So it's
got two doors. it's got two big kidney girls up front and inline-6 under the
hood, hole and that big shiny badge on
the back bumper. but this is not an m3. it's something more.
This is
the all-new never existed before BMW m4. it's not an m3, not in its name, and
not in what it really is underneath. now that's almost entirely a good thing
but not completely. so let's take a closer. i can't tell you how much I love
the styling of this beast. it's so much more imposing than m3s of decades past
and it's not just the design with its hard creases and bulging hood it's its
size. this is the m4s official launch color and it's called Austin yellow
metallic. named after the Circuit of the Americas f1 track in Austin Texas. and
as everything is bigger in Texas this color is certainly fitting. compared to
the previous generation car it's 3 inches longer 2 inches wider and about an
inch taller okay I'll admit on an overcast day like today it's a little snot
colored. but in direct sunlight it looks like a block of gold. and have you ever
mentioned I love yellow cars.
Despite
being a big with a capital B BMW really showed its engineering wizardry with
this car. because even though it's bigger it's actually not any heavier than
the outgoing model. in fact it's lighter by a really significant 180 pounds.
the specs list on this car comes with a really long list of different
components that have been optimized for weight reduction. but there's only two
that you really care about and the first one is right above me it's that
beautiful carbon-fiber roof and another piece of carbon-fiber jewelry you'll
find is right underneath the hood with this beautiful strut tower brace. does
it feel any lighter? well I'm not so sure I think if I could get this car out on
a race track and trust me I tried. you would find that the the big open spaces and
the speed this car would would bake four corners like pimple-faced teenager begs
for a date. but as it stands driving on the street.
It really
seems to prefer the straightaways. that's entirely the result of this new
engine a twin-turbo three liter inline six. that makes a touch more power than
the old unit but a lot more torque. in fact it's 40% more torque than the old
v8 and it delivers that torque across an incredibly wide power band. do I miss
the v8 engine? sure I miss it's fun high revving nature but with all the torque
that this engine makes you forget about it pretty quickly. it'll hit 60 miles
an hour in just 4.1 seconds with the 6-speed manual or order the 7-speed dual-clutch
which I'm sure you will and that number drops in just 3.9 seconds. that's almost
half the original m3 zero to 60 time.
So what
does it feel like well not like an m3? I thought BMW would try and make this
engine feel like a naturally aspirated one. but they didn't I don't even think
they tried to instead they really embraced the turbocharged era that we're
living in. sure it revs out extremely highly for a turbocharged engine. all the
way up to 7600 RPM and there's no real turbo lag to speak of either but the
power delivery still isn't instead it just hits you with this huge turbocharged
wallop especially when you press the M button.
Press that
button and the cars character changes dramatically the exhaust volume gets
turned way up and the throttle is incredibly touchy it. sounds raw like you
just rip the mufflers off and you can really hear those turbos working. the
sound and huge bursts of thrust will have you hammering the throw over and and
when you do you can instantly feel it in the rear of the car the back end kind
of lifts up a little bit and starts to wiggle around and I'm not gonna lie.
it's a little intimidating. there's something this car has that future BMWs
probably won't and that's a real manual transmission. it's good but not amazing
with a last-minute notch enos to each gearshift. BMW manuals have felt the same
since well forever. one unique trait it does have however is a rev matching
feature much like the new Porsche 911 or originally the Nissan 370z.
interesting the hover it actually turns off when you turn on the M mode. which
is kind of. when you're not at em mode the m4 actually feels more like a Grand
Tour on the road and it's got an interior to match it actually feels luxurious
and not in the usual Spartan BMW way. All that doesn't come cheap though and
the m4 costs about $4,000 more than the old m3.
It's still
a proper coupe and not a sports car and what that means is that you don't sit
down really low and you can actually see out of it quite easily. as for these
seats well they're plenty form-fitting if you want them to be. some features
worth pointing out in here are the heads-up display which even shows what the
current speed of it is unless you're an M mode and then you just get a beautiful
color projection of the technology. the M button but there's actually two M
buttons both located on the steering wheel and they allow you to configure the
car two different settings so you can have different presets for whether you
want the steering to be stiffer or lighter or how the transmission will react
how the throttle will react and even the stability control system. and a final
feature worth pointing out BMW is actually put a little steering wheel button
right here on the center console what that allows you to do is have three
different steering settings to help you further customize your car to make sure
it suits you exactly.
The
BMW m4 really isn't an m3. it's not a fun little toss oval toy it's an
awesomely powerful super coupe. I love this car but it's not the type of feeling
I've had for m3s past. it's more like the love I've had for a brutishly powerful
m5. which means my heart is still longing for a true m3 successor. now with
each generation of BMW car getting larger and larger I think there's finally
room below this model for a proper and badged car the m2 time has finally arrived.
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