[stormlv]

(Sorry for a long post - there are videos and photos to the bottom)

I have owned this car for 6 months now and was able to get an idea of how it behaves both as a daily drive and as a track car.

Intro

Coming from the F82, it had some big shoes to fill.
I had sold that car after almost 6 years of ownership and absolutely loved every minute of it.

I specced it as I wanted it and spent ̶a̶ ̶l̶o̶t̶ some time wondering on whether or not to get two options:
- Carbon bucket seats
- Carbon Ceramic brakes

I ended up not getting either of them.
Coming from the F82, I found those seats to be good on track, and was thinking that if the G82's are at least as good, I'm going to be fine.
I went with the ventilated seats for 2 reasons : ventilation , and comfort (especially for getting in and out, in my tight garage)

I didn't spec the CCB because I track the cars fairly regularly and didn't want to spend a lot of $$ into changing the discs.

With that said, here are a few thoughts about the car.

As a daily

As a daily driver, it's really really nice. It feels more like a 5 series, than my previous 4.

The interior is definitely a step up in quality. Barred the leather, it's like what you get in the series 8.

It's pleasant to be in the car for long trips.
The ventilated seats really help not to get sweaty (although, I have to admit, I expected even a bit more ventilation )

Reached the limiter on the autobahn (255kph - didn't get the driver's package this time), and the car was just at ease at those speeds.
It's quite incredible how stable it is on German roads.

In stop and go traffic, I absolutely loved the cruise control with lane assist. It's very smooth with it's starts and stops and if you look straight, you don't need to put your hands on the wheel - just need to pay attention forward.
It also creates an "emergency lane" if you're below 30kph.
Anyway, it's muuuch better than the Tesla's which in stop and go traffic is very jerky.

The only thing that I miss is the sound...
The particulate filter killed the awesome start-ups in the morning.
It's muuch quieter right now. I guess one upside is that I can be in sports mode in town and not be noticed too much (which can be a problem in CH)

Anyway, I think overall, it's a great package as a daily driver.
It gets a lot of attention (especially in IOMG), even in CH.

On the track

I want to preface all of this by saying, I *do not* consider myself any track expert by any means - I do this for fun, and try to not to push myself to dangerous situations.

That said, I try to improve on how I drive, and am comfortable for having track sessions with DSC OFF.

So far, I have been to 2 tracks: Circuit de Bresse in France and Nurburgring.

Both times I went there stock, barred the 963M wheels with the PS4S* tires.
I did this for 2 reasons.

• See what the stock car can do
• Compare stock setup vs my previous car

Circuit de Bresse is a relatively short, very brake heavy track.
Nurburgring... well you know that already

On both tracks, I improved my times compared to my previous F82

On Circuit de Bresse I went from a 1.43.9 on Cup2 to a 1.41.7 on PS4S*

On Nurburgring, I gained ~10 seconds (maybe more).

Handling Needless to say, the car handles fantastically. It hides its weight very well and it's very confidence inspiring. It's much more balanced and when the car does lose traction, it does so in a pretty predictable manner. I don't know how they tweaked the chassis, but oh man, it's awesome.

Engine The engine impressed me less than the chassis changes. Don't get me wrong, it's definitely powerful, and you feel it, but it's not something that made me say "wow". I guess a tune can fix that

Brakes I specifically stayed on stock brake pads and fluid to see how it would behave. I really was very pleasantly surprised. I didn't experience brake fade in the laps that I did. Cooling works quite nicely I think.

Overall I did a full day at Bresse and ~14 laps of Nürburgring in a day and all was great. I was really surprised.

The brakes were one of my great annoyances with the M4. In Switzerland you can't really modify it, and a homologated brake kit costs an arm and a leg :|

Good job BMW

Gearbox This is by far my main point of dissatisfaction with the car.
It does an OK job, but compared to the DCT it just feels sluggish. There are times where it shifts where you feel that for 50-100ms you lose power. Don't know how to describe it - the shifts are not instantaneous.
They're not bad per se, but coming from the DCT, it's for sure a step back.
I'm thinking maybe a gearbox tune might fix it?

Seating As expected, the seats behaved the same as my original ones. For me they're great and it didn't leave me wanting for more. I'm sure the bucket seats would have been better, but for overall practicality, I'd pick these again.

Circuit de Bresse

Nürburgring

[EatThatLunchBaby]

Excellent write up, thanks for sharing your thoughts!

[DocWeatherington]

Great write up..i always like a sexy video too

[stormlv]

Thanks guys !

[byjlong]

Excellent video! I loved watching you chase while exhibiting superb patience through the corners! The G sounded solid on the throttle, and that track lets the car sing.

I did a three hour “test drive” of a G80 on the BMW Performance Center North Palm Circuit in Thermal CA as part of private instruction on getting in and out of corners…

My impressions were much like yours, that there was a distinct hesitance in the G coming out of the corners. My instructor, who was only somewhat familiar with the G platform, suggested it wasn’t turbo lag but trying-to-find-the-gear-lag…

I’d likely warm up to the G automatic 8 tranny with more seat time, but I sure was wishing for my F82 M4cs DCT (I’ve had 4 consecutive cars with sequential transmissions).

Good luck finding your sweet spot, that looks like a tasty track to work it out.