Most (all?) of the M5 acceleration times published in those magazine articles are for DSC off, right?
Anyone ever competitively measure their acceleration times (0-60 or quarter mile) with DSC turned ON?
Sometimes I find that DSC is just too intrusive, but, I assume that if you've perfected your up-shifts, you can achieve similarly quick acceleration times with DSC turned ON!?
So, how 'bout it? Anyone achieve similarly quick acceleration times with DSC turned ON?
Technically if your wheels are slipping (and DSC does allow a tiny bit of slip) then you're wasting some energy producing heat and noise. So if your launch and 1-2 shift technique are PERFECT, you ought to be able to do pretty well. However, this is practically impossible to do, and there is an upside to SMALL amounts of wheel slip which is that you get the engine a bit further up its power band a little sooner. If DSC kicks in at all, of course, all bets are off - because once it does it doesn't back off for a bit (unlike its intervention in loss of cornering traction.)
I would think best case you should be able to get within a few 10th's. I tried a few 0-60 runs when I got my G-Tech - I didn't want to beat the car or the clutch, and I was down on power thanks to that awful 91 octane. Best I did was about 5.1. I thought about doing it again when I had the 100 octane load, and because the weather is cold. I know the car is faster. i know I could do better. But it just isn't worth the abuse to the car. I get as much pleasure out of full throttle in 3rd getting on the freeway. And 4th once I'm there. God I love the way it pulls, and sounds.
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I think a lot of the early slower times for first-year E39 M5s was due to the fact that testers used DSC mode during accleration measurements. I regularly could get 4.6 to 4.9 times to 60 with my G-tech device and DSC off. The early tests showed 5.0 seconds and greater times to 60 m.p.h. 2001 U.S. M5s show consistent sub-5.0 times to 100 km/hr. as well. The difference in time from 60 to 62 m.p.h. is negligible. It is about 2/10s of a second. Sometimes I see bogus European test numbers for the M5 to 100 km./hr. in the 5.2 range.
I wonder if the non-U.S. cars are equipped differently or something. BMW U.S.A. claims 4.8 to 60 for the M5. Every test this year from Car & Driver and Motor Trend show 4.7 to 60.
I wonder why European M5s test slower. There have been over 7 tests of the M5 under 5.0 in the U.S. I wonder what accounts for the difference. There is no question that for U.S. spec. 2001 M5s that the time to 60 is 4.7 on average.
I don't trust some times from European publications though.
As a fairly long time reader of Car and Driver, I can recall them saying that they do anything they can to get the fastest 0-60 time. It can be very abusive to the car, e.g. slipping the clutch, and is not what they would do as an owner. That is why they have that 5-60 "street start" time which takes out launch tricks and is claimed to be more like what a average driver could expect or something like that.
Road and Track is a sister publication and I assume they do the same. With the emphasis in the U.S. on drag racing, I bet most U.S. based pubs work hard to beat the best 0-60 and 1/4 mi. times out of performance test cars. I am not so shure that european pubs care as much.
I also read Autoweek and can remember them testing cars with trax control on and off. Notably, they are almost always slower than C&D.
I also wonder if sometimes we really get 0-100km (i.e. 0-62mph) times instead of true 0-60 mph times from the european pubs. The diff can be 2 tenths or so.
Personally, I have had significant wheel spin shifting 2nd to 3rd with balls to the wall accelleration with DSC off( a bit more so than with my 93 325i on a 1-2 shift!). If I make a quick but smooth 2-3 shift with DSC on and no DSC lag, it doesn't feel as if I loose much at all. Starts and 1-2 shifts are another thing though, DSC cuts in kinda quick.
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