Just the other day i was driving back from va beach to my college. I come up on a 328is, look over and cant see anything but tinted windows. He pulls over to right lane, while im in the left, and there is a car in the middle lane. I floor it in 5th just thinking he might gun it. To my surprise, when we get to the other side of car in the middle lane hes way in front and still pullin'. Before i had a chance to reel him in, we come up on traffic, and he start weavin' crazily though traffic. I just drop back down to about 70 and cruize. So i guess i got killed. :( I had 4 passengers in the e36 M3, didnt really think he was gonna go, and didnt downshift, but im not going to try to make excuses, i did lose. But i did come to a realization. I dont really know what gear to downshift to when i want to go. I read someone say something about hitting 3rd gear when going 70 was lots of fun. I dont know what RPM that would jump to, but it scares me some all the same. Anyone have some numbers and corresponding gears? an example would be dont shift to 3rd after 70mph, etc. Anyone?

Originally posted by Madd96///M3
Just the other day i was driving back from va beach to my college. I come up on a 328is, look over and cant see anything but tinted windows. He pulls over to right lane, while im in the left, and there is a car in the middle lane. I floor it in 5th just thinking he might gun it. To my surprise, when we get to the other side of car in the middle lane hes way in front and still pullin'. Before i had a chance to reel him in, we come up on traffic, and he start weavin' crazily though traffic. I just drop back down to about 70 and cruize. So i guess i got killed. :( I had 4 passengers in the e36 M3, didnt really think he was gonna go, and didnt downshift, but im not going to try to make excuses, i did lose. But i did come to a realization. I dont really know what gear to downshift to when i want to go. I read someone say something about hitting 3rd gear when going 70 was lots of fun. I dont know what RPM that would jump to, but it scares me some all the same. Anyone have some numbers and corresponding gears? an example would be dont shift to 3rd after 70mph, etc. Anyone?

Next time you drive your car, while in third gear, see what your rpm's are when you're doing 70. This is what you'll be turning when you downshift to 3rd. If you're still in the meaty part of the powerband, then go ahead and downshift from 5th to 3rd and nail it. Don't forget to rev-match though. Also, try downshifting from 5th gear to 4th gear and see which one gives you more punch. I'm thinking downshifting to 4th instead of 3rd will put you somewhere in the neighborhood of 3800rpm, which is where the M3's peak torque output is.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I would think the best acceleration in that situation would occur when downshifting to a gear that would put you closest to peak torque.

yeah, i dont know which would be better, but either way i would have killed him. I didnt really expect him to go fo' it, or at least not go all out. But my not taking him seriously lead to me gettin' rocked. He didnt pull that much, it was more like i sped up some passing the car in the middle lane, and then when i saw him i punched it in 5th and didnt reel him in before the next clump of traffic. I also didnt weave all crazy in and out of traffic and in the shoulder....mainly because i dont want to kill anyone, especially with a ton of peepz in the car, but just in general. I also dont need 6 more points on my license. Either way the guy was cool fo going for it, and he had a nice car. No hatin' here, all enthusistz rock :buttrock

It's nice to hear of another 328 :) 4 passengers couldn't have helped either. And the 328is isn't all THAT much slower than a M3. But it's still not a M3.

Yeah, if you're in 5th at 70, downshift to 3rd for max acceleration. You're good up to about 90 in 3rd, and I don't personally downshift to 3rd if I'm above 80. 3rd gear is an awesome gear for the M3 *if* you're in the powerband.

If you've got an S52 engine you should be able to hit 87 mph in 3rd gear @ roughly around 6500 RPM. So if you were @ 70 mph, "blip it" in 5th, and as the RPMs reaches its high point from the "blip", shift into 3rd. Unmodded 328 would've gotten "M"barrased. :evil2 But I hate stories of Bimmers killing other bimmers. Let's not keep it all in the family. :)

it was all in fun, and if i had won i wouldnt have posted. But yeah, ill go kill some rice for y'all

Well, you guys know how I feel about racing from a roll... ;)

well yeah silver, but i pretty much know when to shift when i start from a roll. Except after 2nd gear i might be shifting too late, maybe.

Yeah, but you don't know where your competition is, in what gear, at what rpm, where their torque peak is, etc....

Racing from a roll ain't racing, proves nothing, and virtually eliminates driver skill from the equation...