So I finally got my car back from ED. Just in time for the last track event of the season. It felt a little odd to drive the car directly from the dealer lot to the race track. On the drive up to the track, I averaged a very good 7.1 l/100km.
Note that since I was tight on timing, I ran the car completely stock. Stock tires, brakes and alignment.
This was a 3 day HPDE event at the
Circuit Mont-Tremblant (LCMT) north of Montreal. This is fantastic track with many elevation changes and very fast corners. It used to be the site of a couple Canadian F1 Grand-Prix back in '68 and '70. The track was entirely restored to current FIA standards in the early-2000.
To give a little background about myself, I have been tracking cars for a little over 20 years. Started running A2 VW GTIs in time attack event in the early '90s eventually evolving into an E46 M3 in 2001. I then switched to an E92 M3 in 2008. I have been driving with the BMW Club Quebec chapter for 12 years and have been instructing with them for the last 5. See
here for one of the last videos of my E92 at LCMT. I am far from being a professional, I am simply a very passionate amateur
, so please take this review with that in perspective.
I truly loved my E92. It had that great combination of daily driver and track toy. Since I was so in love with my E92, I was a bit apprehensive of the F8X. The turbo engine was my biggest worry. Since I was happy with both my E46 and E92, I decided to take a leap of faith and give the F8X a go. After spending 3 days at the track, all I can say is WOW
. What a machine
. All my apprehension have been put to rest
.
The chassis
It is a great improvement over the E9X. The weight reduction and increased stiffness can clearly be felt. The car pivots much more easily and responds extremely well to throttle modulation to precisely position the car. The rear axle is very well planted and is very talkative. My past M3s all had significant understeer in stock form and needed camber plates to balance the handling. The F8X is very neutral out of the box with excellent turn-in characteristics. That being said, I believe it still needs more camber up front to balance tire wear. The only negative, this car is big; but at least it does not feel too much that way.
The engine
This is the area I had the most apprehensions and I can say they all have been dispelled. The S55 paired with DCT makes for an excellent power train for the track. The power delivery is very linear through the gears, is very controllable and there is always plenty on tap. With its broad power plateau, the S55 pulls very strongly out of corners and continues to pull all the way up to 7300RPM. There is no sense of it running out of breath at all at high RPM. I exclusively used Sport+ while on the track and never did I feel any turbo lag. The engine and chassis combination responded very well to throttle steering to adjust the attitude of the car in both low speed and high speed corners. Both my E46 and E92 oil temperatures would creep up during long sessions, never to the point of overheating but they would creep up nonetheless. The S55's oil temperature stayed rock steady at 100deg C through two back to back 30 minute sessions (one hour non-stop). Further, after reading it on another thread, I popped the hood right after coming off track, and touched the intercooler. It was literally cold to the touch. My buddies who also touched it could not believe it. One of them thought I had put ice in the system. BMW has clearly done a great job with heat management on this engines. I was also a bit surprised with the fact that the F8X gobbles significantly more gas on the track than my E9X did. I guess it is to be expected; all that power needs to come from somewhere
.
The steering
Very happy with the EPS. The weighing is just perfect for me in "Sport" on the track. It is very precise and gives appropriate feedback as to what the front tires are doing. It is not the most talkative and tactile but neither was my E9X steering before I dialled in more camber. Maybe the steering on the F8X will also improve a tad with more camber.
The brakes
I am very impressed with the stock iron brakes. I ran the stock pads and I was expecting them to be insufficient, but they proved to be reasonably adequate. On Friday, I ran five 30 minute sessions. No brake fade or bad pad deposit (leading to brake shudder). I have to say that I was extra careful, especially during the first sessions, and did a lot of brake management. But at the end of the day, I was hard on the brakes and it all went very well. The only major drawback is that the pads wore down pretty fast. The brakes are very easy to modulate with good initial bite and release and provide more than sufficient stopping power. I gave a ride to one of my fellow instructors, and his first comment was "f&*k man, this car can brake"
. I can't wait to try them out with good track pads. A buddy of mine was running an F80 on Toyo R888 also on the stock pads. He was also very happy with the brakes' performance but he did suffer from a little of brake shudder at the end of the 3 days.
The tires
This was a repeat of my previous experience with my E92. The PSS are clearly not an adequate dry track tire. At first they were not too bad. In my first sessions I was careful with the brakes and tires. But as I got comfortable in the car, I started to push more (while making sure I was not overburdening/overheating the tires; I never got them to feel greasy), the front tires started to melt and chunk away on the outer edges. The PSS are great street tires and great wet track tires. But IMO, they are inadequate on a dry track when pushed.
The Settings and DSC
I set the M-Drive settings as follows:
Engine: Sport+
EDC: Sport+
Steering: Sport
DCT: S3
DSC: Off
For the first few laps I decided to go out with MDM activated. I must say it is way too intrusive to be able to exploit the wonderful chassis. After 3 laps of the system kicking in all the time and holding power, the brake pedal started to get mushy so I figured I had enough and turned the nannies off. The brakes came back immediately and the chassis became alive. I wonder how much better Euro MDM actually is, but the US MDM is way too restrictive. I think it is sort of odd, because it is soo restrictive, it will likely encourage people to drive with DSC off, which defeats the purpose of MDM.
On Saturday we had a very wet day, so I toned the suspension and DCT down a notch and ran with MDM for the benefit of the added safety net:
Engine: Sport+
EDC: Sport
Steering: Sport
DCT: S2
DSC: MDM
The sound
During our 4 week European Delivery trip, while I found the F8X made interesting noises, I was not enamoured with the overall sound of the engine. Since I was very pleased with the improvement the MPE made on my E92, I decided to order the MPE for my F82. I went with the Ti tips paired with the CF diffuser. The dealer installed the MPE and the other M-Perf parts before I picked up my car. I can say I am very pleased with the result. The engine now sounds much more alive and has a much more signature inline six growl. It is nice and quiet in "Efficient" mode and very loud and aggresive in Sport/Sport+. I received a lot of compliments about the car's sound at the track. The sound is also precise enough that I could easily shift by ear. The sound is also very pleasing inside the cabin both at the track and on the road. While it is not as melodious and refined as the S65, the S55 with the MPE does sound decent enough.
Conclusion
I am very happy with the car. I am very impressed on how well it performed at the track in completely stock form. It is the dual nature of the M3/4 that I have always appreciated and drew me to those cars. They are great daily drivers while being great and fun weekend track toys. With the F8X, BMW has been able to expand on both extremes. BMW has made an even better daily driver and an even better track toy out of the F8X
. I am very impressed with the car and very happy with my choice
. Now comes the long wait for the next track event in the spring
