F83 M4 2500 mile review, Post ED

[GrussGott]

I've finally taken re-delivery after 1800 miles in Europe. Back in the US I've done a 6 hour road trip, some daily driving, and a few canyon runs. Here are my thoughts...

First the caveats:
* my last car was an E93 - I have no turbo sports car experience - but have been lucky enough to drive NA V8 sports cars for the last decade
* I don't track
* I don't do much daily driving - I bought this car for canyon & coast runs which is 60-80% of the miles
* I'm 6-2 ish, 200 lbs (210 after the holidays )
* Nothing too organized here, just thoughts as I've posted other reviews and my ED experience


THE REVIEW - Around Town and on the Freeway

Out of the hole this car rules - much better than the E93, much easier to control, and more "normal" sports car in stop-light situations. Anyone with E9x experience knows you needed a lot of drama to take a mini-van off the line. With the F83, there's a video of an M4 vert taking a 800+ wtq dual motor Tesla off the line using launch control. Sure, the Tesla quickly kills the M4, but out of the hole the M4 with half the wtq got the jump even if it was a fluke.

Around town this car is a real luxo-sport 'hood whip, looking just spectacular inside and out. Maybe it's the moonstone , but people LOOK at this car including the p-car people. They never looked at my E93, but they look at this car. I also get a lot of attention from the rice-racers ... if I pass them casually on the freeway I get a lot of bluster and attitude - never got that with the E93. If you're going on a nice date, pulling up to a party, or going to cars-n-coffee this car has lots of win.

On the freeway she's an autobahn stormer. Fantastic for roadtrips: comfy, lots of room (relatively of course), gobs of passing power, great electronics and gadgets, good entertainment, and good gas mileage. I drove the width and a half of continental Europe and had zero issues. And if you want to go very fast very fast, well, no problem. bat. out. of. hell fast. For better or worse, much more M5-like in this regard.

This is the first sports car I've had that I have no daily or freeway drive complaints or even niggles. It's kind of flawless in that regard. Maybe the seat belt outlet is too low for my shoulder but I've kinda gotten used to it.


THE REVIEW - Burnin carbon and rubber

On to the controversy

I'll say it just once: for me this car sounds like shiit; cold start is horrible and anything over 3k is embarrassing, not to mention the farts. For me, no exhaust will fix this, it's just how the engine sounds. I'm surprised BMW allowed the engine to be released like this and I'll be very curious to see how long this engine lasts business-wise ... I have a feeling the cycle is going to be shorter this time and nobody needs to worry about this engine being used in another car! Just my 2 cents, no offense to anyone who likes it, and YMMV.

There is one place that I like the sound and that's the I6 snap, crackle, pops you get at low speed in, say, a parking lot in first gear with sport-plus on. There it sounds boxer 6 like and it's pretty cool.

Moving on to angry driving ...

In the canyons the chassis is fantastic. This car does things the E93 can't come close to (not with me anyway) with sharp turns, hairpins, and transitions ... it's completely hero making. In the E93 I was probably middle of the pack in a group but with this car I'm definitely near the front. It's not only the chassis but the engine - the huge torque allows you to power through just about anything. Sudden steep canyon climbs are nothing to this engine and there's so much power to spare you feel like you could just keep going up even if the road doesn't

One niggle I have is the rear-view mirror. I have a harder time fitting in this car than in the E93 where I could be comfy and see well even if I moved the seat up. In the F83 I've got the seat all the way back and down, but if I sit straight up I'm pretty high on the windshield. This makes the new design of the rear view mirror (you can't see around it / above it) more troublesome. In fast canyon driving I'm constantly having to move to see around or below the RVM - there's no real problem yet but it's annoying if you're really on it. For the track this might not be an issue because there are fewer transitions, hills, and blind curves not to mention the forest hiding the road.

One thing I've had trouble with so far is the gearing ... I keep switching between 2 and 3. This may be because I'm not used to driving a turbo car with its non-linear power, but if I stay in 2 I'll get into straights nearing 4.5-5k RPM and the engine just doesn't sound like it wants to be there so I upshift, only to have to downshift at the next hairpin or whatever. I guess it's harder for me to tell/feel when I'm in the power - I have very little instinct for it so far. In the E93 I always felt like I knew exactly where I was and hoped for north of 4.5K because the sound and feel was like a warm blankie on a cold night. This car just feels / sounds weird to me in that RPM range.

The last thing I'll say is that in angry driving this car is more work than the E93. I can't quite figure out why exactly, but you're gonna get sweaty fast. So far tight drives have been more stressful throughout with a "wow" at the end rather than stress-fun-stress-fun like the E93. What's strange is that I KNOW I'm not even close to limits of this car, yet I feel like I'm giving it everything to get there. I don't know if that's good or bad, but it's much more of a serious game face car than a casual romp driver.

CONCLUSION
If I had to pick one car to do it all, it's the M4: a slick whip and crazy challenging when driven in anger. If I had to pick one car for canyon duty, for now it'd be the E93: It's more go-carty and the engine sound really adds more than I thought it would, but that choice delivers easy fun at the expense of speed.

UPDATE #1 POSTED BELOW
Just got back from 3 hours of canyon runs ... and thanks to coaching from y'all (this mean you 8600RPM ) I decided to get real friendly with 2nd gear.

I spent probably two hard hours in 2nd gear only - I also took off my shoes for full sensitivity Here's what happened / what I learned:

(1.) The fun is above 4500. By forcing myself to ignore my ears/feel and drive-by-tach I eventually got really comfy between 4500 and 6500. The bulk of my time was probably between 4500 and 5500 and it made me faster and the drive more enjoyable. I still can't tell by sound when I'm near redline but I learned to tell by speed and scenario. In diving hairpins, this car can pull some major Gs ... It's not as unsettled as the E93 was by the junk in the trunk.

(2.) Funky feeling in the power? If I'm on it jumping between 4.5k and 5.5k and then slow to 3.5k I still feel the power in the throttle, but if I run up to 6.5k+ in 2nd and upshift to 3rd, RPMs drop to about 3.2k but now the throttle feels loose and like I'm out of the power ... puzzling for me since there should be no difference. Welcome to a turbo car? I dunno ... but that 3rd to 2nd downshift still feels weird.

(3.) Turbo ears. I've started to listen to the turbos as much as the engine ... even when the engine is at high RPMs it seems I'm not going to get holyshit power until I hear those turbos. This might seem like a duh on paper, but instinctually I'm used to RPM sound = power. Seems like now I'm being re-trained to RPM + turbo sound = holyshit

So I think maybe the real learning is going to be how to use the throttle based on RPM / Turbo / scenario. Maybe this is just driving 101 to some of y'all, so patience with the newbie is appreciated!

[GOLFFRR]

nice review! Agree with you on the sound, its very subjective. I will say that with the after market set up I did it has helped with the sound. Yes we were spoiled with the e9xMs especially if you modded the exhaust (RIP Akra gt4 I will never forget you lol)

but other then sound, yes this car is AMAZING! So much fun to drive.

[NorCal f80]

My friend sent me a text laughing at that red M4 that went over the median, not at the crash, but at the fart noise you speak of.

[Blindside_137]

Enjoyed the write up!

[8600RPM]

Why are you shitting at 5k rpms? It doesn't reach peak power until 5500 and revs freely to 7500 with no letting up. You redline it or close in each of first 4 gears. No different than e92.

[Needsdecaf]

Great write up. Love the honest thoughts, especially from an E9X owner.

[GrussGott]

Originally Posted by 8600RPM

Why are you shitting at 5k rpms? It doesn't reach peak power until 5500 and revs freely to 7500 with no letting up. You redline it or close in each of first 4 gears. No different than e92.

yeah, good question - I dunno honestly .... just doesn't sound / feel right to me, but I'm sure I'll learn to deal with it.

I should add that I'm doing this top down in canyons so there's a lot of echo and I'm sonically a lot closer to the exhaust. In the E93 it was just getting epic at that point, on this car it just sounds weird.

[minn19]

Don't have anything of substance to add except I'm glad you finally got your car back!

[GrussGott]

Originally Posted by minn19

Don't have anything of substance to add except I'm glad you finally got your car back!

LOL, thanks! I was in MSP last week and ... holy shit - freezing! Had dinner at the Butcher & the Boar though so that made up for it

Also, I did some sweet drifting in my rental Took me like 5 minutes to get bored of parking lot donuts

[LDSM]

thanks for the writeup

[minn19]

Originally Posted by GrussGott

LOL, thanks! I was in MSP last week and ... holy shit - freezing! Had dinner at the Butcher & the Boar though so that made up for it

Also, I did some sweet drifting in my rental Took me like 5 minutes to get bored of parking lot donuts

Yah, it was nice here wasn't it.

I still haven't tried that place out, but everybody I know that has gone there loves it. I have a hard time cheating on Mannys if I'm going out for a really good steak. I do have to check out other places though. It's been a while since Mrs. Minn19 and I have had a date night. Sounds like a good excuse for one.

Look forward to updates after you have some more miles on it and see if any of your early impressions of the car change.

[STooK]

Loved your ED write up and this one as well. I agree there's no way the f8x will sound as good as a e9x and I'm sure you will notice it more on a convertible. For me, the e93 sounds amazing top up or down with the OEM modded exhaust and I agree with you it contributes a whole lot to the overall driving experience.

I can't argue that the f83 is superior to e93 in every way otherwise, and you probably just need to get used to the car to enjoy it like you did with the e93. I still get a ton of looks with the e93, especially with the top down. I'm sure the individual color and having a new m4 vert probably has a lot to do with the looks you get. Also would love to see some more pictures of the car!

[GrussGott]

Originally Posted by STooK

Also would love to see some more pictures of the car!

Ha, coming up right after C Quartz! Still deciding between that and opti-coat, but will then post up some pics. Thanks for the nice words!

[solstice]

Thanks, I agree with some. Regarding the S55, M3 engines are always unique for M cars and replaced after one model cycle. Will it be used in another car? Depends if there will be another Z4M I guess. Will the cycle be shorter due to the S55's sound? I doubt it. It's a stormer of an engine and by far the best turbo engine I ever driven.

One thing the E90 M3 and the F80 have in common, they feel better for every time you drive them. That can't be said about many cars and is one thing that set the pretenders apart from the real deal. It's an M3 alright, different in many ways but still an M3.

[mpbruin108]

I, personally, like the sound when you open up the valves and have a secondary cat delete. When i felt it was getting too loud on cold startup, I just opened one valve and kept one closed (or functioning normally). That solved the trick.

[BEMR]

Nice post, I just like the stock exhaust as long as the car is driven in the manual mode, dct is cool in D but became so use to SMG trannys in my e60 m5, that I only shift either by paddles or shifter. Then your controlling fart sounds and overall exhaust different than D mode.

[M4TW]

Originally Posted by GrussGott

I'll say it just once: for me this car sounds like shiit.

Haven't you said this repeatedly?

Does the F80/2 also sound like shit to you? Perhaps the acoustics in the F83 doesn't work well with active sound? Otherwise, you're going to have to find a solution in the aftermarket$ or learn to accept the sound as a distinctive but loveable flaw.

I love the sound.

Even the cacophony at startup. One of my favorite parts of my dreary day is firing up the beast at work in my parking garage. Since I back into my spot, the sound echoes off the cement walls and fills up the entire place with that exhaust acid rock symphony that everyone recognizes as my car.

Cause that's my badass whip y'all.

[Damasconian]

Seems to me most of the noise complaints are coming from the former E9x guys. Not all of us had the luxury to own that car, this is my first M vehicle. Because of that, I'm very pleased with the sound, but I came from SUV's and lower end cars. I guess ignorance is bliss in my case. Glad you are enjoying it, nice write up.

[dclowd9901]

Originally Posted by 8600RPM

Why are you shitting at 5k rpms? It doesn't reach peak power until 5500 and revs freely to 7500 with no letting up. You redline it or close in each of first 4 gears. No different than e92.

In fairness to GrussGott, I notice the pull seems to drop off after that point (at least in comparison to lower down ranges). Plus it just "sounds" like the right time to hit the clicker. You don't need to take this thing to redline to get everything out of it.

[8600RPM]

You actutally do. Literally in gears 1 you do. It allows you to stay in power band and allows you to not have to run into gear shifting problem he describes. Going to redline gives you 2k worth of power band in each gear to play with. Shifting at 5k drops you way down below power band. Its all just driving for fun so whatever someone enjoys is what matters

[dkhm3]

I actually disagree with the sound, yes it is not great- coming from a 6.2 amg, which sounded like a hell chariot (in a awesome, evil, rip, snorting, farting, diabolical way). S55 sounds pretty good for the most part. The cold start does suck. I am not happy about that.

btw, I never drove the e9x m3, but M3's to me never had good sound. the E46 had a raspy tinny exhaust, sounded too high pitched to me, loved to rev, but did not sound that much better with the higher revs- even higher pitched and the rattling. E36 was too quiet, not much sweet exhaust sound at all.

[dkhm3]

Originally Posted by 8600RPM

You actutally do. Literally in gears 1 you do. It allows you to stay in power band and allows you to not have to run into gear shifting problem he describes. Going to redline gives you 2k worth of power band in each gear to play with. Shifting at 5k drops you way down below power band. Its all just driving for fun so whatever someone enjoys is what matters

that's a good point, I am noticing that now more and more as I get to know the car.