Ride quality 20" Uberturbines

[DES_MX]

Hi Everyone,

Just ordered a (hopefully) 2022 M3P, with Uberturbines of course. How is the ride quality on these? I see some threads saying "goodbye Uberturbines" - are they bad? How does it compare to the 2019 19" M3 (non P), which I used to own and found ride quality rather good?

 

[Mash]

It will be worse and much higher chance of wheel and tire damage unless you only ride on potless roads.

 

[DES_MX]

It will be worse and much higher chance of wheel and tire damage unless you only ride on potless roads.

Ouch. Well the roads in the Netherlands are one of the best in Europe, definitely no pot holes, but it's also about the road trips (i.e. Belgian roads for example are like a minefield). Do you know if it is's possible to mount larger sidewall tyres to the 20" Uberturbines? i.e. they come with 235/35 maybe at least 235/40 ?

 

[Mash]

Ouch. Well the roads in the Netherlands are one of the best in Europe, definitely no pot holes, but it's also about the road trips (i.e. Belgian roads for example are like a minefield). Do you know if it is's possible to mount larger sidewall tyres to the 20" Uberturbines? i.e. they come with 235/35 maybe at least 235/40 ?

Not enough space for that. 18 inch aftermarket forged wheels which were tested for m3p. OEM 18/19 wheels won't fit performance brake calipers.

 

[DES_MX]

Don't want to turn this thread into non-BMW discussion, but for the sake of answering, I think it's either a love or hate kind of thing with Tesla. Just to give you my line of thought, since 2019 Model 3 I owned, these is a long list of changes on the Model 3 making it a much better car - and pricing is same (even despite inflation), which car maker can boast the same? below changes are mainly hardware changes too, I'm even skipping majority of the SW/UI UX optimizations:

- 82kw battery instead of 75kw
- heatpump / octovalve added
- laminated glass (front)
- power trunk added
- new center console
- heated steering wheel included
- switch to USB-C
- dual wireless charging pad standard
- lane change cameras (dec 2021 update)
- metal steering wheel controls
- new matrix LED lights included as standard
- chrome delete (similar to BMW shadowline which costs money)
- easier frunk opening/closing
- Boombox added;
- light wooden trim along doors added
- different rear lights (longer leds, 2 reversing lights).
- M3P specific: Uberturbines 20" added
- M3P specific: performance upgrade ~3.3 sec / 100kmh from 3.4 sec / 100kmh (~570HP)
- 2022 specific: Hairpin Winding Motor upgrade
- 2022 specific: new low voltage battery design
- 2022 specific: rear glass laminated
- 2022 specific: Ryzen based MCU3

+ 3rd zone airco controls (rear passengers)

 

[Motion122]

Hi Everyone,

Just ordered a (hopefully) 2022 M3P, with Uberturbines of course. How is the ride quality on these? I see some threads saying "goodbye Uberturbines" - are they bad? How does it compare to the 2019 19" M3 (non P), which I used to own and found ride quality rather good?

2021+ cars ride way better. I was surprised how better it rides vs my 2019 AWD on 18s. I switched to 18s anyway because I wanted to go wider and shave a few pounds.

 

[tm1v2]

@DES_MX This thread is worth a read:

Hit a pothole and got 2 flats on my Model 3 Performance

Yesterday I drove over a small defect in the roadway at about 35-40 MPH with my 2021 M3P that has 20" rims with Pirelli tires. It was a small rectangular section of roadway about 6" x 8" and maybe 3/4" or less deep that the asphalt was missing from an incomplete road repair. The sidewall on both...

teslamotorsclub.com

Normally I'd suggest evaluating ride quality on your test drive, everyone's preferences and tolerances are different, however it sounds like you don't have bad roads nearby to test on.

Coming from a background of sport compacts, I think the stock 2021 M3P ride quality is perfectly fine. Is it *good*? No, it's worse than most cars in its price range. The M3LR and M3P suspension rides a little busy (I didn't test SR+/RWD), and the M3P rubberband-thin + stretched tires certainly don't help. Also if you really drive hard on really rough roads, you can overwhelm the stock dampers, their performance is a little lacking compared to higher end dampers for a car that's capable of going quite fast.

But again, I don't find the ride quality bad. I don't love the ride quality but I don't hate it, it's not a defining feature of the car for me. (Side note: I hated the 2021 MYLR ride quality. Couldn't stand it for a family crossover/CUV. You might think the 3 and Y would ride and drive similar, but they don't, at least not to me.)

What you should be worried about with the 20" Uberturbines on bad roads is bending and cracking them. The thread I linked above covers it well, I suggest reading through the whole thing. I'll also link directly to some posts I made in it...

Big Tesla OE cast wheels cracking:
https://teslamotorsclub.com/tmc/posts/6168579/

First impressions after switching to 245/45R18 Bridgestone Potenza Sport on 18x8.5" forged wheels:
https://teslamotorsclub.com/tmc/posts/6240321/

Driving impressions after putting some miles on the new setup:
https://teslamotorsclub.com/tmc/posts/6247121/

Summary:
1) Ride quality is definitely improved, but I chose performance tires with stiff sidewalls. The car still rides and feels like a Model 3, the ride is not transformed into something different.
2) I was surprised how much better handling, grip, and overall driving feel is! The tires are definitely better than the OE Tesla-spec Pirelli PZ4, that's a big part of it. The power steering feels better too, I think it almost struggled with the weight before. The car feels more nimble making quick back-and-forth direction changes on twisty roads. I knew the stock Uberturbine wheels are HEAVY but I really wasn't expecting to feel this much benefit from lighter wheels.

For sure I would've been happy with decent cast wheels, but I'm glad I spent some extra money on forged. (Even though I went with one of the cheapest forged wheel brands/lines, as that's all I could justify budgeting for.)

 

[jjrandorin]

@DES_MX This thread is worth a read:

Hit a pothole and got 2 flats on my Model 3 Performance

Yesterday I drove over a small defect in the roadway at about 35-40 MPH with my 2021 M3P that has 20" rims with Pirelli tires. It was a small rectangular section of roadway about 6" x 8" and maybe 3/4" or less deep that the asphalt was missing from an incomplete road repair. The sidewall on both...

teslamotorsclub.com

Normally I'd suggest evaluating ride quality on your test drive, everyone's preferences and tolerances are different, however it sounds like you don't have bad roads nearby to test on.

Coming from a background of sport compacts, I think the stock 2021 M3P ride quality is perfectly fine. Is it *good*? No, it's worse than most cars in its price range. The M3LR and M3P suspension rides a little busy (I didn't test SR+/RWD), and the M3P rubberband-thin + stretched tires certainly don't help. Also if you really drive hard on really rough roads, you can overwhelm the stock dampers, their performance is a little lacking compared to higher end dampers for a car that's capable of going quite fast.

But again, I don't find the ride quality bad. I don't love the ride quality but I don't hate it, it's not a defining feature of the car for me. (Side note: I hated the 2021 MYLR ride quality. Couldn't stand it for a family crossover/CUV. You might think the 3 and Y would ride and drive similar, but they don't, at least not to me.)

What you should be worried about with the 20" Uberturbines on bad roads is bending and cracking them. The thread I linked above covers it well, I suggest reading through the whole thing. I'll also link directly to some posts I made in it...

Big Tesla OE cast wheels cracking:
https://teslamotorsclub.com/tmc/posts/6168579/

First impressions after switching to 245/45R18 Bridgestone Potenza Sport on 18x8.5" forged wheels:
https://teslamotorsclub.com/tmc/posts/6240321/

Driving impressions after putting some miles on the new setup:
https://teslamotorsclub.com/tmc/posts/6247121/

Summary:
1) Ride quality is definitely improved, but I chose performance tires with stiff sidewalls. The car still rides and feels like a Model 3, the ride is not transformed into something different.
2) I was surprised how much better handling, grip, and overall driving feel is! The tires are definitely better than the OE Tesla-spec Pirelli PZ4, that's a big part of it. The power steering feels better too, I think it almost struggled with the weight before. The car feels more nimble making quick back-and-forth direction changes on twisty roads. I knew the stock Uberturbine wheels are HEAVY but I really wasn't expecting to so much benefit from lighter wheels.

For sure I would've been happy with decent cast wheels, but I'm glad I spent some extra money on forged. (Even though I went with one of the cheapest forged wheel brands/lines, as that's all I could justify budgeting for.)

This is a super detailed, helpful reply. With that being said, I find people asking about ride quality and "is it stiff" kind of like asking something like "is Clover honey too sweet, or is Orange honey better?" or something like that. Point being, everyones frame of reference is so different, that "is the suspension good or too stiff?" is an impossible question to answer on a thread.

You skipped all that though, and went for the pretty universal experience that, because these tires have thinner sidewalls, lots of us have experienced more issues with poor roads.

 

[DES_MX]

@DES_MX This thread is worth a read:

Hit a pothole and got 2 flats on my Model 3 Performance

Yesterday I drove over a small defect in the roadway at about 35-40 MPH with my 2021 M3P that has 20" rims with Pirelli tires. It was a small rectangular section of roadway about 6" x 8" and maybe 3/4" or less deep that the asphalt was missing from an incomplete road repair. The sidewall on both...

teslamotorsclub.com

Normally I'd suggest evaluating ride quality on your test drive, everyone's preferences and tolerances are different, however it sounds like you don't have bad roads nearby to test on.

Coming from a background of sport compacts, I think the stock 2021 M3P ride quality is perfectly fine. Is it *good*? No, it's worse than most cars in its price range. The M3LR and M3P suspension rides a little busy (I didn't test SR+/RWD), and the M3P rubberband-thin + stretched tires certainly don't help. Also if you really drive hard on really rough roads, you can overwhelm the stock dampers, their performance is a little lacking compared to higher end dampers for a car that's capable of going quite fast.

But again, I don't find the ride quality bad. I don't love the ride quality but I don't hate it, it's not a defining feature of the car for me. (Side note: I hated the 2021 MYLR ride quality. Couldn't stand it for a family crossover/CUV. You might think the 3 and Y would ride and drive similar, but they don't, at least not to me.)

What you should be worried about with the 20" Uberturbines on bad roads is bending and cracking them. The thread I linked above covers it well, I suggest reading through the whole thing. I'll also link directly to some posts I made in it...

Big Tesla OE cast wheels cracking:
https://teslamotorsclub.com/tmc/posts/6168579/

First impressions after switching to 245/45R18 Bridgestone Potenza Sport on 18x8.5" forged wheels:
https://teslamotorsclub.com/tmc/posts/6240321/

Driving impressions after putting some miles on the new setup:
https://teslamotorsclub.com/tmc/posts/6247121/

Summary:
1) Ride quality is definitely improved, but I chose performance tires with stiff sidewalls. The car still rides and feels like a Model 3, the ride is not transformed into something different.
2) I was surprised how much better handling, grip, and overall driving feel is! The tires are definitely better than the OE Tesla-spec Pirelli PZ4, that's a big part of it. The power steering feels better too, I think it almost struggled with the weight before. The car feels more nimble making quick back-and-forth direction changes on twisty roads. I knew the stock Uberturbine wheels are HEAVY but I really wasn't expecting to feel this much benefit from lighter wheels.

For sure I would've been happy with decent cast wheels, but I'm glad I spent some extra money on forged. (Even though I went with one of the cheapest forged wheel brands/lines, as that's all I could justify budgeting for.)

Thanks, appreciate the feedback - read through the linked thread and experience from switching.
The thing is, I was contemplating the LR and the P, but went for the P in part due to the awesome 20" Uberturbine look (at least for me the look absolutely stunning), so figured perhaps I can change the tires to different ones with maybe slightly stronger side walls and if people have done that, without changing the actual rim, keeping the Uberturbines. Tomorrow I have a test drive for both the Y(LR, P not available in EU yet) and the 3P - so will also try to compare ride quality between these two.

 

[tm1v2]

Thanks, appreciate the feedback - read through the linked thread and experience from switching.
The thing is, I was contemplating the LR and the P, but went for the P in part due to the awesome 20" Uberturbine look (at least for me the look absolutely stunning), so figured perhaps I can change the tires to different ones with maybe slightly stronger side walls and if people have done that, without changing the actual rim, keeping the Uberturbines. Tomorrow I have a test drive for both the Y(LR, P not available in EU yet) and the 3P - so will also try to compare ride quality between these two.

I agree the Uberturbines look awesome! If your normal driving is on smooth, well-maintained roads you should be able to rock them no problem...maybe you could put up with driving extra careful and slow on those road trips to areas with bad roads?

Some more ideas...

The 20x9" Uberturbines come with 235/35R20 tires, which are a bit narrow and stretched for the 20x9" Uberturbines. A strange pairing that Tesla made for 2021. 255/35R20 would fit nicely on the Uberturbines and provide a little bit more sidewall (+9.4%), without any clearance issues from everything I've read. (No personal experience with that size though!)

T-Sportline makes an Uberturbine-looking wheel in 19x8.5" . Not exactly the same, and smaller diameter of course, but maybe it's a better tradeoff for looks vs practicality. Note it's cast - "flow forged" is just misleading marketing for "flow formed" which is a method of forming the barrel on cast wheels. So it's not as strong as forged, but if you put on 245/45R19 tires that's a useful 22% bump in sidewall. You could use that wheel on an M3LR or M3P.
TSV 19" Tesla Model 3 Wheel (Set of 4)

 

[tm1v2]

You skipped all that though, and went for the pretty universal experience that, because these tires have thinner sidewalls, lots of us have experienced more issues with poor roads.

It's not what the OP asked, but I think it's more relevant to the OP's situation of road tripping to places with bad roads. Not liking the ride quality is one thing, dealing with a cracked wheel on a road trip is quite another!

 

[DES_MX]

It's not what the OP asked, but I think it's more relevant to the OP's situation of road tripping to places with bad roads. Not liking the ride quality is one thing, dealing with a cracked wheel on a road trip is quite another!

Correct.
So yesterday I test drove 3 cars back-to-back-to-back (so to speak):
1) M3P late 2021 (not yet 2022 build I believe)
2) M3LR 2021 18" with Aerocaps
3) MYLR 2021 19" with Aerocaps

My experience is completely not what I thought it would be - the M3P on 20" rides much more refined and resolved, and I am not talking about acceleration at all (which is fun, but we all know that), I'm really talking about suspension, road feel, how it attacks corners, but also the overall refinement of the ride quality (I did the test on city roads, 80kmh roads, highway (100-130kmh) and "bad" city roads (cobblestone and speedbumps) - its phenomenal, whatever Tesla has done since 2019 models it's a day and night. I didn't have a feeling I am riding on 20" 35's at all.

Then with the M3LR 18" I felt the road surfaces much more to my surprise, I even swapped back and forth between cars and had my friend (owner of the M3LR 18" with me), which he confirmed (to his surprise) as well.

Then with the MYLR 19" the feeling was similar to that of the M3LR 18", but with added wobbles when accelerating / decelarating hard and more sway during hard turns. Finally, accelerating hard out of corners brought a lot of understeer(!!), completely unexpected. The M3P compared to this was lightyears ahead with much more neutral & very slight oversteer prone behavior (not even in track mode).

As a bonus I hopped in to my iX3 (BMW) on the way back home and did the same road, while it was even smoother than M3P, it obviously lacked all the fun and playfulness. Ride quality surprisingly not much better over M3P, which is completely crazy and a complete surprise (positive one at that).

So summarized - whoever is interested in M3P 2022 with 20" Uberturbines and Pirelli P Zero - go out and drive it back to back with whatever vehicles you are cross shopping it to (and/or your current one).

This being said, probably it does come with all the downsides people have mentioned for how fragile the 20"s are and a danger of ripping your tire on bad potholes on high speed, so gotta be pretty careful. Obviously, I couldn't "test" for this factor during the test drive, but did arrive with all the tires intact after pushing it to some extremes

 

[tm1v2]

@DES_MX Glad you got some useful test driving in! Your impressions line up pretty much exactly with mine.

Well, except for M3LR riding rougher than M3P...that I didn't notice. When was your friend's 2021 M3LR built? What factories were each of these cars built in? I wonder if Tesla adjusted the suspension mid model year. The M3LR and M3P I tested were both October 2021 Fremont builds (I'm in the USA), and to me the suspensions felt about the same, the M3P rode a little rougher but I think only from the wheel+tire difference. I did drive the M3LR and M3P 2 days apart, but on the same roads, overall they felt very similar to me, the big differences were Track Mode, the brakes, and low-speed acceleration.

I totally agree about the MY vs M3 ride and handling differences! From my test drives Model 3 felt so much more playful and fun, and surprisingly more refined too, it handles and rides better at the same time. Model Y is way better for hauling cargo and people of course, if you need the space then you need the Y, but it unfortunately gives up a lot of the driving experience. Can't have your cake and eat it too I guess. Model 3 is a really fun 4 door EV, and as I've put some miles on mine and started to really know it, I've come to appreciate its handling and power delivery and Track Mode all the more.

Sounds like the M3P is for you....

 

[CTDW]

I have a 2021 M3P and feel the ride is great. Good handling with the performance tires and the ride is not too firm. I think it's all relative since I am used to firmer sport suspensions in previous BMW M cars. The setup on the M3P seems like a good balance. I do agree with the above posters that your road quality will also have an impact on whether or not you can live with it. The roads in my area are generally good and not a lot of potholes...potholes are going to be the biggest concern for performance weeks/tires.

 

[Candleflame]

Hi Everyone,

Just ordered a (hopefully) 2022 M3P, with Uberturbines of course. How is the ride quality on these? I see some threads saying "goodbye Uberturbines" - are they bad? How does it compare to the 2019 19" M3 (non P), which I used to own and found ride quality rather good?

i think I can help -I am from Europe and have extensive driving experience in Germany/Uk/Netherlands etc.

When you read comments here about the ride quality of wheels/tires then people usually talk about the asphalt in i.e. USA/Australia etc whatever.
The roads here in QLD are VERY poor. And we are not talking about potholes etc (thats a whole different can of worms), we are talking about the general construction.
A lot of the tire/wheel discussions on this forum just dont apply to european roads which for the most part are prestine.
So the ride quality will be completely fine and so will the suspension here.
the next proper prestine motorway with reasonable european-style quality for me is 1400km away. I could not believe how quiet my model 3 sounded on that road and how good the ride quality was. But in europe all roads are like that.

So I would just not worry about it in europe.

 

[Mash]

Plenty of shitty roads in Europe... Also come to Prague - we have stone brick roads...

 

[Candleflame]

Plenty of shitty roads in Europe... Also come to Prague - we have stone brick roads...

yeah look when I mean europe I mean Germany/UK/Netherlands/Belgium etc....
I know France (motorways excepted)/Spain/Eastern europe etc isnt that great ha.
OT is in Netherlands.

 

[Nayston]

I live in Chicago, trust me, we have more potholes than the rest of the world combined. I have ‘21 M3P and I kept the 20” Uberturbine’s. Haven’t had an issue. Definitely run with them and see if you have a problem. To swap them because of something that may not happen seems silly to me.

 

[DES_MX]

I live in Chicago, trust me, we have more potholes than the rest of the world combined. I have ‘21 M3P and I kept the 20” Uberturbine’s. Haven’t had an issue. Definitely run with them and see if you have a problem. To swap them because of something that may not happen seems silly to me.

Absolutely. I will just mentally prepare to dash out more $$$ for extra set of tires or wheels and tires combined, but definitely will not replace right away just for the sake of replacing. In fact, I test drove the M3P in damp / rainy weather, winter-ish conditions (we haven't had frost yet) and on summer tires (so definitely not optimal, but in Netherlands they don't really provide you with winter tires nowadays by default) - and the car did an amazing job, like I posted above - very very impressed.

 

[gling]

I agree the Uberturbines look awesome! If your normal driving is on smooth, well-maintained roads you should be able to rock them no problem...maybe you could put up with driving extra careful and slow on those road trips to areas with bad roads?

Some more ideas...

The 20x9" Uberturbines come with 235/35R20 tires, which are a bit narrow and stretched for the 20x9" Uberturbines. A strange pairing that Tesla made for 2021. 255/35R20 would fit nicely on the Uberturbines and provide a little bit more sidewall (+9.4%), without any clearance issues from everything I've read. (No personal experience with that size though!)

T-Sportline makes an Uberturbine-looking wheel in 19x8.5" . Not exactly the same, and smaller diameter of course, but maybe it's a better tradeoff for looks vs practicality. Note it's cast - "flow forged" is just misleading marketing for "flow formed" which is a method of forming the barrel on cast wheels. So it's not as strong as forged, but if you put on 245/45R19 tires that's a useful 22% bump in sidewall. You could use that wheel on an M3LR or M3P.
TSV 19" Tesla Model 3 Wheel (Set of 4)

Swapped out the OEM Pirellis to 255/35/20 Conti DWS06+ 30-mi. into owning the car. 30 mi. later hit a square edge pothole and tore the sidewalls of both my right side wheels. Was running “low” tire pressures (~40 psi) at the time experimenting. Fortunately with Tire Rack’s (here in the US) free road hazard program, I got replacements minus the cost of remounting. Wheels/rims were not damaged at all. Am running slightly higher tire pressures now (45 psi) and knock on wood haven’t had any issues. Was told that the Conti DWS+ sidewalls are soft for ride comfort purposes so if you choose a tire with stiffer sidewalls, it’ll probably help. Bottom line, 255/35/20 tires fit 2021 M3P but don’t completely eliminate the possibility of flats.