There are some cars that I enjoy driving around town or out on the open road, and then there are others that I simply must find
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| Photo: Karen Tuggay, Canadian Auto Press |
a way to get onto the track. Such is the case with the new 2015 BMW M4 Coupe.
I can just imagine. Blindly cresting the top of Laguna Seca’s corkscrew before deep diving down through 8A ahead of the plunge past 9, the hurtling M4 holding fast to the tarmac on its way through 10 before coming down hard on its massive binders in order to set up 11 ahead of the long kinked straight. Or better yet, getting the speed and apex just right on the Andretti hairpin so as to set up turns 3 and 4 before climbing the long steep hill after 5 and then entering the Rahal straight after 6, I can hardly fathom the speed and control the M4 would be capable of on a track like that.
I’ve
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| Photo: Karen Tuggay, Canadian Auto Press |
run Laguna Seca more than any other track, and with many more different types of cars. I’ve tested everything from compact Kias, mid-size Toyota crossovers, Civic Si Coupes, Nissan Zs and Mustang Shelby Cobra GT500s to top-tier Maseratis, Mercedes’ AMGs, Porsches 911s and even an Aston Martin DBS and Bentley Continental GT Speed. One of my favourite cars to pilot through the famed Laguna Seca circuit, however, was a 2008 BMW M3. So, as you can likely appreciate, the thought of testing this much better M4 Coupe on the rollercoaster of racetracks has consumed my thoughts since having it for a weeklong tester less than a month ago.
Much better M4 Coupe? OK, I admit to liking the sound of the outgoing M3 Coupe’s
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| Photo: Karen Tuggay, Canadian Auto Press |
V8 more, but the new twin mono-scroll turbocharged inline-six’s guttural growl is a lot more predatory in nature, stirring up a darker side of the animalistic soul than the angelic chorus and triumphant trumpeted accompaniment played out by its predecessor. The M4 has gone from very good to extremely bad, albeit bad in a very good way. Think of the smooth refined sound of a Japanese sport bike next to the thump-a-thump-thump of a big Harley V-twin drag bike, and you’ll get the idea. Of course, the difference between the M4 and either of these two two-wheelers is that BMW’s super-coupe will slay them both in the corners, the adhesion of four exclusively-crafted 19-inch Michelins and wind tunnel-honed aerodynamic downforce prevailing every time.
As
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| Photo: Trevor Hofmann, Canadian Auto Press |
much as I lament that there may never be another M3 Coupe again, a new M4 on a twisting two-lane ribbon of mountainside tarmac makes you immediately forget about past loves lost. Seriously, this is one of the best cars I’ve ever driven, period. Just how BMW’s M division made the brand’s electro-mechanical steering deliver so much feedback is beyond me, providing much of the information necessary to know just how far to push it before the point of no return. Set its “M Dynamic Mode” to allow the car’s beautifully balanced rear end to break traction, mind you, and the M4 communicates from both ends, at first seeming as if it will never loosen its hold on the road and then, as if relenting after constant complaint, easing into a progressive power slide that’s easily managed while exiting the curve.
It
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| Photo: Trevor Hofmann, Canadian Auto Press |
might surprise you to know how little the M4 carries over from its more common 4 Series sibling. A shocking 70-percent of the M4 is exclusive componentry, the car’s suspension system so heavily affected by the M division’s attention to detail that it’s nearly impossible to throw off track unless you get really stupid with the laws of physics.
Then again, with the amount of power under the new M4’s domed aluminum hood it wouldn’t be difficult to get caught with your hand in the cookie jar. If you’re stepping out of an old V8-powered M3 please consider the following: the old engine made 414 horsepower at 8,300 rpm compared to 425 at 5,500 rpm for the new M4, while the outgoing torque figure of 295 lb-ft at 3,900 rpm gets walloped on its pretty little behind by the even prettier M4’s 406 lb-ft at 1,850 rpm. Sprint times? As you might expect, the old car’s 0 to 100 km/h time of 4.9 seconds gets trounced
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| Photo: Trevor Hofmann, Canadian Auto Press |
by the M4’s 4.1-second charge to 100, partly due to the new straight-six’s output as well as a lighter curb weight of 1,601 kilos compared to 1,680 in the outgoing car.
That’s a difference of 79 kilograms, or 174 lbs if you’re reading from south of the 49th. More specifically it’s like carrying around two Danforth anchors for a 50,000-lb 60-foot yacht. These days it’s not often we see cars get lighter, and it’s the first time in compact M history that a new model has hit the scales weighing less than its predecessor. While a far cry from the original 1986 E30 M3 Coupe’s 1,165-kilo curb weight, we can’t compare that model’s 192 horsepower four-cylinder and resultant 0 to 100 km/h run of 6.9 seconds to today’s outrageously quick M4. While the E30 M3 featured much more obviously unique bodywork, today’s
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| Photo: Trevor Hofmann, Canadian Auto Press |
M4 Coupe is subtler in its transformation from the standard 4 Series.
It also utilizes much more exotic materials. The M4 Coupe carries over the fabulous carbon fibre reinforced plastic roof panel from the previous generation M3 Coupe, or at least a newly shaped version, while the new car also shaves yet more weight off the body shell by lining the trunk in lightweight CFRP and constructing the beautiful under-hood strut brace from the exotic composite as well. Easily the most exotic bit of kit the new M4 possesses can’t be seen unless you climb underneath; the much stronger and incomparably lighter F1-style single-piece carbon fibre driveshaft. Either transmission that connects to it is lighter too, plus the engine is a full 10 kilos trimmer, while the domed hood overtop is
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| Photo: Trevor Hofmann, Canadian Auto Press |
formed from lightweight aluminum, as are the slightly swollen front fenders, door skins, and numerous suspension components below. All of this adds up to the absolutely brilliant performance the new M4 is capable of, on the road, track and at the pump.
Let’s face it. Even if BMW’s M division couldn’t care less about fuel economy, government mandated regulations aren’t about to go away. Such issues are even causing supercar makers to bring out new mid-engine hybrid-electric hyper-cars, BMW’s own i8 leading the charge. Fortunately for now, high-test gasoline is the only fuel required for the M4, but BMW’s leading-edge EfficientDynamics technologies make the new M4 as fuel-efficient and clean burning as possible. As is
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| Photo: Trevor Hofmann, Canadian Auto Press |
with the case with all new BMW models, a fuel-saving start/stop system shuts the M4’s engine down at idle, although this can be switched off if you’d rather listen to the engine’s aforementioned rumble. The M4 also pulls brake energy regeneration forward from the previous M3 Coupe, although it’s a more advanced system. Together with the new model’s noted diet, these high-tech green technologies help the latest M Coupe eke out surprisingly good fuel economy numbers, starting with 13.7 L/100km in the city, 9.0 on the highway and 11.6 combined for the manual, or 13.9 city, 9.7 highway and 12.0 combined for the auto. And these are based on Transport Canada’s new five-cycle rating system that’s much more realistic than our old two-cycle system.
I
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| Photo: Trevor Hofmann, Canadian Auto Press |
previously tested an M3 Sedan with the upgraded seven-speed M-DCT dual-clutch gearbox, and while I thoroughly enjoyed the overall engagement of the M4’s more traditional six-speed manual I’d be hard pressed to decide which transmission I’d order. Leather-covered aluminum paddle-shifters at fingertip, the automated gearbox makes a hero out of any driver, delivering a real DTM touring car experience with every shift, the likes of which come with response times faster than any human could possible deliver no matter his or her expertise. BMW calculates two-tenths of a second saved off the sprint 100 km/h, much thanks to launch control at takeoff, but I’m guessing the average driver would see an even greater advantage when speeding away from a stoplight. Still, few manuals are better than the M4’s six-speed. Its shifts are ultimately precise and clutch take-up perfectly weighted. Furthermore, its aluminum pedals are ideally set up for true heel and toe shifting, while either transmission blips the throttle when downshifting,
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| Photo: Trevor Hofmann, Canadian Auto Press |
making you sound like that aforementioned expert even if the majority of your track time has been spent on Gran Turismo.
More useful for scrubbing off speed than downshifting are the M4’s phenomenal brakes. Drilled and vented four-wheel discs measuring 380 millimetres up front and 370 mm at the rear make sure its binding power is almost instantaneous, critically important after dipping heavily into the throttle and unleashing all the performance available from the car’s heavily massaged 3.0-litre six.
This engine is nothing like the 3.0-litre turbocharged inline-six used in the 435i, incidentally. While the displacement is the same and Valvetronic variable valve timing near identical, most everything else from its forged crankshaft to its lightweight
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| Photo: Trevor Hofmann, Canadian Auto Press |
magnesium oil pan beneath its track-prepped lubrication system is unique.
Bury your foot into the throttle, let the revs rise, depress the clutch, shift from first to second, let out the clutch, dip into the throttle again and enjoy the popping blats and snarls barking out of the big fat exhaust pipes, or at least that’s what I thought was happening. A little more research shows that BMW has been toying with our ears, the new M4 one of the first cars to employ the brand’s Digital Motor Electronics (DME) technology, which combines the engine and exhaust notes together before digitally enhancing it all and feeding the mechanical soundtrack through the Harmon/Kardon audio system. Call it fake and phony if you want to, but I call it brilliant as there are few automotive miscues I dislike more than machinery
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| Photo: Trevor Hofmann, Canadian Auto Press |
that sounds wonderful to passersby but is out of earshot when cocooned inside a well-insulated cabin.
And the M4 possesses a very refined passenger compartment, allowing the previously mentioned audio system to be heard with perfect clarity no matter if you’re enjoying something as light and impressionistic as Claude Debussy’s La Mer or the searing chainsaw through metal machinations of Metallica’s The Thing That Should Not Be, it’s all good. Speaking of refinement, the iDrive infotainment system that integrates all the audio componentry is now one of the best in the industry, eons ahead of comparative newcomers, showing that it’s best to be early into a given technology like BMW was with iDrive, even if the growing pains can at times be brutal. Now, iDrive is easy to operate and more deeply layered with useful
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| Photo: Trevor Hofmann, Canadian Auto Press |
functionality than most of its peers. Likewise the system’s displays deliver richer colours and crisper, clearer graphics than the majority of competitors, while yet more technologies such as the optional head-up display adds utile information where your eyes should be focused, out on the road.
Then again, keeping my eyes off of the gorgeous carbon fibre trimmed dash, door panels and console was hard to do, the CFRP interior upgrade a mere $500 extra. Woods can be had for traditionalists, or piano black plastic, brushed aluminum, and more. The steering wheel, which is thick and meaty, feels just about perfect, the leather wrapping its perimeter made from the best quality hides, while classic blue and red M stitching pays homage to BMW’s motorsport history. Highly legible white on black gauges are easy to see no matter the light, while the M4’s sport seats are some of the most supportive and comfortable in the industry, my tester’s
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| Photo: Trevor Hofmann, Canadian Auto Press |
covered in black Merino leather with perforated leather inserts, a $1,500 option over the standard leather bolstered and cloth insert seats, both highlighted by cool metal “///M” badges that glow in the dark.
The M4 Coupe is very well equipped, so much so that there are only four available option packages. The $4,500 Premium Package includes a back-up monitor, front and rear parking sonar, satellite radio and the head-up display I mentioned a moment ago, whereas the $4,500 Executive Package replaces the backup camera with a surround-view monitor while also adding active LED headlights. Additionally, a $1,500 Technology Package can be added that includes highbeam assist, active blind spot detection, lane departure and collision warning, plus a universal
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| Photo: Trevor Hofmann, Canadian Auto Press |
remote, while lastly the BMW ConnectedDrive Services Business Package boasts internet connectivity, real-time traffic info, and a host of BMW services and apps. Standalone options include my tester’s leather upgrade, plus other items you might like to add on such as the previously mentioned $3,900 double-clutch automated gearbox, a $900 adaptive M suspension, $8,500 worth of carbon ceramic brakes (featuring unique gold calipers), $400 automated parking, etcetera. Lastly, metallic paint will set you back $895, but if you opt for the M4’s launch colour, the stunning Austin Yellow Metallic my tester was dipped in, the comments you’ll receive from passersby will be well worth it.
Just the same, even you leave your M4 in bone stock Alpine White, go even more conservative with the ultimately Teutonic yet decidedly British-named shade of Silverstone metallic, stay classic with Black Sapphire or Mineral Grey, opt for fiery Sakhir
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| Photo: Trevor Hofmann, Canadian Auto Press |
Orange or the classy Yas Marina Blue hue (the latter named after the Abu Dhabi racetrack known for F1 fame – and yes, I’d love to test the M4 on that one too), you’ll be getting one of the best sports GTs money can buy, no matter how much you spend. This makes the M4’s extremely reasonable base price of $75,000, plus $2,095 for freight and dealer prep, one of its most likeable assets.
Altogether the M4 combines for a long list of likability, starting with sleek yet assertive new styling that makes the old M3 Coupe seem almost commonplace, a beautifully detailed interior that’s miles more digitally advanced, a newfound spring to its lighter carbon fibre-enhanced step, shocking straight-line performance, and comparatively good fuel efficiency. It’s easily one of my favourite ways to get from A to B quickly, and no doubt would become a top choice on Laguna Seca, Willow Springs, Portland International Raceway, Road Atlanta, Barber Motorsport Park, Virginia International Raceway, Circuit Mont-Tremblant, Shannonville, or any number of other racetracks I’ve had the pleasure to know over the years. So BMW, what do you say? Up for a little track time?
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