MRmike

Yes but that was before some bright spark piped up in a consumer group and said that the steering was a bit heavy

I hate all these gizmo's - the new 370Z has a synchro rev matching facility that blips the throttle on the downshift. It's being hailed as the best new piece of car tech - what a load of crap - whats wrong with people learning how to heel and toe?

moff

Cause it's fecking hard to heel and toe.

I think it's a superb invention - most flappy paddle boxes have been doing this for years now.

I am looking forward to getting a drive in a new Zed and seeing what it's like.

Nick Graves

It's not just BMW that is stuck with the quandary:

Going back a generation, the CTR had EPS and its close cousin, the ITR had an hydraulically-assisted setup. I've not driven the latter, but the consensus was the steering was vastly superior in feel to the Civic.

Hydraulic PAS IS a PIA, because it gives minimum assiatance at low RPM, where you need it most and wastes power at high RPM, when assistance probably isn't needed.

Minis and Peugeots and stuff have an hydraulic setup powered by an electric pump, which squares the circle.

But obviously, a direct-acting rack motor EPS is cheaper & lighter & less complex. But steering feel is still an intractable issue.

Blurter

H&T was so easy in the S, I used to do it for fun

In the MR it's a right pig. The brake pedal sits quite a bit higher than the accelerator pedal when at rest. With the brakes being quite sensitive you need to be pressing pretty hard to be able to blip the throttle at the same time

"Ultimate Driving Machine"? You think they'd be able to get that right

Nick Graves

I agree entirely. That is my bete noir of almost every German car (although the Boxster's OKish).

Once completely missed the brake pedal in an emergency in a TC Cortina because my foot went under it. The British-designed ones were better than that pile of crap ever was.

As for over-servoed brakes; that is another feature of most cars. On ones with sporty pretentions, unforgivable.

Combine the two problems and the conclusion is startling; the Germans expect you to use your dick to brake.

Blurter

The brakes are very good, being nicked from the M3 CSL. I've heard criticisms about their durability on track, but for road use they work really well.

moff

Same for me, I still blip the throttle, but heel and toe is very hard in my car.

My brakes are fantastic too, seems BMW got the brakes dead right with the ZM (CSL's) and 135i (6 Piston Brembo's).