If you want the car to automatically adapt to varying conditions and driving styles, Adaptive M is the way to go. If you like consistency, for better or worse, the "standard" suspension is quite capable.
There's a nice interview on m-power with one of the chassis engineers talking about the suspension and he goes into the Adaptive M vs Stock. Quick excerpt below:
Quote:
Which of the modes COMFORT, SPORT and SPORT PLUS of the Adaptive M suspension can the standard suspension best be compared to?
That's a relatively difficult question to answer. Due to the elaborate regulation logic and sensor system, the Adaptive M suspension is able to achieve superstructure cohesion and increased comfort at the same time. This is usually the conflict you always have with the suspension set-up: achieving the best possible cohesion so as to be able to run on demanding tracks like the Nürburgring Nordschleife as fast as possible, for example - but also retaining the required amount of comfort for everyday driving. The car mustn't demonstrate any after-response or pumping, let alone take off over hollows and crests. In terms of superstructure cohesion, the standard suspension is somewhere between SPORT and SPORT PLUS, in terms of comfort it is more equivalent to SPORT PLUS.
Leaving the aspect of comfort aside, which is important in everyday driving, and just looking at the car's driving dynamics qualities: is the Adaptive M suspension superior from this one-sided point of view as well?
In the standard suspension we tried to achieve the best possible compromise over all possible race track profiles. In the case of the regulated Adaptive M suspension, even more individual adaptation is possible here. On the Nürburgring Nordschleife I personally use SPORT mode. On a fairly level race track, however, SPORT PLUS would be the best choice.
In any case: with extreme grip potential, the new BMW M3 and BMW M4 still remain very driveable at all times.
The data measured by the sensors impacts dynamically on the suspension set-up.
You might say that the standard suspension is set up once, while the Adaptive M suspension is set up every 2.5 milliseconds?
(laughs). Correct.
Can this result in an overlap of the setting ranges? In other words, even the COMFORT setting could lead to the suspension being tightened significantly if required by the relevant manoeuvres?
There are manoeuvres where the COMFORT setting is just as sporty as in SPORT and SPORT PLUS. Maximum damping power potential is used here, regardless of the setting
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All this being said, I've had the standard suspension on track three days so far and haven't felt the need to change yet.