600 miles with my M-DCT Coupe

[southlight]

Originally Posted by Epacy

Wind of Change, ring a bell?

I see, the Scorpions. Why do you guys always need to remind me of the worst things in this country?


Best regards, south

[lucid]

Originally Posted by southlight

I see, the Scorpions. Why do you guys always need to remind me of the worst things in this country?


Best regards, south

Still lovin' yooouuuu...

[bruce.augenstein@comcast.]

Originally Posted by footie

On the subject of your son, Bruce have you any idea as to how much money your son's training cost the NAVY. I know a fellow in the RAF, a pilot and according to him his train was £2M.

Sounds unbelievable to me, but I was wondering if you or your son agree with this figure.

At the winging ceremony back in '94, the CO said something about the training costing "..well over a million dollars..", with the really expensive training yet to come for my son. F18s cost more to run than the T34s and A5s they used as trainers back then - plus the ordinance they drop/shoot on the way to full qualification costs more than a buck or two.

Well, I see Swamp is a little miffed at this threadjacking, and I can't say I blame him. Think it's time for me to more or less get back on topic - and say yet again that an automatic is an automatic is an automatic?

Seriously Swamp, I've enjoyed your posts here, and not just for the analysis. Your sheer joy comes through loud and clear. It's appreciated.

Bruce

[swamp2]

Oh my, now the Scorps as well...

Originally Posted by lucid

To get us back on some kind of topic: Swamp, have you played much with the throttle mapping? I've been driving it in Sports Plus since I got it, so I don't have much perspective on this.

I have been using mostly Sport with a little bit of Normal. I have shied away from Sport Plus due to poor experiences with the sport mode in the E46 M3. The only thing changed with that button is throttle mapping and it made the car down right jumpy and uncontrollable. I'm fairly sure the small surge feedback "problem" quite a few of us have experienced would be lessened in normal mode. Driving technique helps as well. I brace my foot against the side carpet to reduce feedback when accelerating hard.

Originally Posted by bruce.augenstein@comcast.

Think it's time for me to more or less get back on topic - and say yet again that an automatic is an automatic is an automatic?

Perhaps you missed the poll here? "Automated manual" wins by a large margin amongst enthusiasts here. In addition it was nearly a true majority. . It's OK to be stubborn but most disagree with you and hence your diction serves to confuse. Not consistent with your general style of excellent clarity!

[lucid]

Originally Posted by swamp2

I have been using mostly Sport with a little bit of Normal. I have shied away from Sport Plus due to poor experiences with the sport mode in the E46 M3. The only thing changed with that button is throttle mapping and it made the car down right jumpy and uncontrollable. I'm fairly sure the small surge feedback "problem" quite a few of us have experienced would be lessened in normal mode. Driving technique helps as well. I brace my foot against the side carpet to reduce feedback when accelerating hard.

I haven't had any issues with the SportsPlus mapping during daily driving. Might want less sensitivity on the track though. I experience the "feedback problem" only when the engine is cold, and not for more than a minute after that max. I asked about it to the service guy during the 1200 mile service, and he gave be some standard ambiguous answer about how M cars are different. I told him I know M cars are different, and that I want to at least know what exactly is causing the behavior, and he gave me more of the same. In short, he had no clue.

[bruce.augenstein@comcast.]

Originally Posted by swamp2

...Perhaps you missed the poll here? "Automated manual" wins by a large margin amongst enthusiasts here. In addition it was nearly a true majority. . It's OK to be stubborn but most disagree with you and hence your diction serves to confuse. Not consistent with your general style of excellent clarity!

Clarity is what I aim for, and in this case, it means three pedals equals stick, and two pedals equals automatic.

I don't mind at all if you wish to further clarify the type of automatic, however.

As to what others think in a poll? Perhaps you have me confused with someone who actually cares what people think on whatever issue. In this case, the 19 people who are enlightened enough to understand that's it just an automatic (albeit a very good one) seem to represent a percentage of about one in eight - which is where I most often find myself in terms of my opinions. I'm comfy.

Bruce

[southlight]

Originally Posted by lucid

Still lovin' yooouuuu...

You and I


Best regards, south

[footie]

Originally Posted by southlight

You and I


Best regards, south

Guys, get a room.

[southlight]

Originally Posted by footie

Guys, get a room.

Get the point.


Best regards, south

[footie]

Originally Posted by southlight

Get the point.


Best regards, south

Could I recommend K-Y.

[southlight]

Originally Posted by footie

Could I recommend K-Y.

You're nasty and still didn't get it. What do 'You and I', 'I'm stilling loving you' and 'Wind of change' have in common?

Best regards, south

[footie]

Originally Posted by southlight

You're nasty and still didn't get it. What do 'You and I', 'I'm stilling loving you' and 'Wind of change' have in common?

Best regards, south

Oh know I get it. What a prick.

It's Foreigner song titles.

Good group, I use to like them, oh did I say that out loud.

[gadget]

The forum just keeps getting worse. I come hear to learn more about the car, the DCT, LC etc. and instead all this BS....

[southlight]

Originally Posted by gadget

The forum just keeps getting worse. I come hear to learn more about the car, the DCT, LC etc. and instead all this BS....

No problem that your post was OT, most of us digress every now and then.


Best regards, south

[swamp2]

Small update: Kick down.

Sorry I have not yet posted any LC videos. I have not actually even used it yet. Getting to redline these days and playing more with the DSC system settings, fun, fun. What I did finally give a try is the kick down feature. While in any manual (S) mode you can obtain the best gear for maximum acceleration whether that is 1 shift down or 5 nearly instantly with this feature. Simply floor the gas hold down the left paddle and BOOM in as fast as a single shift (maybe "only" as fast as the sum of two nearly instant down shifts) you are instantly in the best gear and really accelerating. The advantages over a MT here are fairly obvious: no deciding which gear, no complex movements to get to the right gear, no chance of over-rev, no chance of grinding, perfect throttle control and did I mention it is FAST. This is not all that useful when driving aggressively to begin with but is very useful when cruising at fairly low rpm in a high gear and (for one reason or another ) you want instant and max acceleration. Mostly played with it using 7-4 shifts begining at about 70-80 mph.

Fun, fun, fun.

[mkoesel]

Thanks for the info swamp. That feature does sound cool, but the purist in me still wishes there were a way to disable it. I guess the way to do that is to just not hold the paddle down, but since this feature is supposed to be "right now" thing I guess you don't have to hold the paddle very long. So it even does it in S6 too, eh?

Also, how close to redline does it go on the downshift? And does it do this in any of the auto modes also? I would think you'd want it in those modes too, right?

[swamp2]

Originally Posted by mkoesel

Thanks for the info swamp. That feature does sound cool, but the purist in me still wishes there were a way to disable it. I guess the way to do that is to just not hold the paddle down, but since this feature is supposed to be "right now" thing I guess you don't have to hold the paddle very long. So it even does it in S6 too, eh?

Also, how close to redline does it go on the downshift? And does it do this in any of the auto modes also? I would think you'd want it in those modes too, right?

Exactly. If you don't want to use it don't. Single clicks are always available and work as intended - one shift per click. The only way to use this is WOT and do this first, THEN HOLD left paddle for just a bit longer than a "click". This works in all S modes. You really can not have a legitimate complaint about needing to disable this.

[mkoesel]

Yeah swamp my main concern was that it could be activated by mistake, though that does seem unlikely based on how you describe it in your second post.

Any comment about my other questions?

[swamp2]

Originally Posted by mkoesel

Also, how close to redline does it go on the downshift? And does it do this in any of the auto modes also? I would think you'd want it in those modes too, right?

I have not yet found it to get very close to redline. Although I have not explored the real extremes when at really low speeds. I will. I'm not sure it is does this in auto modes but strongly suspect it will. Really though that is a bit of a contradiction. As soon as you grab either paddle or the stick you instantly leave auto mode. If you simply mash the pedal in the higher auto modes without touching paddle or stick the effect is nearly identical.

[mkoesel]

Originally Posted by swamp2

If you simply mash the pedal in the higher auto modes without touching paddle or stick the effect is nearly identical.

Aha, yes that is what I meant. Basically like Steptronic.

So then, given that you needn't do the paddle hold when in auto modes, it should actually accelerate ever so slightly faster on kickdown in auto mode than in manual. At least in theory.

Thanks for the info.

[swamp2]

Originally Posted by mkoesel

Aha, yes that is what I meant. Basically like Steptronic.

So then, given that you needn't do the paddle hold when in auto modes, it should actually accelerate ever so slightly faster on kickdown in auto mode than in manual. At least in theory.

Thanks for the info.

Indeed it might. Common sense tells you it should. This is one small contributing factor among a family of factors that have led folks to note that the best automated manuals and some true automatics in full auto mode and in their sportiest settings can and will be faster even around a difficult track. The software is key and it has become really good. M-DCT in D5 is really cool. Really touchy, very prone to upshift shift late (or right at redline), downshift early, downshift multiple gears, etc. Not great for every day usage but I can tell it will be great on the track.... Wait did I say that, automatic modes on the track, yup.

[ersin]

Originally Posted by swamp2

Wait did I say that, automatic modes on the track, yup.