Shift Points/Rev Limiter - BMW Forum

roloson · 12-06-2003, 04:07 AM

I finally got my 2004 M3 broke in properly and wanted to test its power limits. Interstling I found in first gear I hit the rev limiter at 7500 RPM. This was my intended shift point to reach 7900 safely. The car is equiped with SMG and all the settings were correct for max performance. Has anyone else had this issue? Is this a correct factory limit for first gear? It runs out fine in the other gears. By the way this is my first M car. Now I know what driver feedback while cornering means. WOW

Will "The Thrill"

lwebb12 · 12-06-2003, 04:29 AM

excellent news and welcome to the forums. so you are hitting the rev limiter at 7500 rpm in first but 7900 rpm in all other gears?

roloson · 12-06-2003, 04:35 AM

Yea, that just did not make sense to me so I thought I would see if anyone else had experienced this.

lwebb12 · 12-06-2003, 04:47 AM

it may be a pre-emptive shift. but you are looking at 400rpm in the area where the engine's performance grastically drops

roloson · 12-08-2003, 10:43 AM

OK guys, I called the dealer hoping to get a definitive answer. No such luck. The best I got was, well maybe they had reset the limiter at 7500 for 1st on the 04 M3 because the engine is under a lighter load in first gear then other gears. I thought that was a pretty well though out answer but I just want to know for sure. I could not find any graphs of HP vs RPMs, but I bet thats keeping me at 15-20HP below max RPM HP. If I'm locked up with a ZO6 that is important to me. Someone with an 04 M3 please reply or if someone has a good dealer they could recommend I can call or a factory email address that I can get and answer from I would appericate it.

Will "The Thrill"

Yanuks · 12-08-2003, 07:20 PM

what IS driver feedback?

roloson · 12-08-2003, 10:39 PM

This may sound a little strange but it is the car kind of talking to you, what you feel in the seat of your pants, letting you know how close you are to the edge of losing traction. A lot of lesser cars will just let go, start sliding, and suprise you. With the M3 you know how close to the edge you are, no suprises. I think all M cars would feel the same. Hence they are great drivers cars.

Will "The Thrill"

e36mpower · 12-09-2003, 11:33 AM

Someone else posted this same topic, no replies. Sorry, wish I could help.

e36mpower · 12-10-2003, 04:46 AM

http://www.bmw-forums.com/forum/index.php?...?showtopic=6244

And that's all she wrote....