Reg's Youtube thread

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And another - 38 Progress Vs Restraint:

https://youtu.be/BsJU3bRXM-A

Can you tell I'm on my holidays with time to spare?...

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Number 39 - Automatic Gearboxes:

https://youtu.be/ujwVkxDeim0

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Apologies for the slightly out-of-sync audio towards the end of this one. I thought I’d cured it in the edit, but apparently not quite...

I’ll leave this one up, because it’ll be too much of a faff to remove it & fix the error which - hopefully - doesn’t spoil the video too much.

I have a fix in mind for subsequent videos...

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meatballs said:

You can stall an automatic.

But I found it involved a 180.

Every credit!

I'm sure it is possible to stall an automatic, but it would necessitate a sudden stop of the driven wheels whilst the gearbox is locked-up, something which would only happen in extreme circumstances.

I should have said that you can't stall an auto in normal driving. I have tried very hard and never succeeded!

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Here’s number 40 - Courtesy:

https://youtu.be/RGV9EuEfmdU

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41 Off Road Driving in the Himalayas

https://youtu.be/su3agZnRMDk

The first of a few videos I’ll be uploading over the next few weeks following our little trip to Northern India.

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First drive in Delhi:

https://youtu.be/MrjY1WXWdyE

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Not really advanced driving I know, but really good fun, nonetheless.

43 Rickshaw Race Across Delhi

https://youtu.be/ytno388jRTY

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meatballs said:

Was wondering what the accident stats would be as everyone seems so aware of each other and has much better spatial awareness than people over here by the looks of it.

However quick Google seems to show there is 1300+ fatalities a year compared to 130 odd in London. Population difference is 30 million compared to 8.8 million so about 3x the number of fatal collisions.

Oh, it’s much worse than that.

One of the standard measures used to compare different country’s road fatality rates is the number of people killed on the roads, per year, per 100,000 head of population.

In the UK (arguably the safest reasonably heavily populated country in the world) that figure hovers around 3.

In India, the figure is 16. More than 5 times the fatalities of the UK.

Then we factor in the country’s population which is now over 1 billion. In 2016 (the last year stats are available), 158,562 people died on the roads of India (compared with approximately 2,000 in the UK). More people died on the roads of India than any other country. More, in fact, than died in the whole of North, Central and South America combined.

India makes up nearly 12% of all road fatalities globally.

In the UK, on average, approximately 5 people die on the roads every day.

In India, that figure is 15.

Every hour.


Just to put a spanner in the works though, just as you’re thinking that you’d never go to India for fear of dying the instant you leave the airport...

Lets look at that deaths per 100,000 head of population stat for a second. 16 people per 100,000 head of population die in road accidents every year in India.

In the United States, that figure is 14. It’s statistically almost as dangerous on the roads of America as it is on the roads of India.

In Russia (a country I’ve spent some time driving - and teaching advanced driving - in), the figure is 48! Russian roads are 3 times more dangerous than India’s!

There are, of course, other statistics which take population levels into account & rebalance these figures to a degree, but the numbers are fascinating aren’t they?

Just think about them the next time you’re Thinking that British driving standards are poor.

We didn’t actually see any accidents happen whilst we were there, but the remains were all over the place...

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44 Driving Over the Rohtang Pass:

https://youtu.be/er4UecBLV7k

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45 Would you drive this road?

Ok - a little Youtube licence with the title, but this was an unbelievably dramatic piece of road, filmed from in-car and with the drone. Enjoy!

https://youtu.be/WuarnmwXXus

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Driving over the Nakee La Pass.

I’m using the wrong terminology - “La” means “Pass”, so referring to it as the Nakee La Pass is a bit like referring to your PIN number (Personal Identification Number number).

Still - hope you enjoy...

https://youtu.be/7o1b8iWoQ4g

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47 Double Clutch (Semi-Automatic) Gearboxes - M-DCT, DSG, PDK etc:

https://youtu.be/IUdZoUxwGiI

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Max_Torque said:

Another interesting video, but good god, that handwheel and paddles look awful! ;-)

Each to his own & all that - it all worked pretty well!

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48 Driving A (Very) Fast Car on UK Roads:

https://youtu.be/UOMRCK22HV4

Responsibly, of course...

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Haltamer said:

That was a good one!

One question I'd have comes from your mention of using the throttle to control the rear of the car:- This is eminently possible with RWD Cars, and it seems to be the taught method of cornering from all sources:- Balanced throttle on entry, and power out. (For the road at least).

Being constrained to FWD, how would you achieve the same effect?
I know that balanced throttle, power out is a nice smooth way to work, but for spirited driving and improved feel I prefer to enter the corner under light braking (Keeping the nose settled and allowing for more rotation up to the apex), And then managing the line out using the power. - In other words, trail braking! (But not quite as aggresive as "trail braking" would imply)

It has the right feel, for me at least - It's much easier to manage the rotation using the brakes into, then the power out - Rather than the power through approach which works best, it would seem to me, on RWD vehicles.

Perhaps a performance FWD drive at some point?

The technique is the same in front wheel drive cars as it is with rear wheel drive.

It’s not about inducing yaw or making the car “loose” - quite the opposite. Early application of gas on turn-in transfers some weigh rearwards & slightly increases grip at the rear axle. This encourages the rear wheels to follow the fronts more accurately. Continual, or increasing application of gas through the corner keeps the rear planted, hence “steering the front wheels with the steering wheel & the rear wheels with the accelerator”.

I’d be happy to make a performance fwd video if anyone wants to lend me their car for a few hours!

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49 Offsiding:

https://youtu.be/YWgfQ7sW5F0

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50 My New Car - BMW M2 Competition:

https://youtu.be/cWOK2TEVUvE

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waremark said:

As an M2 Comp owner I enjoyed that and obviously think you have made a great choice. I'm not sure if this is the right place for specific comments on the car but here goes.

Gearbox. My M2 is manual but I had an E92 M4 with a DCT box. You mentioned that BMW describe the gearbox settings as changing the fierceness of the gearchange but you said the settings really change the speed of the change. That wasn't the case in my M4. I ran some acceleration runs in the M4 with a data logger. The least sporty settings gave the quickest acceleration. In the sportiest setting in which the fierce full throttle changes upset the car, the acceleration curve showed an interruption of the drive during each change. I concluded that rather than speeding up the change in the sportier settings the drive is cut slowing the change to make the change feel fiercer. Thereafter I ran the car with the box in the least sporty setting. You might like to investigate whether it is the same in your car.

I have driven my son's cars with extremely fast dual clutch boxes - e.g. the GT3 and the new GTR Pro. The changes are quite smooth as well as being super fast.

Sound. You mention that the exhaust is fruitier in Sports Plus. I didn't hear you mention that the biggest difference to the sound is what comes out of the loudspeakers. I generally also drive in Sport Plus because I like the fruitier artificial sound you get in the mid range. In my manual car I also prefer the throttle response for heel and toe. However, when using the top end of the rev range I find the artificial sound rather droney and I prefer the sound in the efficient setting.

Steering. You mention that you prefer Sport to Sport Plus because you do not benefit from artificial extra weight to the steering. For the same reason I stick to Comfort.

By the way, several of my very expert car and driving friends have driven the car on suitable roads and agree how good it is.

It’s only early days, but the car has a somewhat undefinably nice feel about it. I suspect it’s just a combination of the chassis improvements & the way the electronic diff interacts with the gearbox & steering (diff behaviour has a significant effect on steering response & feel). It’s wieldy size & relatively short wheelbase probably adds to that feeling, but I would still describe it as “precision” over any other descriptive term. And chuckable - a willingness to change direction.

More so than any other BMW I’ve previously driven, this one really does feel like you steer the front wheels with the steering wheel & the rear wheels with the accelerator. Not in an oversteery, drifty, hooligan way, but more in a precise, DRIVE the car through the corner way. It feels more rear-driven than pretty much any other car I’ve ever driven. That might sound a bit daft, but it’s the best description I can currently come up with

Your comments about the DCT gear changes are interesting. Thinking about it logically, in a DCT/DSG/PDK etc gearbox, the next gear is pre-selected, so the gear change time is pretty much negligible, irrespective of the “ferocity” setting. These settings can only change the way the clutches operate, rather than the “speed” of the gear change, so I can easily believe that the softer settings would result in better acceleration, with less interruption to the acceleration curve.

In this video: https://youtu.be/UOMRCK22HV4 a friend generously lent me his tuned M4 with around 550bhp. We had a play with all the settings & found that the softest gear change setting was by far the best for road use, especially under brisk acceleration. Any of the two firmer settings just shunted the rear axle quite uncomfortably.

The “piped” engine sound is interesting - I’d completely forgotten that it had that function installed, which I suppose is a bit of a compliment to the sound engineers who developed it. It doesn’t sound unnatural or false in any way & I quite like it.

I’ll do another video once the running-in service has been done & I can use the full 7600rpm!

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waremark said:

Thanks for your comments Reg. I agree about the precision. I had not previously linked it to the diff. Both damping and turn in are better IMO than the regular M4, though the M4 is more compliant, and there is even less sensation of turbo lag/boost than the already small sensation in the M4.

I went out for a bit of a run today - purely for research purposes, of course.

It’s still only on 600 miles, so I’m only running it up to around 5,500 rpm & the roads were wet & quite greasy, so these observations are only preliminary & I may well change my view once I’ve got dry roads & the full 7,600 revs, but...

The diff is almost certainly the most significant factor in the improved steering feel & response. It’s clearly open on turn-in which encourages a direct & accurate entry to corners with no hint of understeer. It did push on occasionally in tight corners, but a combination of crappy road surface conditions, optimistic entry speeds & brand new tyres were more likely to be the cause.

What happens next is very much dependant on your driving style. The diff will start to lock-up as soon as you start to apply the gas, and then further lock up as you start to wind off the steering lock. This gives a definite “straightening” effect as the rear axle comes in to play. I kept the DSC in normal mode throughout, so I suspect that kept the more lively characteristics of the rear axle dampened down & I’ll be interested to see how much more exciting the rear axle will feel on dry roads with the DSC in MDM mode, which allows a certain amount of slip before intervening.

So, if you’re the type who likes to enter a corner on a trailing throttle, or even trail the brakes a little, you’ll find that the car is pretty eager to turn in. Not “darty” as such - it’s a little too heavy for that, but certainly very eager to get into the bend. The tricky bit if you pick up the throttle part-way round the corner is that the diff locks quite quickly, especially if you’re also starting to wind off the lock as you pick up the gas. So if thats your style, be ready for the car to feel like it’s trying to straighten up quite forcefully. It’s fine if you’re ready for it, but a little sudden if you’re not.

If, however, your style is to pick up a little throttle on corner entry - just enough positive throttle to maintain your entry speed - the diff starts the locking process much earlier, with just the slightest decrease in turn-in agility (almost unnoticeable in todays conditions, but possibly a little more subdued at higher speeds on dry roads). The transition to firmer throttle pressure as the corner opens up then results in a slightly less sudden locking action.

Anyone who has had a day out with me knows that my preference has always been to enter corners with the gas applied, as it brings a number of benefits, primarily because the rear axle is settled right at the start of the corner. Now I understand a little more about the characteristics of the M2C’s diff, I have another reason to promote this cornering style.

A couple of other observations about the car. The engine is extremely strong, even from low revs & at running-in speeds. On British B roads, 4th gear is extremely flexible & I found myself between 4th & 5th, where in the M135i I’d be between 3rd & 4th.

On very bumpy roads, the car can get a little unsettled. I think it’s just the damping & spring rate increases & the car was fine on any other road surface, but it felt just a little bouncy on bumpy, rutted tarmac & I felt I was working a little harder to keep it on an accurate course.

And it was nice to be reminded just how bloody good Michelin Pilot Supersport tyres are! Even on horrible wet, slimy Northern English roads in January, they filled me with confidence & were never anything less than precise, predictable & consistent. Lovely!

If you want to know more about the way the rear diff operates & you can stay awake through it, here’s a strangely old-fashioned style American video which shows how the hardware works:

https://youtu.be/xFXlF21yHtw