Not so long ago, I was sitting by the pool on vacation when BMW’s media embargo on the F80 M3 and F82 M4 expired and the internet was flooded with reviews of the new BMWs. With great excitement, I consumed every quality review I could find, trying to determine if the heir to the sports sedan throne met my expectations and improved upon the already excellent E90 M3 which I own. My desires for the new car were mixed; one side of me wanted the F80 to be more connected to the road and more eager around town, while the other side of me wanted the F80 to be terrible so that my E90 would be the “last true M3” and forever keep its resale value and classic status.
Today, I can finally make my own first-hand opinion of the F82 M4. I have rented a pristine example with less than 2,000 miles on the odometer, gorgeous gray paint, a black-on-black interior, and lots of options like DCT, HUD, navigation, and tech goodies like automated parking assistance and lane departure warnings. The car looks and smells new as if it’s straight off the dealer lot. Like a kid on Christmas morning, I’ve been up since 4am, excitedly waiting for this shiny toy to be mine. Well, now I have the keys and 160 miles in which to find out if the new F82 M4 is a bombshell or a dud.
Before leaving the rental lot, I am given a 30-minute tour of the M4’s features. New to this model is an improved navigation system, with better traffic reporting and a view where aerial images are overlaid on 3D terrain. This car also has a Head-Up Display, which projects the navigation directions, vehicle speed, and warning signs on the windscreen in front of the driver’s view. Alas, the HUD is a bit dim through the polarized lenses of my sunglasses. I am introduced to the lane keeping, collision warning, and blind-spot monitoring features. The automated parking feature is demonstrated as well. I see how the car scans for gaps between parked cars, alerts you when an appropriately-sized spot is available, and then steers as you use the gas and brake to reverse into the open spot. I have never been in a self-parking car before, and I am duly impressed. (I am warned that it is not perfect with sensing the distance to the curbs, and I should be careful not to curb the wheels.) Another cool parking feature is that the car a 360-degree camera view that lets you see your distance to all surrounding objects. This feature I would pay for! Front and rear parking sonar is also built-in.
I connect my phone easily to the car’s Bluetooth. (A $500 option!) I am given a tour of the two M buttons on the steering wheel. M1 is configured as an Eco mode button, M2 requires two presses to activate and it has been setup as beast mode, with all the adjustable drive settings put in Sport Plus. Throttle, transmission, steering, suspension and traction control in the M4 all have Comfort, Sport and Sport Plus settings. This sounds complicated, but it actually simplifies the adjustability in the E90 M3, where there were six transmission modes! I adjust the M2 button to use economy throttle for the most linear response, sport transmission so as not to chirp the tires all the time, sport steering weight, sport plus suspension, and sport (MDM) traction control so I don’t fly off a cliff. These are the settings that the magazines tell me will be the best, but I’ll fiddle with them as the day progresses.
I drive the M4 slowly around a residential neighborhood, looking for a good parking spot as I wait for my friend Sage. Even just tootling around the subdivision, I am impressed by the chassis feel! There is so much road texture being transmitted into the driver’s seat, steering wheel and cabin. I came from an Evo IX before getting my E90 M3, and what I miss most about the Evo is being able to intimately sense the texture and grain of the road under my tires. The new M4 appears to be a step in the direction I desire.
Another strong contrast between my M3 and the rental M4 is that the dual-clutch transmission (DCT) is greatly improved with the F80 generation. My M3 has 45k miles, and while it does okay when asked to drive as an automatic, it does not engage its clutches as smoothly as it once did. I often get gaps in power and clunking noises when I drive away from a stop or slow down for a turn and then reapply the gas. The M4 has none of this! It gets away from a stop so smoothly that it practically feels like a traditional torque-converter automatic. It is smooth and quiet when shifting up and down between gears and coming to a stop. BMW has taken a livable transmission and made it transparent; what a nice improvement!
The final improvement I take notice of while driving in the neighborhood is that the start/stop system is much quicker on its feet and engages more frequently. I use start/stop in my M3 when I am driving in town and know I’ll be sitting at red lights, but in the M4, it feels like you could leave the system on always and still get a good experience.
My car buddy Sage arrives. We check out the design features of the M4. I like the front of the car, with its aggressive styling. The way the rear of the M4 coupe resolves is not my favorite; I have always preferred my M3s as sedans. The interior is good too, but some materials have gone down in quality. There is some hard plastic on the center tunnel near the driver’s right knee, which is a soft leather in my car. This M4 is outfit with the mid-range Merino leather in black. There is a higher-end leather package that would have extended the leather to the dashboard, but I don’t feel that is particularly necessary. The cabin design feels newer but in a busy, fussy modern way. My M3 is a bit more straightforward in its presentation of the surfaces and controls, and the dash and center tunnel intrude less into the cabin and make the environment feel a bit more spacious and airy. In the F82, the low roofline and steeper raked glass contribute to a more bunker-like feeling and make me less confident that I can see everything around the car. At least the bird’s-eye-view parking camera is there to help.
Sage saddles-up in my M3 while I get ready to drive the M4. We both take a moment to prepare the essentials; Bluetooth phones connected and speed-dial programmed, radar detectors on the windscreen, navigation systems pointing at Mulholland Highway. Locked and loaded! Let’s go have some fun!
I am leading as we merge onto the 101 highway, which is flowing with moderate traffic. I camp out in the right-hand lane at 60 mph and quietly enjoy the ride. Then, in the span of a few seconds, the paving in my lane changes from smooth concrete slab to patched concrete to asphalt. I can feel the particular grain and texture of each surface type in the seat and steering. There is real road texture being transmitted through the chassis to the driver!
Different enthusiasts have different priorities for their driving experience, but for me, road feel is priority number one. My first sports car was a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX MR (with a name that long it had to be good), and it made no attempt whatsoever to coddle its occupants and hide the coarse textures and jarring imperfections of the road. I loved the communication! My main complaint with the E90 M3 is that it filters out too much of this information and leaves me with quiet steering and a (relatively) isolated chassis. Some have even gone so far as to say it drives like a fluffy pillow!
I am surprised and delighted to find that the M division has reversed course and made the F82 M4 more communicative than its predecessor. They have done this by removing the bushings between the rear sub-frame and the chassis, thereby replacing isolating rubber bushings with a metal to metal connection. Yes, it does make the cabin louder, as more tire and road noise enters the car, but I find it tolerable and holding conversations does not require yelling. The ride is even firmer and sharper (harsher if you like) than the E90’s. As Hwy 101’s right-hand lane degrades into cracked concrete slabs from the heavy truck traffic, I can feel sharp impacts in the cabin, yet I’m still grinning! It’s as if the cotton has been removed from my ears, and I can finally hear the music.
I drive along the 101 trying to gauge how much of the road feel is coming from the seat and how much is coming through the steering wheel. There has been lots of Bimmerphile angst over the F80/F82’s transition to electronic power steering, and after my experiences in the 328i and 320d cars, I have very low expectations for the M4’s steering. Thankfully, my worries are misguided and the on-center steering feedback is actually improved over the E90’s. That same information coming through the thinly padded sports seat is coming through the steering column as well, if maybe at a slightly quieter volume.
I weave around in my lane, trying to see how the wheel responds to different impacts and surface blemishes when a new vibration appears in the wheel. The lane departure system is using cameras to monitor the edges of my lane and will gently shake the wheel if I broach its boundaries. The system has an illuminated graphic on the dashboard that tells me A) that it is active and B) which sides of the lane it monitors. (In the city, you might only have lane markings on the left side of the car if the right side is open for on-street parking.) A blind-spot warning system is also active on the M4, and orange warning triangles on the side-view mirrors illuminate when another car is hiding alongside.
The GPS navigation instructs me to exit the 101 at Las Virgines Rd and head into the Santa Monica Mountains. On the floating screen in the center of the dash, the hills and mountains rise up in their 3D graphics glory, beautifully textured with aerial-photography skins. I turn right onto Mulholland Hwy and enter the first fun road segment of the day. Mulholland Hwy curves in long climbing sweepers along the side of Malibu Creek State Park. The jagged mountain scenery is covered in a gorgeous mix of golden grasses, dark-green chaparral and gnarled oaks. Slowly I dial up the pace through the curves—this is my first chance to suss out M4’s cornering behavior, but I am also fully aware that the CHP patrols Mulholland Highway. The car is sticking well, but at this brisk pace, I don’t feel like I am getting much feedback through the loaded steering. Is it that Mulholland is too smoothly paved to impart vibrations, or have I now discovered the flaw in the EPS system on which so many automotive journalists harped?
The sweeping curves give way to a few short straights. The coast is clear, and I go to wide-open throttle. Holy torque Batman! There is a short delay as the straight-six’s twin turbos spool up, and then a massive wave of torque rips me down the road at a giddy pace. The pull is so vicious that the traction control—which I have in the more lenient MDM mode—keeps cutting in at 5k rpm to prevent the tires from spinning. Whenever MDM intervenes, strange stuttering blats emit from the tailpipes. Even with the annoyance of the computer policing the acceleration, the M4 feels way faster in a straight line than my E90 M3.
Sage and I drive past the Rock Store restaurant at the beginning of Mulholland Highway’s famous Snake. Since moving to LA, I have driven half a dozen sporty cars on this twisting pavement, but the M4 feels like the widest of the lot. Through the Snake’s second-gear hairpins and closely-packed S-turns, I find myself nudging the left side of the double yellow more often than I should, and I am not even pushing the car’s limits. (I have seen too many CHP cruisers, Tour-de-France-wanna-be bicyclists, and speed-crazed motorcyclists on the Snake to gun it up this hill.) Still, the M4 is letting me down: there is very little steering feel off-center, the turbos have noticeable lag, and the engine power builds non-linearly and comes on in stages.
I park at the overlook at the top of the Snake, where it appears we have started a mini M-fest. Sage and I have provided the E90 M3 and F82 M4, and there is already an E46 M3 onsite. The E46’s owner obliges me as I excitedly ask him to move his car so we’ll have the three generations of M3 (okay, okay, one is an M4) parked back-to-back. I am a sucker for the competition package wheels, so I think my E90 looks best. That is until a dark gray F80 M3 arrives. The narrower 3-series body means that the fenders flare that much further around the wheels. It looks super aggressive and slightly sinister. Now I can’t decide which model is my favorite!
I toss Sage the M4’s keys and ride shotgun as he does a lap of the Snake. Sage has just spent 30 minutes in the M3 chasing me through the mountains, and the M4’s throttle, power, and traction control feel unpredictable in contrast. Sage is the son of a professional musician, and he places a high value on performance engines sounding exotic and melodic. The M3 meets this bar, but the M4’s note is not passing muster. Loud and harsh, Sage disdainfully describes it as agricultural. I agree that a tractor could make a similar tone, were tractors to rev to 7500 rpm! The turbos giveth and the turbos taketh away; at least the torque is excellent.
I retake the M4’s helm, and we caravan to the far west end of Mulholland Highway via Encinal Canyon. Encinal is a very open road, which I usually avoid because I’d have to do triple-digit speeds to find challenge in its broad curves. But Encinal is a fine place to explore the F82’s acceleration, and boy is it fast in a straight line! Although BMW markets this engine as a turbo engine with top-end, the power does wane at high rpm. This can be easily ignored, though, as there is more power from 3k rpm to 6k rpm in the F82 than the E90 has at 8k rpm. The DCT seamlessly upshifts so the rush of the turbos is continuous across gears. The only thing spoiling the thrust is the nanny traction control that keeps kicking in even though the wheel is pointed straight! If only I had not watched so many YouTube videos of drivers spinning their S55-powered M cars off the road, I might have the guts to turn the system off.
I reach Mulholland Highway’s most western segment and dive downhill towards the ocean. Sage, in the M3, is close behind, filling my mirrors. I round the first bend, and a beautiful coastal California panorama of green canyons and sandstone peaks fills the windscreen. Mulholland West has the right cadence for the M4. Sweeping second and third gear turns are tied together with medium length straights. A few tight hairpins are thrown in for fun. Through the long linking turns, I am focusing on the F82’s steering. There seems to be different weight and feel on-center when the wheel is loaded in a turn. The sensation of adding lock is rubber bandy—the weight becomes increasingly heavy when turned. This is a sensation I associate with EPAS. Finally, I am not convinced there is much front-tire feedback in the loaded rim.
A hallmark of a good driver is that he can traverse a turn with one smooth steering input and modulate the grip—and course of the car—via the throttle. I find it hard to meet this golden standard as I drive downhill in the M4. I am making many minor mid-corner adjustments with the steering and gas to compensate for the non-linear throttle response. I feel off-gait, out of the flow.
Still, the cornering grip is good, and the body roll is minimal. The suspension is super firm in Sport Plus mode, too firm for this road, and lacking as much travel as I’d like. The cracks and heaves in the pavement cause hard impacts to be transmitted into the cabin. The chassis is not upset, but I want more compliance.
Through one long downhill corner, a Focus ST flashes by in the opposite direction. Suddenly I am excited—now there is a fun car! I smile, recalling how the Focus ST felt like a junior rally car, eager to pitch into a corner and scrabble out the far end. The Ford had a solid chassis like an M3, yet also had the joie de vivre of an Evo in how it jumped into a turn. Why am I in a BMW daydreaming of a Ford?
I turn around in a shaded driveway at the bottom of the canyon, then summon my courage, and hold the traction control button while counting to five in my head. On the first long straight, I carefully and deliberately roll into full throttle, the turbo spools up, and yet again I am pinned to my seat as the tachometer needle flies skywards. My hands are tense on the wheel, prepared to take action should all hell break loose at 5k rpm. But 5k rpm passes by without drama, the rear tires keep gripping, the car is still pointed straight. The burping/brapping noise that I had heard at 5k rpm when M Dynamic Mode pulled throttle is gone, though I do get the same sound when I lift off the gas at the end of the straight.
Having survived the straight, I enter the series of sweepers and hairpins. I’m very careful with the throttle, creeping up slowly on the limits of the available grip by squeezing a little harder at the exit of each turn. I finally provoke the rear tires, causing a degree or two of progressive, manageable, catchable yaw. Fun!
Sage and I take a break from driving at the intersection of Mulholland and Decker. We hide from the glaring sun in the shade of an oak, sharing our impressions of the two cars. Sage thinks the E90 has lighter steering; I disagree, saying that the F82 is lighter on center and then heavier when loaded. I also disagree with Sage’s assessment that you sit higher in the F82 than in the E90; I think that Sage is being fooled by the M3’s higher the roofline (thanks in part to the lack of a sunroof) and taller windscreen that give you improved visibility versus the M4. Regardless, I feel that my eyes (and butt) are closer to the ground in the M4.
We swap cars and repeat the drive of Mulholland West. In my M3, I am finding it very easy to build a flowing rhythm through the corners. There is consistent weight and resistance to the steering, and I can take turns with single smooth inputs. Sage is right that the steering is lighter here than in the M4; the wheel turns so easily away from dead-center that it is almost like the front tires have been greased. (They are still gripping, so I know they have not.) I turn on the heavy Sport steering option to see if that changes the M3’s feel, but the overall impression is the same.
The E90’s throttle response is much easier to judge than the F82’s. Identical throttle inputs result in identical power outputs, every time. The engine sounds so much better, too! I am much more confident with putting my car on its limits, holding it there, and even exceeding those limits. But I should be, as I have years of seat time in this M3.
There are some aspects of the E90 M3 that now feel like a letdown. The comparatively high seating position, cushy/springy seat, softer shocks, and tippy body make me feel like I am more in a Lincoln Towncar than in an M3. Oh, how the mighty have fallen! There is a layer of insulating fat (okay, rubber and foam) in the M3’s interfaces—specifically its suspension and seating—that is toned muscle in the M4. This is also the first time I’ve felt that the E90’s chassis flexes and could use a little tightening up. When I compared the E90 versus an E46 a year ago, it was the E90 that felt hewn from a single solid piece of metal!
Sage has the brakes on the F82 smoking at the bottom of the hill, so we immediately perform a U-turn and climb back to the intersection with Decker Canyon. Pulled over on the side of the road, we continue debating the merits of the two cars. While the M4’s engine power is great, I don’t like its non-linear, unpredictable throttle response. How the power comes on in the M4 is unpredictably affected by variables like differing engine load (due to uphill or downhill driving) and if the throttle is entirely closed or partially open when gas is applied. S55’s loud, discordant sound has not won me over either.
My complaints about the M4 continue; the steering wheel diameter is too large, making the car’s turning response feel slower. (The steering rack speed in the two cars feels about the same.) Sage piles on with the M4 bashing, saying its brakes are less immediate and consistent than the E90’s. Okay, but we may have been bedding the M4’s brakes for the first time, as there was smoke wafting through the spokes of the wheels after our last downhill run!
It’s not that the E90 is faultless. The E90’s steering now feels too light on center, over boosted. While the visibility is better in the E90 due to a higher seating position, I’m sitting on the seats rather than in them. The M4’s seats are more reminiscent of racing buckets and have deep side-bolstering for my thighs that is missing in the M3. The E90’s chassis now feels rolly, soft, fat, and flexing.
Opening the M4’s hood, we are distracted for a moment by the pretty carbon-fiber brace framing the engine. We admire how the engine is visible instead of being hidden behind plastic cladding.
Sage rides with me in the M4 as I drive Decker Canyon to the PCH and back. MDM seems to be cutting my engine power quite a bit in tight hairpins if I get on the throttle while the steering is turned. Is the computer preemptively pulling power before the tires even start sliding? MDM is the most lenient setting for the stability control, and I’d prefer the computer to react to a slide rather than prevent it from happening in the first place.
We play with getting on the gas at different times and in different ways to see when the turbo is napping and when it’s awake and ready to go. If I am coasting and then go WOT, I can catch the turbo asleep; it will deliver reduced power for a second or so until the boost builds and full power arrives. On the other hand, if the engine is already lightly loaded when if I go to WOT, then I get full power immediately. The results are not always consistent, but we are sussing out the car’s behavior, and the M4 is becoming more predictable.
Our last sporting road for the day is Latigo Canyon. Latigo is my favorite road in the Santa Monica Mountians and the road on which I most recently tested a Porsche Cayman. The M4 has been in Sport Plus suspension mode all day, but the setting is too stiff for the lumpy sections of Latigo. I lay into the throttle on a short straight and am caught by surprise by a bump in the middle of the road. The M4 seems to jump off the pavement and then return to the ground with a jarring impact. (There was no tire squeal during this purported aerial maneuver, so my senses may have betrayed me, and the tires were likely in contact with the ground the whole time.) I have powered over this same bump in the E90 numerous times, and it has never been an event. I start having scary thoughts about how the M4 could have spun up the tires in the air and launched me sideways upon landing.
Other than this spike of adrenaline, the M4 is predictable and a real hoot on Latigo. It has taken 75 miles of hard driving, but I am finally getting into the grove with this car. I’ve learned to anticipate the turbo response and wrenching acceleration. The steering rack’s variable ratios are now familiar, and I am making clean single-arc turns in the M4, using the throttle to play with the rear tires (TC off) and then enjoying the massive torque from the engine as I exit the corners.
We switch cars so Sage can drive the M4 up the hill. Back in the M3, I can’t keep pace with him on the straights. The M3 is also losing ground at the corner exits, as its rear limited-slip differential isn’t as effective at keeping the inside tire from spinning as I get back on the gas.
At the summit of Latigo, we stand beside the ticking cars and watch the sun droop towards the horizon. I am mentally debating whether or not to drive the M4 home to Santa Monica tonight—burning precious miles on freeway slogging—or if I should just use every rental mile in the canyons and return the car tonight. I calculate that I have enough remaining miles to do one more loop of Latigo either way, so we mount up again. This time I put the M4’s suspension in comfort mode, and the car seems better glued to the road. Leaving corners, the M4 reminds me of the Nissan GT-R in the way it rides its unabated wave of torque up through gears. I’m hooked: the M4 now has me on a string.
The illumination of the low fuel light settles the debate about how much longer I should spend in the canyons. It is time to return to civilization. We retrace our route down Mulholland Hwy and the Snake and find a Chevron station near the 101. The M4 has averaged 10 MPG this afternoon. Just a few hours earlier, I doubted the M4, finding it unpredictable, coarse and big, but now that I have learned the car’s quirks and made personal adjustments, and I am at ease with its new philosophy. The F82 is the melding of Mitsubishi Evo turbo power and road feel with BMW rear wheel drive dynamics and modern convenience I had hoped it would be. Yes, it has compromised the comfort and sound of the M3 along the way, but I accept these compromises.
Prologue
Sage drives the highway stint back to Tarzana. We get dinner at Whole Foods, then part ways. I drive the M4 to Santa Monica on back roads to conserve miles; maybe I can find a fun road tomorrow to drive hard before my rental is up.
While on Sepulveda Blvd, a Mercedes McLaren SLR pulls up next to me at a red light. When the light turns green, he blasts away with roaring V8 fury. I try to keep up, and amazingly, the M4 stays locked to the SLR through two or three gears. So fast!
The next morning I drive my wife through her morning commute. I show her the auto-parking and driver assistance features. She likes the 360-degree parking cameras. I take the highways so I can demonstrate the M4’s power. As the engine note gets louder, she remembers that this car is one of the new crop of fakers that play their engine sounds over the stereo speakers. Disgusted that BMW would do something so disingenuous, she says we can never own this car. I am devastated; I’ve fallen for the M4, and I can imagine getting its sedan twin, the F80 M3, as our family car. Will time and constant nagging change her mind?
After dropping off my better half at her destination, I head up through the residential neighborhoods of Bel Air for Mulholland Dr. The E90 M3 is lazy and aloof at city speeds; its maniacal side is really only exposed near redline. I am curious to see if the M4 is more fun on city streets. As I noted yesterday, the road texture coming through the seat and wheel is engaging me in the driving experience. The car also feels quicker between the stoplights, as I can actually visit its power band on city streets.
Blasting away from a stop sign, I turn the heads of some construction workers who are unloading a truck two blocks down the road. I guess this M4 is louder from the outside than I realize! I roll down the windows to see how the car sounds from outside; there is the faintest turbo whistle at 4k rpm, and the blowoff valve’s blat is ever so much more so entertaining when reflected back to my ears by adjacent retaining walls. Actually, the car sounds much better with the windows down, where its natural noise overpowers its synthetic muzak. Why didn’t BMW follow Pagani’s lead and fully embrace the new array of sounds that comes from having turbo technology in the engine bay? Hearing whistles and whooshes can be fun too.
With traction control off, I find that the M4 can boil its tires through three gears when peak torque is rocking. During one hard upshift into second gear, the M4 even crab-walks sideways, and I have to countersteer to keep the car straight. It is great to be in a car that requires my attention when driving! Super cars of the twentieth century had a defining characteristic of not suffering fools and were quick to throw said fools in the ditch if they made a hamfisted move. The M4 is not so harsh in its judgments, but it too needs an alert driver. The car is so quick and alive.
I am sad to be returning this M4. The F82 has a few flaws—let’s call them “areas for improvement”—but most of my initial disappointments disappeared once I adjusted to the M division’s new style. The engine note still could use some work, though I don’t want it to be any louder. The chassis and suspension meet my preferences, as do the DCT and turbo power. The changes BMW made to the F82 address my biggest complaints with the E90, and I accept the required tradeoffs. Now if depreciation would just bring the price down!
I am a sedan fan and soon to be family man, so I’d pick the F80 M3 sedan over the F82 M4 coupe. (Should I find room in my life for a coupe, the compact M2 would be more compelling.) In either guise, the driving dynamics should be the same, and F80/F82 reminds me of parts of my favorite cars: the GT-R, Evo IX, and E90 M3. In a few years, once clean used F80s with competition packs are available on the used market, you might find me in a new turbo M3.
Sage’s Impressions
I quite enjoyed driving the E90 M3 first, reveling in the quick-revving V8 (while wishing for just a bit more noise from the intake or exhaust) and thinking to myself, how can the M4 compete with this engine! So tractable and perfectly matched to the seven-speed DCT, all I could think on the way up was sound, sound, sound. (Sound is one of the primary reasons I love exotic cars.) Hearing you in the M4 ahead of me, I was not happy with the funky blat when you went WOT.
So we got to the top and switched. Immediately, my impression was, “where’s the torque?” and “wow, that’s a lot of lag and quite a high boost threshold.” (I was expecting good boost at 2,000 rpm or so.) And then that awful sound, the funky blat when going WOT in boost. Perhaps the wastegate was opening to let out excess exhaust pressure? Not good. Initially, the M4 reminded me of the Focus ST we drove—very tight, modern feeling, funny steering (initially) because of the variable rack not feeling instantly familiar, and the brakes felt awful after your E90. Mushy, not firm.
The power didn’t impress me at all downhill, and the car felt springy and reminded me a little of the way the Mustang GT would squat and go under acceleration. The E90 seemed more to want to set into a corner.
Uphill was a different ballgame. Finally, I could feel the power. Not excited about the low level of slide the TCS gave, I expected some slip angle from BMW’s latest and greatest.
After the first run, it didn’t feel like either car would really pull away from the other, but that was due in large part to feeling instantly comfortable with the V8 and its power delivery out of corners and the nice firm brake pedal. I could pin the throttle out of corners with confidence in the car. The F82 was a totally different ballgame. I immediately liked the steering; it felt intuitive and impressed me a lot. But the mushy brakes and awful sound, combined with the unpredictable feeling power and overly aggressive stability control, made the car feel unpredictable.
The F82 felt like another M car that will be faster with the stability control off, which is a disappointment. Modern tires appreciate a little slip angle for maximum grip and cornering speed. Seeing as Porsche and Ferrari and especially Chevrolet have tuned their stability control to allow a bit of slip angle and hang the car right on that edge while making the driver look like a hero and getting the most out of modern sticky rubber, it’s disappointing BMW is not there yet.
Having watched several F80 videos where the owners presumably turned off stability control and lost control of their cars in a straight line, I was worried about the torque overwhelming the tires and causing issues.
Toward the end of the day, on my last run driving the F80 chasing Mike in the E90, I turned off the systems, and it was a revelation. The car came alive, less funny exhaust sounds, the steering felt great, and the car just felt so solid. And the diff; instead of cutting power coming out of corners, the magic M diff would kick in, and the car would squat and go. No overly dramatic power slide or anything, no squabbling tires like the E90.
Mike's Steering Column 