Two days ago, I picked up my M3 at the Highland Park location. I’m very, very happy with it. But I do feel that the power is obviously dialed down when starting from a dead stop. The reasons I believe this are:
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1) I drove at 6:15 AM on a Sat with almost no traffic and wet roads that hadn’t seen rain in the last 20 min. In a straight line, flooring it in the 0-25 mph range led to the rear tires losing grip and then traction control kicking acting in a very impressive and responsive way both in how it cut power and added it back in. See footnote 1 for a tangent on traction control.
2) On dry roads, flooring it and said speeds yielded almost no wheel spin or noticable traction control action.
3) The increase in acceleration around 25 mph is dramatic. If full torque were available earlier, I don’t believe it would feel as it does. On dry roads on a wide left turn from a red light, it’s never loosing grip (or accelerating especially quickly) at 10 mph. Yet later in the turn it’s accelerating quite quickly and getting a bit squirrelly, which is fun.
This is my first EV, but one of the things I liked about them, theoretically, was the flat powerband and immediately available power. My car isn’t displaying the same tourque at 10 mph as it is at 30. My guess is that this is a conscious decision that’s been implemented via software. I’d MUCH prefer low speed torque be an option (Sport or regular) if there is a safety decision involved. I hope there isn’t some hardware weakness being worked around.
My next test will be to try going a sustained 10 mph and then punching it. Maybe that’s different than flooring it at zero.
I’m coming into this with bias from this lthread linked below about a change in performance with a recent software update. It mentions low speed torque. I only took delivery 2 days ago so I can’t add anything in regard to a change taking place.
Reports of slower accelleration after latest update.
1) On the wet roads turning sharply while simultaneously accelerating hard would get the back end out. But traction control would shut it down AND it would delay access to torque for way too long. It’s not trying to help you stay on the edge. It’s shutting down the fun. When accelerating in a straight line on wet roads, it finds the edge brilliantly. Maybe it isn’t the Turing that puts it in safe mode. Maybe it’s the degree of loss of traction brought on by cranking the wheel.
http://blah
1) I drove at 6:15 AM on a Sat with almost no traffic and wet roads that hadn’t seen rain in the last 20 min. In a straight line, flooring it in the 0-25 mph range led to the rear tires losing grip and then traction control kicking acting in a very impressive and responsive way both in how it cut power and added it back in. See footnote 1 for a tangent on traction control.
2) On dry roads, flooring it and said speeds yielded almost no wheel spin or noticable traction control action.
3) The increase in acceleration around 25 mph is dramatic. If full torque were available earlier, I don’t believe it would feel as it does. On dry roads on a wide left turn from a red light, it’s never loosing grip (or accelerating especially quickly) at 10 mph. Yet later in the turn it’s accelerating quite quickly and getting a bit squirrelly, which is fun.
This is my first EV, but one of the things I liked about them, theoretically, was the flat powerband and immediately available power. My car isn’t displaying the same tourque at 10 mph as it is at 30. My guess is that this is a conscious decision that’s been implemented via software. I’d MUCH prefer low speed torque be an option (Sport or regular) if there is a safety decision involved. I hope there isn’t some hardware weakness being worked around.
My next test will be to try going a sustained 10 mph and then punching it. Maybe that’s different than flooring it at zero.
I’m coming into this with bias from this lthread linked below about a change in performance with a recent software update. It mentions low speed torque. I only took delivery 2 days ago so I can’t add anything in regard to a change taking place.
Reports of slower accelleration after latest update.
1) On the wet roads turning sharply while simultaneously accelerating hard would get the back end out. But traction control would shut it down AND it would delay access to torque for way too long. It’s not trying to help you stay on the edge. It’s shutting down the fun. When accelerating in a straight line on wet roads, it finds the edge brilliantly. Maybe it isn’t the Turing that puts it in safe mode. Maybe it’s the degree of loss of traction brought on by cranking the wheel.
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