Tracking the F10 at VIR (Review of the Advanced ///M school)

[(H)]

Dear All,

I had a blast at Advanced ///M School last week. Please find the full review over on the F80 forum, it also includes full videos of the F10 on track. Enjoy.

http://f80.bimmerpost.com/forums/sho....php?t=1046225

Best,
H.

[padrino]

Great writeup, thanks!

[patb23]

Great write up. I plan on doing the Advanced ///M school hopefully some time next year.

[RPiM5]

(H) that was a 1st Class post all the way man. Completely amazing write up! You win the Post of the Year award!

I'm not surprised about your assessment and feelings between the M5 and the M3. I agree on a lot of points. I also do agree that from INSIDE of the car the F80 M3 does sound better than the F10 M5, with both being stock of course.

What exhaust are you running on your M5? Also, you have the BMS tune right?

I will say this. I think that it is really dependent on where one lives and how one uses their ///M cars do decide if an F80 M3 is the right choice over F10 M5 or vice versa. For me personally, as time goes on, here on the East Coast, I find a car with as much sheer power as the M5 has to be much less viable than when I was living on the West Coast. Or rather simply put, the East Coast just doesn't have the room for a car like the M5 to really stretch its legs. I've put over 20,000 miles on my M5 in a little over a year on the East Coast now and 85% of those miles were all on the highway. Not exactly fun driving and actually quite frustrating most of the time considering how bad the drivers are here on the East Coast. You can try to have fun in straightline acceleration sprints with all the power that the M5 offers in Pennsylvania, Maryland, New Jersey, and Delaware most of the time, but in Virginia forget about it and North Carolina and South Carolina have an unbelievable amount of unmarked state troopers. No where is the old saying more true that "the M5 has too much power for the street" than on the East Coast. Then there is the track and we all know the other half of that saying: "...and is too heavy for the track." Well if one can't utilize all the power of an S63tu engine on East Coast highways and roads then one should take it to the track right? Wrong. 4,400lbs is almost too heavy for on the street let alone on the race track. Although fast, as you know fighting the weight of an F10 M5 is just not fun. The East Coast has a number of good tracks, VIR being one of the best, but even then they are all pretty spread out. VIR is a 3 hour drive from me, NJMP is like 2 hours, Watkins glen 4 hours away, and Lime Rock also 4-5 hours away. Also, most of those tracks have decibel restrictions. Just to give a perfect example the last video that I made with my M5 entitled: "Autumn Don't Leave" I had to drive 2 hours, that's right 2 freaking hours, out of the city just to find those roads that I shot in the video! So that's 4 hours of driving round trip just to get to the good roads where I can really enjoy my M5.

On the West Coast it's a completely different story. I shot this video a week after I got my F10 M5 back from Euro Delivery, back in California. It was still completely bone stock and it took me only 45 minutes to get from where I lived on the beach to these roads. As I recall I hit 150mph about 4 times during my drive that day. I was able to reach those speeds and do it safely while NOT on a racetrack and without the fear of police. Nowhere on the East Coast can I do that. Nowhere.

These things now combined with your new assessment on how good the F80 M3 is, is making me think very hard about what the right car is for me. I almost feel like the East Coast is killing my enthusiasm and love for the F10 M5. I simply can't use and can't drive the F10 M5 like I used to and it kills me. A car with less power and less weight, and more so designed for the racetrack, may be a better car in an environment where there is a very real limit on how much power you can use on the public roads. Not once did I ever feel like this on the West Coast. Rarely did I have a desire to go to the race track on the West Coast either. There's almost no need to hit the track when you have so many good canyon roads.

My warranty will be running out on my M5 soon and I have some very hard thinking to do. Your post has may have really affected me in more ways than one. Thank you friend. A part of me just doesn't want to live without an Alacantara headliner in my next car though. Then there is the C7 Z06 conundrum. There may be tough times ahead.

Oh and let's plan a get together very soon.

Cheers!

[shivaswrath]

Originally Posted by RPiM5

(H) that was a 1st Class post all the way man. Completely amazing write up! You win the Post of the Year award!

I'm not surprised about your assessment and feelings between the M5 and the M3. I agree on a lot of points. I also do agree that from INSIDE of the car the F80 M3 does sound better than the F10 M5, with both being stock of course.

What exhaust are you running on your M5? Also, you have the BMS tune right?

I will say this. I think that it is really dependent on where one lives and how one uses their ///M cars do decide if an F80 M3 is the right choice over F10 M5 or vice versa. For me personally, as time goes on, here on the East Coast, I find a car with as much sheer power as the M5 has to be much less viable than when I was living on the West Coast. Or rather simply put, the East Coast just doesn't have the room for a car like the M5 to really stretch its legs. I've put over 20,000 miles on my M5 in a little over a year on the East Coast now and 85% of those miles were all on the highway. Not exactly fun driving and actually quite frustrating most of the time considering how bad the drivers are here on the East Coast. You can try to have fun in straightline acceleration sprints with all the power that the M5 offers in Pennsylvania, Maryland, New Jersey, and Delaware most of the time, but in Virginia forget about it and North Carolina and South Carolina have an unbelievable amount of unmarked state troopers. No where is the old saying more true that "the M5 has too much power for the street" than on the East Coast. Then there is the track and we all know the other half of that saying: "...and is too heavy for the track." Well if one can't utilize all the power of an S63tu engine on East Coast highways and roads then one should take it to the track right? Wrong. 4,400lbs is almost too heavy for on the street let alone on the race track. Although fast, as you know fighting the weight of an F10 M5 is just not fun. The East Coast has a number of good tracks, VIR being one of the best, but even then they are all pretty spread out. VIR is a 3 hour drive from me, NJMP is like 2 hours, Watkins glen 4 hours away, and Lime Rock also 4-5 hours away. Also, most of those tracks have decibel restrictions. Just to give a perfect example the last video that I made with my M5 entitled: "Autumn Don't Leave" I had to drive 2 hours, that's right 2 freaking hours, out of the city just to find those roads that I shot in the video! So that's 4 hours of driving round trip just to get to the good roads where I can really enjoy my M5.

On the West Coast it's a completely different story. I shot this video a week after I got my F10 M5 back from Euro Delivery, back in California. It was still completely bone stock and it took me only 45 minutes to get from where I lived on the beach to these roads. As I recall I hit 150mph about 4 times during my drive that day. I was able to reach those speeds and do it safely while NOT on a racetrack and without the fear of police. Nowhere on the East Coast can I do that. Nowhere.

These things now combined with your new assessment on how good the F80 M3 is, is making me think very hard about what the right car is for me. I almost feel like the East Coast is killing my enthusiasm and love for the F10 M5. I simply can't use and can't drive the F10 M5 like I used to and it kills me. A car with less power and less weight, and more so designed for the racetrack, may be a better car in an environment where there is a very real limit on how much power you can use on the public roads. Not once did I ever feel like this on the West Coast. Rarely did I have a desire to go to the race track on the West Coast either. There's almost no need to hit the track when you have so many good canyon roads.

My warranty will be running out on my M5 soon and I have some very hard thinking to do. Your post has may have really affected me in more ways than one. Thank you friend. A part of me just doesn't want to live without an Alacantara headliner in my next car though. Then there is the C7 Z06 conundrum. There may be tough times ahead.

Oh and let's plan a get together very soon.

Cheers!

I've only found a few places on the east coast....
On the border between CT and NY on the Merritt Parkway, there are long stretches that you can easily hit those speeds.

I've also driven stretches on 287 in NJ between Basking Ridge/Bedminster and Morristown where you can as well...

However, NJ can be tricky - I almost got pulled over being an a$$ hat on 287 before I-80 gunning around a 18 wheeler from 55-100mph. Cop pulled up and looked at me and was like "WTF are you doing". No ticket, but sharted a little.

[RPiM5]

Originally Posted by shivaswrath

I've only found a few places on the east coast....
On the border between CT and NY on the Merritt Parkway, there are long stretches that you can easily hit those speeds.

I've also driven stretches on 287 in NJ between Basking Ridge/Bedminster and Morristown where you can as well...

However, NJ can be tricky - I almost got pulled over being an a$$ hat on 287 before I-80 gunning around a 18 wheeler from 55-100mph. Cop pulled up and looked at me and was like "WTF are you doing". No ticket, but sharted a little.

Yeah just too many cops in all of the East Coast states in general. They are also much more well funded by their city and state governments than CHP is. Especially in the southern states where they don't have a big industrial economy like some of the northern states do. Taxes and traffic citations are two of the biggest revenue generators for southern states. Just not worth it to try and have fun with what these kinds of cars are really capable of in my opinion. Just look at what North Carolina and Virginia charge you for property tax on your vehicles. Then Georgia likes to double tax you as well. In Florida the insurance rates are so crazy high too. No, I believe the only way to really enjoy a performance car on the East Coast, whether it be an Audi TT, Corvette, or BMW M5, is to take it to the track. And no track on the East Coast is a big power track like the Nurburgring where a car with heavy weight but a lot of power like the F10 M5 can really use everything its got. A smaller, lighter, less powerful car makes more sense on the East Coast and I stand by that. This is not to say that I don't enjoy the other aspects of a car like the F10 M5 though. Like when I'm sitting in bumper to bumper traffic in DC for an hour and half. The full leather, ventilated seats, Bang & Olufsen, spacious cabin, and more business sedan quality ride are really enjoyable on a day to day basis. Where as even if I owned a Cayman GTS I would only get to enjoy it's best qualities only once in a while whenever I can get to a race track. I just miss those days where I can really feel what it's like to accelerate from 120mph to 150mph on an open desert road. It's truly incredible what the S63tu engine is capable of, even bone stock.