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Has the accleration gotten smoother on the LR AWD?

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On the Performance vs the LR thread someone mentioned that they don't feel the same kick with the LR + Powerboost as they do in a Performance which reminded me that I've noticed a change to the acceleration since I bought my M3 in July 2019. I can't ride roller coasters, when I tried in my 20s I passed out afterwards. When I first got my M3 I stomped on the pedal a couple of times to test out the acceleration, it made me very dizzy. More recently I've tried it a few more times and it doesn't bother me anymore. I'm not sure if it's the car or me that's changed. I haven't done it more than a few times so it doesn't seem likely that I've adapted, it's more likely they adjusted the acceleration curve to make it more comfortable. Has anyone else with an AWD noticed a change in the way you perceive the acceleration?
 
I dont think there has been any change (but dont know for a fact). The acceleration does change based on state of charge, and how warm the battery is, though.

People underestimate "battery is cold". I park in a fully enclosed, drywalled garage, and I live in southern california. My garage never (ever) gets colder than about 45 degrees in the dead of "winter" (for us), and right now my garage is in the 60s My battery is still cold every morning. not with a snowflake, we hardly ever see that, but with the lack of available regen (regen dots).

It also takes about 20-25 miles of driving freeway speeds of 80MPH for those dots to go away.

TL ; DR, you probably have less acceleration because your battery is cold, in general, when you get into the car, or when you try to accelerate.
 
I can't say for sure, but it does feel like my M3 was recently toned down just a notch. Since I got it in the winter and spring is here, I don't think it's a temperature issue. It used to be scary fast. I've been thinking this for a few weeks. Could be wrong though... time will tell. I want the speed back :)

Perhaps the vehicle's build can't handle its own speed?
 
You also just get used to it....

Humans are supremely adaptable creatures. In general, we adapt fairly quickly to stuff like this. For example, if you buy a 75 inch TV, for like a week or two it will look large to you, then it will just be "your TV" and look normal. When you go over someones home who has a 55 inch TV as their main TV, you will look at it and think "man that TV is small....."

Same thing with acceleration in a vehicle. BMWs whole buying experience is predicated on this. People start with leasing a 330 (because more than half of all new BMWs are leased), then over the course of those three years, the car goes from feeling "fast" to "kinda normal" to "I wish it was faster". Then the person leases a 340 and the exact same thing happens, and they end up in an M3.

Or, if they bought the 330, they start trying to modify ("mod") it to get more power out of it because even though it was fast enough when they bought it, its not fast enough anymore.


One way to check and see if "its just me getting used to it" is to drive another car (any other car) for a day and see how slow it feels. Your foot is now likely calibrated to the acceleration of your vehicle, which means that when you get into another car, you likely drive it like the proverbial "lil old lady down the street". This is because your foot / body is now calibrated to "this much accelerator push generates that much speed", and it wont be the same in another vehicle.

TL ; DR, the quickest way to make your car feel "fast" again, is to drive some other car for a day or two.
 
You also just get used to it....

Humans are supremely adaptable creatures. In general, we adapt fairly quickly to stuff like this. For example, if you buy a 75 inch TV, for like a week or two it will look large to you, then it will just be "your TV" and look normal. When you go over someones home who has a 55 inch TV as their main TV, you will look at it and think "man that TV is small....."

Same thing with acceleration in a vehicle. BMWs whole buying experience is predicated on this. People start with leasing a 330 (because more than half of all new BMWs are leased), then over the course of those three years, the car goes from feeling "fast" to "kinda normal" to "I wish it was faster". Then the person leases a 340 and the exact same thing happens, and they end up in an M3.

Or, if they bought the 330, they start trying to modify ("mod") it to get more power out of it because even though it was fast enough when they bought it, its not fast enough anymore.


One way to check and see if "its just me getting used to it" is to drive another car (any other car) for a day and see how slow it feels. Your foot is now likely calibrated to the acceleration of your vehicle, which means that when you get into another car, you likely drive it like the proverbial "lil old lady down the street". This is because your foot / body is now calibrated to "this much accelerator push generates that much speed", and it wont be the same in another vehicle.

TL ; DR, the quickest way to make your car feel "fast" again, is to drive some other car for a day or two.
I'm not talking about acceleration during normal driving, I drive with a very light foot. I'm talking about flat out acceleration. On two or three occasions I've looked for an empty on-ramp on a Sunday (when traffic is light), come to a complete halt and waited for a big gap in the traffic. I then put my foot to the floor to see what happens. I don't have a draggy and the phone app that I tried doesn't work very well so all of my observations are based on my own senses. The actual acceleration is ridiculous. When I punch it I keep my eyes on the road not on the speedometer until I'm safely in a lane. After I'm in a lane I look at the speedometer, which is at 99MPH, at that point I hit the brake to get it down to a legal speed. My two observations are 1) the car is so fast that it's gone 0-100MPH in the time it takes me to react and 2) I'm not nearly as dizzy as I was when I first tried it.
 
Ok so if I understand you correctly, it's still as quick but smoother? Did I get that right?
That's what I suspect. I think it gets to 60MPH just as quickly as it did before but they've modified the acceleration curve so that it's more comfortable for people who don't want the astronaut experience. What prompted my post was a statement in another thread comparing LR + Powerboost with Performance. It makes sense that for the LR they would tune it so that people like me don't get sick but for the Performance version they would tune it so that you would experience the maximum G forces because that's what people who buy the P version are looking for.

To be clear I'm speculating. My only measurement tool is my inner ear and I'm a sample of 1. That's why I'm asking if anyone else has noticed a change because I don't know if it's real or my imagination.
 
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That's what I suspect. I think it gets to 60MPH just as quickly as it did before but they've modified the acceleration curve so that it's more comfortable for people who don't want the astronaut experience. What prompted my post was a statement in another thread comparing LR + Powerboost with Performance. It makes sense that for the LR they would tune it so that people like me don't get sick but for the Performance version they would tune it so that you would experience the maximum G forces because that's what people who buy the P version are looking for.
New software upgrade for LR: puke mode haha
 
You mean feeling the G force right? I never felt that with the LR and acceleration boost. When I test drove performance hell yes. The acceleration boost just more like an already violent push your head back feeling. With the P I tested I got light headed. And that is why I’m trading my LR for P! Do it Ninja!
 
You mean feeling the G force right? I never felt that with the LR and acceleration boost. When I test drove performance hell yes. The acceleration boost just more like an already violent push your head back feeling. With the P I tested I got light headed. And that is why I’m trading my LR for P! Do it Ninja!
It was probably your comment that I prompted me to start this thread. When I bought the car in 2019 the acceleration felt violent but sometime last year it stopped feeling that way to me. For you feeling light headed is a good thing for me it's a bad thing.
 
It was probably your comment that I prompted me to start this thread. When I bought the car in 2019 the acceleration felt violent but sometime last year it stopped feeling that way to me. For you feeling light headed is a good thing for me it's a bad thing.
For me the acceleration boost felt the same - more violent than normal LR and a higher torque around 40-80 which the boost excels at.