MCoupe shakedown

[norm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Norm Bartoo)]

I had the fun of putting some rather aggressive, tight twisty road miles on an MCoupe a few days ago (before some clueless clod wadded it up, more later) and thought I should share a few observations.  The roads were quite familiar to me (Rancho Santa Fe for So. Cal folks,), I play with my E36 M3 there on a regular basis and know its limits.

The Coupe feels much stiffer than my M3 (with x-brace & strut brace).  The Coupe would hop several inches to the side no bumpy apexes when drifting; the M3 tends to "walk" a few inches.  The coupe's much shorter wheelbase begs for throttle steer and given some understeer tendencies in the Coupe it is needed.  The Coupe drifts about the same as the M3 on flat, fast turns.  I noticed the Coupe would understeer (read serious push) on down hill, tight turns (40-50 mph) with neutral throttle.  However repeating the same turns with  power on before pushing onset eliminated the problem and actually made the corner a few mph faster than the M3 (which does not push in the same corner).  I suspect a tire pressure change front to rear might help the Coupe (all 4 tires were at the same pressure) as might some camber change.  My impression is that the Coupe has some behavior traits not shared with the other current BMWs.  It reminds me of several race cars I ran in the distant past which r!
esponded well to throttle steer 
(even needed it).

However, these same fun, responsive traits, can appearently bite the unsuspecting (unskilled?).  The Coupe was bent pretty good a few days ago on a test drive.  While rounding a slowish (20-25) curve (one on my test route) the Coupe started to push a bit.  The chap lifted suddenly and coupe responded with more understeer, merrily pushing into a ditch. Now I have to wait until it is mended (bent suspension and tweaked strut tower, plus, plus) to go play again.

My overall opinion is I like it, its fun. Kinda remindes me of an Healey 3000 or a 298 Cobra. 


                               ________   _   ____
Norm Bartoo                   / / / / |  / | [__  ]
97 M3, 94 325IS              / / / /  | /  |  __] ]
San Diego, CA               / / / / / |/ / |  __] ]
norm@domain.elided   /_/_/_/_/|___/|_| [____]
(MCoupe on order :) )

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