Auto ZHP faster than Manual?

[terraphantm]

No, actually I didn't at all.

If it's the same ratio on the same engine...great. But it isn't.

You fail to still realize that.

Enjoy.

IMO Manual is better at both. You chose your shift points, and it's always ideal to short shift to gain torque in any setting IMO. HP drops off alot in last RPMs

I think the point Smolck is trying to make is that the M-cars have gears that are spaced just as far. In fact, the Z4M gearbox is the same as the 330 6MT box (though the input spline itself may be different). And the combination of the higher redline and shorter diff makes it so that the M3 and Z4M reach their redlines at the same respective road speeds.

Now the reason it isn't much of an issue on the S54 equipped cars is that we have really flat torque bands. While our peak torque is at 5k, the torque at 2k is damn close. So pretty much no matter where or revs fall, our engines are ready to respond.

[derbo]

according the gear ratios:

Manual Zhp

1st Max 38mph
2nd Max 66mph
3rd Max 99mph
4th Max 134mph
5th Max 165mph
6th Max 194mph

Auto ZHP
1st Max 38mph
2nd Max 69mph
3rd Max 99mph
4th Max 139mph
5th Max 188mph

This is assuming the rear end is 3.07 on manual and 3.64 on the auto. I think the auto feels to pick up faster than the 6speed at lower speeds too.

[Hermes]

The auto has fairly closely spaced gears *until* the 3rd-4th shift. At that point there is a very large drop from what I remember. I did occasionally feel that the autos felt torquier in the lower gears... but 4th and 5th gear really destroyed it for me. Those cars were begging for another gear in between.

+1000000, I don't like that shift at all. That's part of the reason why mine will get a new gearbox (along with engine swap) one day. I even would have rather had a SMG2 box if that was available. I have another project to deal with first so the ZHP will probably still have a slushbox for the next few years

[Smolck]

I wasn't saying that I wanted a slush box, I'll always want a manual (for the reasons Monk3Y mentioned), but it just seemed that the auto's trans gearing kept it higher in the rpm range during hard acceleration. What I really want to know is why the auto doesn't suffer from the 4k dip, what is that all about?

[danewilson77]

What I really want to know is why the auto doesn't suffer from the 4k dip, what is that all about?

Especially if its DISA related, like we claim. Auto has DISA as well. Trans/DME software seems to make more sense now.

Sent from Williamsburg, VA USA

[Smolck]

Especially if its DISA related, like we claim. Auto has DISA as well. Trans/DME software seems to make more sense now.

Sent from Williamsburg, VA USA

What we need is for an automatic owner to swap in a 6 speed and not code the car. Just trick the trans to think it is in neutral and drive it to see if the dip is there.

In all seriousness, why can't BMW make a manual car not have the dip but the auto they can?

[terraphantm]

What we need is for an automatic owner to swap in a 6 speed and not code the car. Just trick the trans to think it is in neutral and drive it to see if the dip is there.

In all seriousness, why can't BMW make a manual car not have the dip but the auto they can?

I think it has more to do with how autos work. Based on the gear ratios, the 1-2 drop should be larger than in a manual. So that means the torque converter isn't locked when entering 2nd gear. And since the torque converter allows slip by design, the 4k RPM dip probably isn't as pronounced since it's effectively averaged out by the slip

If you were to slip your clutch for a few seconds while entering 2nd, you may achieve a similar effect. At the cost of your clutch of course

What I do know is that it's not a software issue -- DME has the same software for auto and manual E46s. To eliminate the EGS error codefrom the DME, you only have to clear the adaptations. The rest is just recoding the cluster and DSC modules so that they don't look for an auto.