This Coupe's A Keeper

Newcastle Herald

Saturday July 3, 2004

Brent Davison

THE downhill corner came up quickly, sweeping right then cutting hard back in on itself, continually tightening right like a big tarmac hook before suddenly swinging back to the left and straightening out.

I hit it in fourth a little on the high side of quick, about two nanoseconds after noticing that someone had cleaned up the speed advisory sign.

A quick jab on the brake pedal hauled down the speed and two quick thumb hits on the steering wheel-mounted paddle dropped the transmission through the gears to second cog.

With the engine running right in the middle of the power band, the car swept through without a sweat, the big tyres grabbing chunks of tarmac and the exhaust resonating from the earth bank.

Easing on to the throttle, I gave the gear lever a nudge and punched the car back up to speed for the exit on to the straight run.

Ah, yes, another "Montoya moment" in my time with BMW's delicious 330Ci Sport coupe.

For those familiar with BMW's cooking version of the 330Ci, just imagine it with firmer sports-style suspension settings, a tasty-looking aero kit (front spoiler, side skirts and a boot-mounted lip spoiler), 17-inch alloys with mixed-size, low-profile tyres (45-series front, 40-series rear), sports front seats and satellite navigation.

Also imagine it with a six-speed sequential manual transmission complete with computer-controlled clutch and steering wheel-mounted shift paddles and you start to see why this particular BMW gets to be extremely interesting.

Start with the transmission, a package BMW calls SMGII. "SMG" stands for "sequential manual gearchange" and "II" stands it apart from the similar-but-different sequential shifter fitted to the stove-hot M3 coupe.

The package puts a standard-looking gear lever in the centre console. Standard-looking but not standard in its operation.

Flicking it hard left and forward grabs reverse, moving it back into the middle gets neutral, flicking it hard right puts it in first gear and shifting it right a second time puts it in full automatic mode.

From the first gear position a tiny backwards pull (no effort required, by the way) gets second and the exercise is repeated until you run out of gears. Nudging it forward makes for snap downchanges. No clutch pedal required and none fitted, by the way.

Simple? It gets better. Drivers who want to change manually without using the shift lever can use steering wheel-mounted "paddles" on the left and right. The lower paddles (you only need to use one) change up, the upper paddles change down.

The electronic brain controlling all of this is goof-proof and will simply not let drivers change down if the car is going too fast (no matter how hard you try it will not let you grab low gear at 100kmh) and, when drivers roll to a stop (at an intersection or the like) it will automatically select first gear.

Other cute little tricks include gearchanges carried out within 150 milliseconds (no, that is not a typo) and quick downshifts will get you a nice little double-declutching-style throttle blip as the shifter passes through neutral just like Senor Montoya does in his BMW-Williams Formula One car.

To add a bit more fun to this scenario, BMW has two extra transmission programs fitted. The first is a sports mode that allows the gears to be shifted even more quickly (truth to tell, it was hard to pick the difference) and a full automatic mode that lets the gearbox manage itself.

It is actually the auto mode which is just a little disappointing with noticeable lag between the shifts. Never mind though because the transmission is just so damn nice to use in manual mode that the automatic option is mostly forgotten.

Couple this slick shifter with BMW's silky-smooth 3.0 litre, inline, six-cylinder engine with its 170 kilowatts at 5900rpm and 300 newton metres of torque at a fairly low 3500rpm and you have a car with delicious amounts of urge on tap all the time.

In fact the 3-Series coupe is simply a very desirable piece of clobber from both a chassis dynamics point of view and overall execution.

The steering accuracy of the car is

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Mechanical, chassis pack is so superior

From Page 1

excellent with a complete connection between tiller and front wheels totally free of lag between action at the steering wheel and reaction at the steered wheels.

Add to that the fact the BMW's steering is wonderfully weighted (to the point of being almost heavy at low speeds) and you get a car that can be accurately and cleanly pointed at and through corners.

Looked at from another point of view, this little Bimmer loves challenging roads. The more corners the better and each one tackled comes across as another flicker on the personal satisfaction meter, the whole package capably aided and abetted by a braking and suspension package that could only be wished for on other cars.

Huge stoppers front and rear with anti-lock pull up the car cleanly and quickly every time, hauling it down from big speeds without complaint and without standing the thing on its nose.

Sublime, too, with passengers often oblivious to just how far the car can push the laws of physics.

Suspension? Well, the ride is firm but not harsh (BMW has taken the quite compliant suspension from the lesser 3-Series cars and recalibrated spring and damper rates for this sports coupe) and the handling, as mentioned, is totally satisfying.

From a practicality point of view the coupe scores well. The instrument panel covers every base with both information supply and concise layout.

Almost every operation is accessible without the driver needing to lean, reach or move hands a long way from the steering wheel.

The leather-covered, electrically-adjustable front seats are firm but comfortable and access to the rear seat, provided by folding the front seat backrests, is acceptable.

Once in there, by the way, passengers find the back seat quite comfortable and with a surprisingly reasonable amount of leg space. Not brilliant, but better than most small coupes are inclined to offer.

Quite frankly though, with a mechanical and chassis package like this, an ordinary interior could almost be forgiven.

Generally speaking, Drive gets to test a lot of cars and most of them are very worthy entrants in what is a tough market.

But while many are worthy there are only a handful that present themselves as true keepers.

This particular BMW is one of that handful.

BMW 330Ci SPORT SMG

PRICE: $102,300 (not including dealer or government charges or options)

DIMENSIONS

Length: 4488mm

Width: 1757mm

Height: 1369mm

Tracks (front/rear): 1471mm/1483mm

Wheelbase: 2725mm

Weight: 1430kg

ENGINE/TRANSMISSION: Fuel-injected, double overhead camshaft, 24 valve, 3.0-litre, inline six-cylinder with variable valve timing. 170kW at 5900rpm, 300Nm of torque at 3500rpm. Six-speed sequential transmission.

CHASSIS: Front, longitudinal engine, rear-wheel-drive, power-assisted rack and pinion steering, power-assisted four-wheel disc brakes with anti-lock and electronic brakeforce distribution, traction control with dynamic stability control. 17-inch alloy wheels with 225/45ZR17 tyres front and 245/40ZR17 rear.

SUSPENSION: Independent struts, coil springs, telescopic gas dampers and stabiliser bars front and rear.

FUEL TYPE/CAPACITY: 95-98RON/63 litres

FUEL CONSUMPTION: 11.2 l/100km

© 2004 Newcastle Herald

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