Two Very Thorough Test Drives off both new M3 and M4

[535dboy]

I was invited by BMW a few weeks ago to the M3/4 launch at Thruxton. I was able to take a friend with me (which was handy for the first part of the day...........)

Once again a very well run event ( I went to one at Brands Hatch last year )

The events included, in order :

Morning

A road drive in a 640DGC. I do like the look of these cars and would far rather one over a 7 but after my stint I just let me friend drive the rest of the way and we never swapped again because I was bored !

An off road stint in the X3/5. Hilarious. This involved driving up and down some not very steep grass (dry luckily for them!) banks. Clearly worried that anything more challenging would have taxed it too much.

A go on their new skid pan in both a 435d Xdrive and the new M3. The day started to get more exciting and have to say the 435 was very controllable.

Afternoon

At the brands hatch event it was very sedate, no helmets, and national speed limit, ie very boring.

Here it was helmets (took my own luckily) with an instructor. We got allocated the same instructor for the whole afternoon between just me and my friend. Our initial worries for getting the old git instructor were soon put to one side when we had been told in the briefing session that they would drive us around first, helmets not required, at the national speed limit. Well I am glad that his interpretation of the NSL was 120mph !

After an initial assessment by him on our driving skills, establishing that we kind of knew what we were doing, he just pushed and pushed us. Whatever car I was driving I only got overtaken by two other people, Andy Prilaux or Colin Turkington doing hot laps in MSV prepped V8 M3s shod with semi slicks.

I got to drive the M135i, M235i, M3, M4, M5 and 650GC several times over. There were so many cars to use that you could just hop in and out of whatever you wanted

It was a bone dry day which leads to my biggest concern with M3/4/5, struggling for traction still. The traction control light was flickering away like the red light outside PVRs house and in some cases just cutting the power, thus slowing you down. Obviously he wasn't allowed to turn the control systems off for insurance reasons ( I had to sign something to say I wouldn't........) but it just made the whole experience hard work.

This I can back up with my dealer drive last week in a new M3. We came up behind a new shape Z4 but with quad pipes which threw the dealer and I little bit. We later saw the hartage badge so it was a hot one. So we stormed off and because I was struggling with traction again I just couldn't stick with him! At the next opportunity the dealer relaxed the traction control which helped a bit but this was a 25 degree day so how much hard work is this car going to be in the wet !?

Any back to the day at Thruxton. A managed to con a couple of hot laps out of Andy where we had to take to the grass to avoid wiping out another car !

My car of the day though is the 1/235is, I love them !

Pictures can be seen here

http://www.actionimages.com/bmwsponsors ... vents.aspx

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[Lee4.8is]

Thanks very much for sharing your experience. 

[535dboy]

[quote="Lee4.8is"]
Thanks very much for sharing your experience. 
[/quote]

My advice therefore would be to go for an end of line V8 M3 or of course an RS4 !

[Lee4.8is]

[quote="535dboy"]
[quote="Lee4.8is"]
Thanks very much for sharing your experience. 
[/quote]

My advice therefore would be to go for an end of line V8 M3 or of course an RS4 !
[/quote]
Ticked the V8 M3 box so RS4 it is then!! 

[snipez999]

What gives with the winkle pickers and moobs??