. And Donnie! He's the man!
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You are not alone in your sentiment.
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Originally Posted by MickeyM3
Picked up my 335 Sport the day after you and had the pleasure of working with Andy for most of the day. I echo your thoughts about what a great experience it was...I too strictly followed the break in guidelines (varying speeds often from 65-85) and averaged 35 MPG in comfort mode...unbelievable.
Anyone the least bit hesitant about taking the Performance School Delivery should go for it...it's a great experience from the time they pick you up at the airport in a new BMW till you get to drive your beauty home...and none of that lousy wait for our car after doing ED!
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Another one with first hand experience. Congratulations on your new 335.
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Originally Posted by Powerbeast
Great write up, beautiful car. Enjoy!
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Thank you. Just over 1k miles and it has been very much an enjoyable time.
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Originally Posted by The English Guy
I enjoyed reading this with my breakfast cereal this morning. Thanks for brightening my day.
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Thank you!
Cheers!
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Originally Posted by truths2k05
21.7 mpg! I haven't seen those numbers since my Ed followed by pcd, the memories. Enjoy it, you will become accustomed to 13-14mpg for the rest of its life. The only real criticism I have about my m3 is the gas mileage, it's atrocious.
One of the best parts of the pcd is going on the concrete roundabout with the sprinklers on and switching off the traction control. Did that with Donnie, what a blast.
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My guess is that mpg will drop a bit after break in, but I didn't order the M3 with fuel conservation in mind.
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Originally Posted by rave426
Eau my pal, I love it!!
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Originally Posted by GTR-Dad
Great write up!
I can feel the anticipation, the excitement of delivery, and the satisfaction of ownership. Very cool!
Two items within your compelling story really caught my attention.
First, you've had a chance to drive a 'proper manual' (with a foot operated clutch and a gear selector lever) back to back with a dual clutch automated manual. What do you like about each one?
Second, you wrote:
The gentleman later asked to drive the M3 when I parked it after driving the road course. He did three laps, got out and said, “That car would kill me, but I already love it!”
Was this your car or the delivery experience car? I don't think you took your own cars out on the track, but if you did I'd be most interested in the 'on track' differences you noticed between 6MT and DCT, including gear ratios.
Cheers, and thanks for sharing!
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GTR Dad
The gentleman you reference drove the PC's M3 that was "mine" for that one day. My car didn't get on the track.
The Performance Center's M3 (DCT) was driven only off-public roads while my new car was driven only on public roads within break in guidelines. That made it impossible to reach an apples to apples conclusion. Apart from that, having spent some time, but not hundreds of miles, in an M3 w/ DCT driving public roads where the car requires little effort to drive within legal limits, having some track time was welcome to explore the possibilities. Max speed attained was a 100+ mph which meant gears 1-4 were used with 2nd and 3rd being most used on the course. The shifts both up and down were fast though there were times when I was certain that the upshifts were faster than the downshifts; even when the automatic throttle blipping would not need room above redline.
The paddle shifters are easy to use for the most part. When working the wheel through corner exit, it was simply easier to reach over with the right hand to flick the stick than put a finger on the right shifter paddle.
As I mentioned in the OP, the gears may be better matches for other venues, but I expected, and could have used, more pull from 3rd gear which I found too tall/long and 2nd is too short for my liking but it certainly does enable tire smoking galore.
For tracking purposes generally, it's probably safe too say that the DCT would offer almost anyone the greatest ease of driving and peace of mind as well as perhaps enabling a given driver faster laptimes. Whether that is what matters to everyone is another question altogether. I do wish that there had been an M3 with MT available to drive that day on the track, but it really didn't matter then nor now as I know that I made the right choice.