[pmsteinm]

Today I had the idea to conduct a little experiment.

With the car in park (and warmed up) and in efficient mode give it just enough throttle to get off idle to around 100rpm. While holding that switch the engine to sport, and watch how much it jumps and holds. Then go to sport+ while still holding the pedal position. It really shows how non-linear it is in all modes. Despite that I find it easy to modulate in normal driving situations. I did find at the M school that in efficient the car is easier to drift on the skid pad than in sport+.

And as I've posted before, even at <1/2 throttle in efficient you sometimes get full throttle as evidenced by the torque gauge reading ~550. I find that while the computer is always playing around it makes the car feel fast and is easy to control in good and poor traction conditions.

[pbonsalb]

I have recall reading that a dyno in Efficient gives about 2% less peak power than a dyno in Sport Plus. Those 2 modes sure do feel different when driving, though some of that may be due to the pops and bangs.

[pmsteinm]

They feel different to me too. But I also have noticed if I do a series fun linked maneuvers in comfort (because I forgot to switch to my M2 mode) that by the end the car is acting like it is in the sportiest modes for everything except steering...D1 holds the gear longer, the engine sounds louder (minus as much ASD and no pops/bangs), and the ride is much firmer. Then after a little bit it goes back to normal...or sometimes not soon enough and I need to upshift.

The technical guides don't talk much about the engine modes, but the suspension is always adaptive so really the mode you pick is just the starting point you want (it mentions that in older M cars Sport+ was no longer adaptive and just the firmest all the time).

With all that said I love how the car is set up, adaptive, and configurable. It makes it easy and fun to drive no matter what the weather or my mood.

[CrashCade]

Originally Posted by pmsteinm

Today I had the idea to conduct a little experiment.

With the car in park (and warmed up) and in efficient mode give it just enough throttle to get off idle to around 100rpm. While holding that switch the engine to sport, and watch how much it jumps and holds. Then go to sport+ while still holding the pedal position. It really shows how non-linear it is in all modes. Despite that I find it easy to modulate in normal driving situations. I did find at the M school that in efficient the car is easier to drift on the skid pad than in sport+.

And as I've posted before, even at <1/2 throttle in efficient you sometimes get full throttle as evidenced by the torque gauge reading ~550. I find that while the computer is always playing around it makes the car feel fast and is easy to control in good and poor traction conditions.

Your torque gauge isn’t necessarily based on throttle input as much as it is on load. You can be at half throttle and get higher than expected loading based on road and gear selection. At 1/2 throttle you are definitely not getting 100% throttle output.

[pmsteinm]

Originally Posted by CrashCade

Your torque gauge isn’t necessarily based on throttle input as much as it is on load. You can be at half throttle and get higher than expected loading based on road and gear selection. At 1/2 throttle you are definitely not getting 100% throttle output.

I assume you are referring to when driving, not my idle experiment. I didn't look at the TP/HP there but I expect it to be pretty low. I'll check tomorrow.

I don't think the gauge is based on load (since how would the car know). I assume it is either the requested torque (based on whatever criteria they are using) or predicted torque (based on injector output, boost pressure, etc.)

If the torque is at ~550 I think you are getting 100%. Pushing further down won't make any difference since it's an electronic throttle and it is already demanding max torque. Obviously in auto mode it will down shift if you press further which changes everything. But in manual mode I wouldn't expect anything to change with more throttle input. I just haven't noticed that behavior in manual mode (high torque output at light throttle input). I assumed the M engineers do this in auto mode to prevent the downshift but still make the car feel fast and presumably save fuel by not running the rpms up higher.