Hooked on Paddles.....!!!

Glad to hear your so impressed with sequential shift technology.

I plan that my next sports car will have that technology or I'll just keep driving my present ride.

Good luck and enjoy...

Sequential shift technology is just too good to pass up on..

IMO

JB

 

I wasn't convinced the SMG was the right choice at first when I was car shopping.

But 18 months later in my M3 with SMGII, I wouldn't have it any other way.

I spent considerable time behind the wheel of the Maser when I was car shopping and think the BMW SMG wirks better, in manual or auto mode, than the F1 tranny in the Maserati.

(EXCEPT FOR THAT WASHBOARD EFFECT. WATCH OUT FOR THAT IN THE M3)

Let us all know how the 430 turns out.

DM

 

I've only used the paddles on my M3 a few times. I always use the center console shifter... guess I'm lazy because my hand is right there anyway... but the SMG really is fantastic. It would be fun to compare to the 430... let us know.

 

Sometimes, at easy acceleration in 1st or 2nd, the car can tend to buck around not unlike an unruly horse. Like if you were to engage a standard transmission at too low an rpm, and then floor it. With a regular tranny, you'd just push in the clutch pedal, rev it up a little, and re-engage the tranny perhaps dropping down a gear..

Can't do it with the paddle shifter, so you either have to jam it into a lower, or higher gear (at the whim of your thinking) and step on the gas to make it go away.

Dealer says they all do it. M3 boards confirm that.

Dave

 

It's happened to me a few times too... esp when you start to take off (1st gear) on a bumpy street. It can be pretty embarrassing.

 

The Ferrari F1 tranny doesn't do that. Soooo, tell me why it is you like BMW's SMG better than Ferrari's F1? (I'm not arguing you shouldn't prefer it; just curious what's so better about it that overcomes that big negative.)

 

What he said. Maybe some of the early Ferrari F1s were jerky. But take a ride in a later version Ferrari or Maser. Very, very cool.

Dale

 

Brian.

Is the Maser tranny the same design as the Ferrari? I don't know.

When I drove the Spyder, it just seemed to me to be much rougher to shift. Now some of that may have been my being a noob in the Maserati, but, even after I drove it for about 1/2 hour, I just didn't seem to be able to get the handle on it. Very harsh gear changes, nastly slamming into gear at 1/2 throttle or more, and the auto mode is completely useless.

To top it off, it sometimes refused to go into 1st gear. This on a new one that I was test driving.

The washboard thing is an occasional issue. I'd say it happens 1 or 2x a week, and I put about 300 miles a week on the car.

I had more trouble with a 30 minute test drive in the Maserati than I do in a month of M3 driving.

AND YES, THE WASHBOARD THING IS ANNOYIING.

I bought the SMG II because I wanted to use the M3 as my everyday driver, and do a lot of stop and go traffic commuting. It seemed like a good compromise, and still does. Although, in all honesty, if the BMW folks offered their Tiptronic, or whtever they call the automatic tranny they sell, I moght have opted for that.

Dave

 

Even you like the SMG, you'll love VW DSG.

 

The softened the F1 up in late 2000, so the washboard effect is less. The earlier models launch MUCH better than the later models, but aren't as good in traffic. With the F430 (I haven't driven one yet, but this is based upon what I've been told) the got the launch right, without the washboard effect.

I love my F1, even if the ride is a little uneven at times.

Art

 

Dave, you know the BMW SMG has an "automated" mode, right?

A little off subject here, I noticed you have a TR6 in your profile. I had a '74 for eleven years before my F328. That was a great car!

 

Wow, f1 tranny sounds sweet. Anyone have any figures on how many new F430 Coupe and Spider are going to be F1/6 spd?

 

Is the F1/SMG avaliable to all the exotic cars? Do you think if they don't, all the next models will have them (Porsche, MB, BMW, Aston Martin, Bentley, ect.)?

 

Porsche has tipronic, its not paddle shifting, but you take the gear shift and just move it up or down, depending if you want to gear up or down. On one of the reviews of the M3 I was watching, they said dont get the SMG. Its Rubbish...but that was top gear...hmmm

 

Whoa there!
Tiptronic = auto transmission with "optional" manual gear selection. Has a torque converter, slow as hell, boring!

SMG, F1, E-Gear...etc = conventional manual transmission with an automated clutch. Will disappear IMHO as soon as twin clutch gearboxes will affordable. I'm convinced it will be something we'll look at in 20 years time and say "ah! what kind of brain fart was that?"

DSG (Audi, Bugatti) = 2 clutches (one for each gear shaft). "Old" technology (70s, IIRC) that is being brought back to the front thanks to electronic control. Basically, with 2 clutches, the next gear is already engaged, shifts are super quick and very smooth. Way of the future. Porsche (and man others) is working on it too.

I personally am a fan of old fashioned gears and cables ... because when comes the time to service the engine and trans ... those chips are hell !!! However, I have zero doubt that in a few years time, all cars will be twin-clutched.

 

Supoosedly the next Porsche Turbo will have a version of Audi's DSG.

SMG was upgraded in the middle of the production of the E46 M3. Earlier models had SMG, while later models had SMG II. The difference is supposed to be quite significant. I would guess Clarkson reviewed the car when it came out, so, if I am correct, the car he reviewed had the original version of SMG.

 

Assuming per the thread-starter's request that 6-speeds are off the table here, and as the veteran of a 2002 Maserati CambioCorsa paddle system:

(1) The jerkiness of the 2002 CC was eliminated by replacing the OEM exhaust with a Tubi. According to Maserati North America, this had something to do with backpressure.

(2) The sequential-downshift-jerks when coming to a full stop were avoided by most CC owners by twitching the thing into neutral when a stop was coming up.

(3) The CC functioned fine in full-auto mode, except that one had to re-engage it from every full stop. (I hear that this has been corrected in post-2002 CC models).

(4) A major problem with the paddles is that they do not move with the steering wheel. So if you are doing a lot of fast wheel-turning, as on a twisty mountain road, you have to take the right and/or left hand off the wheel to twitch the appropriate paddle. The best solution to this is to replace the paddles with thumb-buttons on the steering wheel spokes. Perhaps not as much F1-fantasy, but much more practical and quick to use.

If I had to look for another automatic system like that, I would go for a Tiptronic with spoke-buttons, as I think Aston Martin offers. But if I am not forced into it by "progress", I will stay with the manual gearshift, as the 5-speed in my 328.

 

As I understand it, this is true w/ the F1 system. But BMW's SMG is mounted to and turns with the steering wheel. No need to take your hands off the wheel.

 

I take it you've never driven such systems on the street.

On a racetrack you never need to remove your hands from wheel. On the roads (or autocross) you must shuffle your hands on the wheel. In that situation, those hideous thumb-buttons on the steering wheel are hard to find and when you find them its not clear which direction to push them. Normal start from a left turn light... you need to shuffle your hands to make the turn... you need to shift from 1st to 2nd mid turn... the buttons are at a about 120'-160'... so the thumb buttons are at an odd position away from your hands, so you have to glance down from the road to find them... and, worse, the buttons are upside down, so you have to focus on the buttons to figure out which way to push them! HIDEOUS!

The stationary paddles are the CORRECT solution for the street... you always know exactly where they are... and you always know exactly which direction to push them... and they are never more than a few inches from your hand. AND, on the track, where you won't be shifting at full turn anyway, the paddles are actually almost always under your hand anyway.

 

To my knowledge your comment regarding SMG II is incorrect. All E46 M3s have had SMG II, the original SMG was used in previous models and was not available in North America. However, there have been software upgrades, most noteworthy are the upgrades to the non-M model SMG transmissions (ie: 3 series & Z4).

 

You're right. It was the Euro E36 M3 that came with the original SMG, while the E46 only ever had SMG II. However, I do believe some changes have been made to the system since its introduction that would make it superior to the version tested on Top Gear.