The 'all things being equal' referred to the same driver driving the same way, I thought that remark was obvious.
No worries, I didn't know that either That's really going to be weird imho, to have an M4 Coupe which is actually an M3 Coupe. Oh well I guess we'll need to get used to those name changes.
Obvious only to you. Your use of the cliched phrase serves no purpose other than obfuscation. All things being equal... What things?
^ If you line up two identically specced M3s, one with DCT and the other a manual and they are driven identically then the DCT should prove to be a bit more economical.
But what Swedish AMS found was that this was not the case. Only on the EC-cycle, not in the real world.
^I wonder did the different feel of the two cars due to their respective gearboxes effect how they drove them because in my opinion the DCT with its better spaced gears and taller final gear should prove to be the most economical.
Question: Previously all M3 models have followed the same model reference letter/number as it's normal siblings e.g. E30, E36, E43, E90 but on this occasion it F80 instead of the normal F30..............why?
Because it's going to be two and two-thirds better than what an M3 normally is over its civilized sibling. Maybe the F80 has more exotic construction materials (lightweight steel and CFRP) and therefore from an engineering standpoint is different enough to classify it a unique internal code. ..Just a guess.
Officially, an M DCT equipped M3 Coupe is 20kg heavier than a manual M3 Coupe. Just for interest, here are my pretty accurate fuel consumption figures for my three years of owner ship of my M3. It includes a mixture of driving, urban, out of town, and motorway. These figures were calculated by brimming the tank every time and were done for the whole life of the car in my ownership. Year 1 (over a distance of 17,518km) 19.9 mpg (UK) 16.6 mpg (US) 14.2 l/100km Year 2 (over a distance of 15,351km) 20.1 mpg (UK) 16.7 mpg (US) 14.1 l/100km Year 3 (over a distance of 13,481km) 21.1 mpg (UK) 17.6 mpg (US) 13.4 l/100km
^ I knew the weight was only 20kg but I didn't see the point in pursuing it and BTW those first year figures were consistent with my own.
It is hard to tell. From the article, it seems like they were following eachother around, changing drivers and driving style over time. My point is, they could not reporoduce the advantage of DC gearboxes found in the EC-cycle in real world driving.
^Thanks for explaining what and how they did the test, it does seem to be as fair a comparison as possible though you would say it defies logic when you consider everything else that's going for the DCT. P.S. I wonder which car followed which or did they also sway the lead?
Another M3 sedan render (by Wildspeed): Source: http://www.worldcarfans.com/112050243955/2014-bmw-m3-f80-artistically-rendered-again
Yeah, I would agree, there are other things speaking (do you say that?) in favour of the DCT and those things weren't covered by this test. I don't know who were tailing the gate. I don't even know if it was consistent. Sorry.
I am not surprised that a smart driver driving a manual smartly to minimize fuel consumption can beat a DCT equiped car in real world situations. Till the new PDK in 911, DCTs couldn't even coast and even with it, it it is not going to be able to look forward at the traffic situation and anticipate and adopt smartly like a smart driver can. The other thing I never get is why people say auto is better in traffic, yea, if you are lazy, sure. But after commuting for years between SF and south bay (40 miles each way) in the horrible Bay area traffic, I always prefer a stick - if you are smart about it and leave enough gap, you would be surprised how much you can get away with out ever stopping even in stop an go traffic - thanks to the third pedal and of course a working brain.
I'm the opposite mainly because I broke my left ankle years ago and increasingly found clutches getting heavier and heavier with the ballooning of power to keep clutching in heavy stop/go traffic, that and the constantly slipping the clutch every few seconds can't be good in the long run. But hey that's only my opinion.
