E92 M3 Ideal Shift Points

[NewM3driver]

I find when driving in a relaxed mode, that letting the rpms rise under partial acceleration to 4-5K produce butter smooth shifts. The engine loves to rev, and you can live around town in 3rd gear.

Try driving down the road in 3rd with the revs around 5K. Role onto the gas a bit and shift into 4th between 6 and 7K. It doesn't get any better. This car simply isn't meant to be shifted between 2 and 3 rpm. Once you learn to drive the car properly, it is simply an awesome setup.

As far as conserving fuel... I tried it once, and yes, the car can get a few extra miles per gallon if you granny foot it. To me though it was pure torture. Drive it like you want, and plan on getting 15 mpg combined. If you can't live with 15, you should not be driving an M car... Trust me... the last thing the BMW engineers are thinking about when designing M cars is fuel economy.

STEP ON THE GAS and enjoy your car.

[1MOREMOD]

i concur!

[Chris_S]

I was concerned about the poor gas mileage before I got my M3, but after taking delivery I quickly realized that it's just too much fun to try driving it for fuel economy!

[Wads]

Originally Posted by bruce.augenstein@comcast.

In this car, max acceleration s obtained by essentially shifting right at the rev limiter without actually hitting it. Even though you're past the power peak by a smidgeon, you'll have more power after the shift in the next gear if you do this, and therefore higher average power for the duration of the run.

Thats true for the M3 and the vast majority of cars..... simply because once you shift up to the next gear the torque at the wheels (after gearing) is nearly always less so its best to make full use of the higher wheel torque in each lower gear for best acceleration.

[footie]

Originally Posted by bruce.augenstein@comcast.

In this car, max acceleration s obtained by essentially shifting right at the rev limiter without actually hitting it. Even though you're past the power peak by a smidgeon, you'll have more power after the shift in the next gear if you do this, and therefore higher average power for the duration of the run.

This is indeed true but anyone with a DCT M3 will know that when shifting manually if you DO hit the limiter the fall off in acceleration which happens there after feels like an eternity and is better avoided at all costs, especially in the heat of a race, so I tend to shift a little beyond 8K in first and try to judge 2nd, 3rd, etc nearly the limiter where the revs build a little slower each time and are easier to get right.

[gr8000]

Originally Posted by footie

This is indeed true but anyone with a DCT M3 will know that when shifting manually if you DO hit the limiter the fall off in acceleration which happens there after feels like an eternity and is better avoided at all costs, especially in the heat of a race, so I tend to shift a little beyond 8K in first and try to judge 2nd, 3rd, etc nearly the limiter where the revs build a little slower each time and are easier to get right.

or just let the DCT shift automatically exactly at redline in 1st in D mode and then switch to whatever S mode you are using?

I guess this will only happen once at the track initially (off the start line), so not a big deal in my mind.