News From Barcelona Pitlane!!!

[Hans Delbruck]

Thanks for the info and new pics. I'll definitely pass on the CF leather trim. Now I'm second guessing the CF roof vs sunroof. If there really is that much weight savings, I would definitely go with the CF roof.

And, May 2008 now.... hmmm... reminds me of when I was waiting for the E46 M3... delay after delay from BMW... and then, my dealer didn't get many allocations... waiting and more waiting for my name to come up... long story short -- I didn't make the wait and bought something else.

This time though... I have other cars to enjoy in the meantime! Just gotta keep thinking... V8... BMW... tight small package... this is definitely the car I want and I think it's worth waiting for.

[GregW / Oregon]

Originally Posted by M3_biggest_fan

We also talked about the brakes and the long critics of it because they get hot very soon in track or in agrsive/sport driving, so the brakes are now in a new material, special compound, not still ceramic and he told us they were not going to give ones as option neither, but the calipers where in aluminium, so the sustention mass is lower as well. We didn't talked much about the averall weigth of the car but I imagine, that more airbags, more electronics, the new regeneration electrics and more new stuff makes it heavier!!!

The new gearbox is beeing made with ZS, will be available in may 2008, well at least the production starts there because is still in it's development proces.

About the reduction wieght of the roof I was the same way, 80 kg are too much but he explained quite better than I do, and finaly he convinced me, 15kg is the difference betwen the steel roof and the carbon fiber, then you have tu add the sunrrof, small engines, electronics, the glass, so from -15 to +65 are these 80 kg he told us!!!

Weight reduction figures are BS. From the official press release, "Carbon-fibre has made its way successfully into Formula 1 as an extremely stable, but nevertheless very light material. So it is only consistent for the designers and engineers responsible for the new BMW M3 to use precisely this material originally applied in aerospace in order to further lower the centre of gravity of the new BMW M3 – carbon-fibre-reinforced plastic (CFP) is used where it counts most, on the outer skin of the car, saving about 5 kg or 11 lb. in the process."

Here is the information that evosport posted 12/05 on a carbon fiber roof retrofit to an E46 M3, which showed maximum savings at about 48 lbs.:

[M3_biggest_fan]

So this report is right, but you have to add the two weight reductions you say, because one is the weight you save from the steel roof to the carbonfiber roof (48 lbs) and the other is from the steel roof to steelroof with sunroof (12 lbs) so that's 60 lbs. Then to this weight, add the small engines to open it, all the electronics inside the car, and so on, maybe you are right and 80 kg or 176 lbs is to much, but at the end I'm not that far!!! Both of us have part of reason!!!

[GregW / Oregon]

Originally Posted by M3_biggest_fan

So this report is right, but you have to add the two weight reductions you say, because one is the weight you save from the steel roof to the carbonfiber roof (48 lbs) and the other is from the steel roof to steelroof with sunroof (12 lbs) so that's 60 lbs. Then to this weight, add the small engines to open it, all the electronics inside the car, and so on, maybe you are right and 80 kg or 176 lbs is to much, but at the end I'm not that far!!! Both of us have part of reason!!!

No, you are misreading the charts. The first chart is going from steel roof with sunroof to a Vorsteiner CF roof w/o sunroof, so the maximum savings is 48 lbs. That includes the motors, switch, cables, etc. There is nothing else to add, so, in the end, you are that far off (by 367%).

[Not Ur Avg 3]

Originally Posted by MisterBMW

Man ...Alpine white is hot

The interior however looks kinda boring

+1
damn i want bmw to bust out two-tone leather for this badass
iono tho, the interior just doesnt seem to click with me,
question i have is, are all the new m3's going to come in CF trim? or you think we can get piano black trim? that looks so badass from wat ive seen in euro e92's....

[M3_biggest_fan]

Originally Posted by GregW / Oregon

No, you are misreading the charts. The first chart is going from steel roof with sunroof to a Vorsteiner CF roof w/o sunroof, so the maximum savings is 48 lbs. That includes the motors, switch, cables, etc. There is nothing else to add, so, in the end, you are that far off (by 367%).

Last coment about the weight, I've just talked to a friend that has taken out his sunroof, weight of all of it 16 kg, then 15 kg of the difference of steel to carbon 31 kg or about 60 lbs, so probably you are right but as that 160 lbs was told by an M engineer I believe more in him than the numbers, I hope though that in short we will have the numbers to prove what I'm saying, if you are right I will congratukate you!!!

[M2002]

Originally Posted by Not Ur Avg 3

+1
or you think we can get piano black trim? that looks so badass from wat ive seen in euro e92's....

I love piano black trim and i hope they have as an option on the european spec m3.

[meruyailir]

Yeah, I don't know why BMW doesn't want to spend more efforts on the interior.

[GregW / Oregon]

Originally Posted by M3_biggest_fan

Last coment about the weight, I've just talked to a friend that has taken out his sunroof, weight of all of it 16 kg, then 15 kg of the difference of steel to carbon 31 kg or about 60 lbs, so probably you are right but as that 160 lbs was told by an M engineer I believe more in him than the numbers, I hope though that in short we will have the numbers to prove what I'm saying, if you are right I will congratukate you!!!

Okay, my last post on this. I don't want to beat this into the ground. You say 15 kg difference steel to carbon (33 lbs). BMW says 11 lbs. Evosport says 12.6 lbs. for the E46 (not factory roof). I don't understand where you come up with these numbers.

[GregW / Oregon]

Originally Posted by JohnnyFavourite

i agree why cant they make an interior like the RS4: this looks boring as batshit

Agree--how difficult is it to at least offer good upholstery colors (like a dark brown), perforated leather, 2-tone, etc. Audi has always been far ahead of BMW.