Quote:
Originally Posted by Goat Rodeo
I'm accusing you of feigning ignorance of one of the most repeated characteristics of this car in order to be in the position to provide a lesson. Please don't take offense.
I'll play. Everyone (sans yourself) talks about the "linear power delivery" of the M3. This exact phrase used by BMW themselves in their press release for the M3 CRT: "the high-revving unit provides the linear power delivery you expect from an M car." It is easy to control the amount of power to the wheels because the engine responds linearly to throttle response. A little bit of throttle, a little bit of power. A lot of throttle, a lot of power. Yet seemingly the ratio is constant; there seems to be a 1:1 ratio between your foot and how fast the car accelerates.
This is different to a car with a large peak throughout its rev range. No power, no power, no power, POWER!!! The sudden inconsistency of power application to the wheels from one moment to the other overloads available traction and the car becomes difficult to control.
The E9X is extremely easy to drive around town and in inclement weather due to this behavior. In fact to some it feels deceptively underpowered and underwhelming during test drives for this reason.
Or another way: If you smoothly and linearly accelerate, you don't spin the tires. If you smoothly accelerate and then stomp the accelerator (non-linear), you spin the tires. Isn't this obvious?
I enjoy reading your posts and find them educational. I hope you're not insulted that I think you're being purposely disingenuous -- I find it hard to believe you're not. I am hoping you will now translate my attempt into whatever the proper technical explanation may be.
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Well said. I always enjoy reading Bruce's posts as well, even though he chooses to always take the opposing view of this forum and go against the grain by praising Audi and Mercedes while seldom giving the M3 its due. I suppose he does so in order to keep egoes in check around here and remind everybody that the e9x M3 is not the greatest car ever created in every respect, even though many of us choose to believe that.
I agree he might be taking his role as the devil’s advocate to a bit of an extreme here to chastise MKE_M3. It seems fairly simple to me that a linear power delivery is the smooth buildup of power across an RPM range. This is the product of a flat torque curve that increases horsepower at a linear rate across the RPM band in question, as contrasted with a rising torque curve that would result in power building in a curvilinear fashion (i.e. exponentially). That’s the best way I can describe what we’re talking about here, but perhaps Bruce can correct my mistakes.