Was driving around taking car of some stuff (picking up brake fluid etc), and stopped by Speednation, when i got there Mike was taking a gorgeous white 2002 M3 Convertable off the dyno...i got a 3 minute ride in the beast, it's an amazing car, the engine just snaps to life with an insane thrust at any point in the rev range...it had the paddle shifter system, the way it matched revs was pretty sweet, lots of techno-goodness going on. Not as fast as the 993 turbo i got to drive at an autocross (i knew it would ruin me forever), but an amazing car. After that, mike let me drive around for about 20 minutes in his newly brought to life Mazda Cosmo!

for those who don't know the car, it was available in america about 3 years before the first RX7, and has a rotary engine...this one has some adjustable shocks (the guy who owned it before owns Suspension Techniques i think), a giant Holley carb, and just pulls forever...really really neat stuff. In it's current state, mike figures the engine will rev to 13,000 safely, but he's got it limited to 8000 for breakin....alot of torque, it just accumulates power and brings a smile to your face with the gorgeous noise. Thought i would share

 

Very nice.

I have a loaner RSX while my R is in the shop, and it has the auto with the semi-auto feature. I was very disapointed with the way it doesn't match revs, but what do you expect from the RSX? No Magnetti Marelli there.

 

I thought the E46 M3's only came in standard. I learn something new everyday. Do you know what numbers the M3 pulled on the dyno?

 

He means it has the sequential shifter. It is in essense a manual. There is no torque converter like in Porsche/Audi's Tiptronic system.

Warren

 

Whats in the Cosmo, a 13B??

Tell him he should put a 20B in there

Sam

 

Yeah, the M3 was a paddle (or stick) driven sequential shifter...it would revmatch for both upshifts and downshifts it seemed, very quickly at that. Unfortunately, there's a problem with running cars with BMW's stability control....if the front wheels aren't moving, it won't let the engine rev higher than 6500. They had a fix from a BMW webboard, but it wasn't working (and involved alot of fuse pulling and such)...so the dyno was a stunted graph. I might be mistaken, but i think it was getting like 167 hp with that premature cutoff...but the number is kind of pointless with a stunted run. The torque curve was SUPER flat though, basically the same from 2000-6500.

As for the cosmo, I think it's a 13B, he's going to autocross the car at steubenville (a local, relaxed autoX environment), it's just a fun oddity...i'd certianly never seen one before he got his. here's a pic of the engine before he put it in:

 

Does this mean the car will not sit in 1st at idle and not stall?

 

I think it automatically grabs neutral at a stop, again, only spent a few minutes in it. It has a pretty trick "launch" mode, you floor it, and it holds the RPMs at 1900 until you hit the shift to 1st, where it takes off like a jackrabbit standing in front of a firecracker. Handles and brakes well, too, not suprisingly Frankly, as cool as it was, the auto-rev-matching downshifts seem kinda boring...much more rewarding to do it yourself, and as fast as it was, i'm still faster

EDIT: by faster i mean shifting....i'm not THAT delusional


[Modified by Aleph, 2:42 AM 2/10/2002]

 

I wonder how the SMGII compares to Benz's new SpeedShift system that they're putting in all the new AMG cars.

 

SpeedShift is no match for SMGII. SMGII in S6 mode will change gears as fast as 80 milliseconds and BMW claims that it will never take more than 110 milliseconds. 80 milliseconds is still 400% slower than F1 or only 60 milliseconds behind, which ever way you choose to look at it. Speedshift is supposed to be 30% quicker than a conventional auto but it still has a damn torque converter.

 

Holy poo poo - he has two Zets as well?? Wow - looks like the guy is trying to corner the obsolete Japanese car market!

ceas..

 

I think he sold those, it's hard to keep track of his eclectic car collection, some of them are just parts cars etc. The cosmo is getting painted soon, should be gorgeous...i really like the look.

 

Yeah a stock 2002 M3 is cute and all...

But this weekend at the track we saw a guy with a 2002 M3 w/ the SMG transmission kit. Fawking awesome!!

The thing is amazing, auto launches the car for you, and also does automatic rev. matching when down shifting. It was schweet.

 

Uhh...did you read this post?