What is BMW doing?

If it’s a MK7 then it should have the plugin “Soundaktor” which is still electronic and hiding under the plenum. Older cars sometimes used the intake piped to the firewall trick.

I’m not saying that I like this trend, but in this exact example you mentioned the car has a fake noise generator AND it’s better because it’s mechanical. I’d much rather have something that doesn’t add any weight and is still just a fancy frequency amplifier. Being able to shut that off completely is a way of at least acknowledging it stinks but turbo motors just don’t sound as good and emissions are going to keep us from getting there.

I really debated getting a E90 M3 with the V8 because it sounds amazing but the lack of torque, 14mpg and fact it really needs to be on a track to rev out makes the turbo 6 cars much more desirable in my mind even though they sound like farts.

good point, I guess they are all bad. :slight_smile: … but yes, the ability o turn it off is nice. It is all a stepping stone toward electric at this point when all of the noise will have to be generated. Driving EVs is so fun. It is just hard for me to get excited about new ICE cars at all anymore.

I suppose its fine for the crowd that thinks an M on their car means more performance even though it’s not a BMW Motorsport product. Because BMW is trying to please everyone cool features like that seem appropriate - but I think it’s terrible for true performance aficionados - the hardcore guys. I think it betrays the model and the brand.
I bought an M3 not for the sound but for the German performance & quality. When I tired of the sound, I didn’t flip a switch. I swapped out the exhaust for a Rogue Engineering free flow exhaust for performance gains (and the sound) and if my State didn’t have strict emissions testing I’d probably have pulled the cats as well. Note, I then added a Euro HFM, 24lb fuel injectors, underdrive pulleys pulled the programming chip and swapped it for a Turner Motorsport chip programmed for my exact upgrades. I did it all honestly, knowing I had a properly modded vehicle and had paid my way into it. But I’m one of those hardcore guys that BMW is almost abandoning. :frowning:
To fake all that seems like panderous marketing to me - if you buy a 335, it should sound like a 335 and be proud of it. Maybe BMW should have a proprietary exhaust header and cat tube design that requires their own BMW branded aftermarket exhaust if they want the sound of an M3. Afterall, service and aftermarket parts are where the money is!

I’ve been enjoying Gran Turismo a lot more recently. I think it’s because of the auto news. Recently, I’ve been driving the M3 with the V8 and loving it without spending any money in gas. I also enjoy driving the occasional Ferrari with a manual and not having to use a flappy paddle (although, I guess my controller is closer to flappy paddles than a real manual, but I’m using my imagination).

I think video games may be the future of auto enthusiasts…

I think video games may be the future of auto enthusiasts…

RAY !

Truely not.

Given my old 535 ix Touring felt like a Video game on the Autobahn switching fully to “imagination” is turning the whole topic on its head.
I for one love to live. Even if it made me earn scars on a Schwinn Stingray, because it was so badly balanced.

Reality is were it is all at.

mo-i

Mo-i: DIdn’t they already kick all those diesels off the road in Germany? Next up is anything that’s not autonomous (I kid slightly, because I think we are 15-20 years from autonomous).

Again, off topic, but it would be cool if the next gen of auto sims was full of cars designed by Chip Foose and Chris Bangle and engineered by Adrian Newey and Gordon Murray.

Not necessarily BMW but inspired by BMW…hmmmm? Those grill ports have Neumorphism written all over them.

I often think the many independent designers who show this kind of passion might be better suited to this type of conceptual vision work than internal teams inside a company, BMW in this example. Freedom to think, divest, expand, etc without the knowledge of constraints that inevitably surround an internal team.

I most like the gray/green with the blacked out details :slight_smile:

All this griping about fake sound and you made me go and do this. :slight_smile:


Although it came with a race exhaust which needs to come off the car if I don’t want to end up divorced.

Sweet! & I love the color. Ya know, when I read How to make friends and influence people it was just the last part that stuck. That’s a nice lookin’ E90-E92.

Nice! Wishing you many safe rides and a pleasurable experience. Manual?

I’m keeping my fingers crossed that he says, ‘yes’.

Sorry it’s a DCT. Reality is (at least post Covid) I’m probably going to be daily driving it on an crowded island with mostly terrible roads and bumper to bumper traffic.

It was also a question of specs - the production numbers for the competition sedan are super super low, they only made them for 1 year. About 60 total cars in the USA in this shade of blue (Excluding any that have been crashed) and only 20 of those were manuals, would’ve had to find a real unicorn or buy another white car (which I insisted I wouldn’t do after owning 3 white BMW’s already).

I’m happy with it though, the DCT is violently quick and behaves like a manual in most other regards (hooray using the Ebrake and not rolling forward with your foot off the gas).

Have we watched this -

(Lol credited as the X5 designer. Not the F430 designer)

Oh Frank is just doing some self promotion, going over all the cars he’s designed, and dissecting some other designs has well. Here’s the video where he talks about F430: How I Designed...The Ferrari F430! Ep.2 - YouTube

And just to bring it back on topic, I’m not sure BMW will ever be able to reclaim the value that their badge had. With covid now and automated electric driving around the corner, it’s looking pretty dire for most big brands. Partly (my conjecture) because their committees just can’t agree on the required ‘radical’ new designs in terms of packaging, that comes with the liberty of a skateboard chassis.

I like Stephenson’s comments. Most of the car is nice, just not distinctive. I’m curious to see if it will feel so Mustang-ish in person, or more Audi A5. The grille is atrocious. I’m still thinking about Stephenson’s suggestion to separate the kidneys a little bit rather than have that weird overlap.

I liked them as well. .I felt let down a bit by the F430 video, partly because his course of action seemed arbitrary, partly because the sketch was not good. He has a non-sophisticated manner of speaking of which I can’t tell if its ‘dumbed down’ for YouTube, or the plain way that he describes things. Could be that he is better at form than speaking about form; he repeats himself often, needs to broaden his adjectives. Or maybe its the bottle of scotch on the back shelf :slight_smile: - anyway he has a good distinction made between the quality of the surfacing (good) and the clear idea behind the design theme (bad).

I want to say it’s not as horrible as the months of leaked renderings but I can’t do it. Giant kidneys aside, that horrible intersection where the kidneys meet the lower lip looks like this horribly delicate “crack me here” radius someone applied in Pro E at the last minute. Same with the weird radiused block graphic going across the front and back bumpers.

This solidified my decision in buying a 10 year old M3.

So gross. I can’t even find a single area that isn’t a mess.

Likewise, Mike, I keep planning to sell my e38 740iL then I see all this new hot steaming garbage and think there will be no going back to the good old days when BMW was leading in design and I should just keep it forever…

R

Is it just me, or does it look like a hot rodded econobox? All the blacked out trim, fake vents everywhere, wheel arches that look like they were made with a baseball bat, weird pep-boys like details tacked on. Ouch.

Also…it looks like BMW is trying to one up the not-great Alfa Romeo Guilia. Never a good sign when you are chasing the market laggard.