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Autocar staff
http://www.autocar.co.uk
05/08/2008 - 12:09 PM
London, UK
The M3’s V8 sounds even better with the hood down. (Autocar photo) » More Photos
With the BMW M3’s roof down, you can hear the V8 scream. You can also listen to it warble, blat, burble, fizz, hum and zing. You’ll hear the V8 in a closed M3 too, but not with the fidelity and repertoire that you’re serenaded with when there’s no roof between you and the aural action.
This is a reason to seriously consider a roofless M3, although an all-up weight of 4156lbs – 507lbs more than the closed car – and the steeper price tag are serious reasons not to consider it as well. More of the weight later.
What we’re also testing here is an option that the more committed driver, the one who appreciates the minor weight savings that stem from having a lightweight carbon roof or a couple of throttle maps to choose from, might enjoy. And that is the latest version of BMW’s paddle-shift manual gearbox. This fourth-generation ’box has been renamed M DCT Drivelogic in recognition of a double-clutch transmission that allows no interruption in the torque flow when gears are shifted.
There’s hope, then, that the sometimes frustratingly jerky habits of the old single-clutch SMG will have been exterminated with this new and considerably more sophisticated gearbox, which fields seven ratios to the manual M3’s six. The wider-ranging gears that this allows and those uninterrupted gearchanges mean that the M3 convertible will breach 62mph 0.2sec more quickly than the manual version, and return better fuel economy and lower emissions as well.
Although at 5.3sec to 62mph for the manual convertible vs. 4.8sec for the equivalent sedan, it’s easy to see that the weighty roof mechanism has knocked the M3’s performance back somewhat. It’s not quite as sharp on the throttle and takes a little more time to spool into the upper reaches of the V8’s creamily threshing blare.
Drop-top suffers a few tremors with dampers on firm. (Autocar photo) » More Photos
This is all relative, of course. Unless you’ve just stepped out of a fixed-roof M3, you’re still going to be
There’s a brief pause while the transmission thinks about what you’ve ordered, the rear wheels light up and with them the traction control light, shortly after they lose traction. This is not the fastest means of departing but it’s quick enough, and before you know it you’re pulling on the right-hand paddle to order second gear, which engages with a nose-rearing belt of torque and a satisfyingly fat blat from that under-bumper exhaust quartet. You pull for third, then fourth, each gear taking a little longer to expend itself as speed and wind resistance rise.
At the end of the straight is a sharpish curve – sharp, at least, when you’re approaching it at 110mph in fifth – all of which makes the authoritative claw of the brakes that bit more reassuring as the M3’s advance is blunted.
This has been an experiment more thrilling than illuminating – although it does demonstrate the need for the launch control mode if you want the quickest sprint to 60mph – but there is much more experimentation to be done in this car. There are layers of configuration to play with, for transmission, chassis and powertrain – and this, says M3 product manager Rolf Scheibner, is how M customers like it. It takes time, he says, to uncover every permutation and understand what each does to the car – “maybe a month and 3000 kilometers” – and cars that reveal their deep secrets more slowly are the more compelling for it, we reckon, assuming the secrets aren’t dark.
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