Quote:
Originally Posted by M3GymNut
I don't understand how people say ZF is a downgrade from DCT. If that were the case why would BMW do that? On the M3 platform no less. An auto is an auto no matter how you slice it. I'm pretty sure BMW can make the ZF just as quick and responsive as the DCT.
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I didn't want to write this because it may give BMW marketing unnecessary ideas, but here's what happened the past few years.
2008: Remember how BMW boasted the shit out of consistent less-than-60ms shifting speed of M-DCT back in 2008? They now advertise ZF transmission in M5 as "M sport step-tronic 8 speed automatic transmission" without any of those performance adjectives.
Quite odd for M that likes to boast other technologies like M-xDrive, Don't you think? They don't claim the transmission is better shifting than previous generation. It is presumably due to legal reasons.
2014: BMW M markets the shit out of CFRP driveshaft in M4, boasting 40% weight reduction in rotating mass.
2017: BMW Group quietly announces on their webpage that M4s from October 2017 will gradually have steel driveshafts, on pretext due to inability to cope with larger diameter exhaust pipes of OPF filters.
Now anyone who took a materials engineering class would know this is pure bs as CFRP composite is able to achieve the same torsional stiffness of steel/aluminum alloys at around half the weight given identical dimensions.
2018: BMW M puts ZFat on M5. Some long term owners start to complain its lack of input response.
2019: BMW M does not confirm which "automatic" transmission will be on the G8x M3/M4. But BMW's internal naming clearly differentiates torque converter automatics with dual clutch transmission (look up on dealer system, quite similar to R**loem)
I'm thinking that this is because BMW knows that some customers will immediately move on to Porsche or AMG if they were to offer the same transmission, so they are waiting for the old customers to "accept" that it will likely be automatic transmission. I refuse that, and so should you for a better world.
