FiestaST
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Thread created in advance for the all new 7th Gen 3 Series (G20). Will be revealed at the Paris Motor Show in October 2018./
First drive: BMW 330i M Sport prototype
Compact executive saloon icon enters a remarkable seventh generation later this year – and it’s getting its sporting mojo back
The G20 3 Series: world leader in waiting?
It’ll be another few weeks until BMW is ready to reveal how the exact technical details of the new 3 Series, codenamed ‘G20’, will depart from its forebear. As background for this taster, however, we were told that it’s a slightly longer and wider car, with a longer wheelbase; and that, having been built on BMW’s Cluster Architecture, it’s made of a higher proportion of aluminium, magnesium and high-strength steel than its predecessor, and is a slightly lighter (up to 55kg) and torsionally stiffer (by 15-20%) car to boot.
The 3 Series’ axle tracks have both grown, with MacPherson strut suspension used up front and a multi-link arrangement at the rear. A wide-ranging overhaul of the suspension and steering hardware has left little untouched. There’s a new ‘variable sport’ steering box (although it isn’t speed-sensitive ‘active steering’, which hasn’t featured on a 3 Series since the E90 generation); there are new optional adaptive dampers from Tenneco if you want them; and there's firmer springing and bushing for cars with M Sport suspension than of like-for-like current-gen cars. But there are no air springs (at least not for the saloon) and no four-wheel steering. Contrary to what you might have read elsewhere, Munich is clearly content to leave features like those at the more expensive end of the executive saloon spectrum.
BMW has, in fact, made an effort to rationalise its investment of new suspension componentry and development resource with this version of the 3 Series; to focus on the hardware that customers actually buy; and to attempt to imbue this version with a simpler, more direct and more discernably sporting character. Dynamically, at least, it aims to head back towards the 3 Series’ roots; and, as roots go, they were pretty good. For an admission of the fact that BMW is in defensive mode, ready to protect the territory it has owned for so long from the likes of Alfa Romeo and Jaguar, look no further than that.
By and large, 3 Series drivers don’t buy adaptive dampers, and so devoting a large proportion of development time to fine-tuning those dampers, as BMW has in the past, just doesn’t make sense. Buyers tend to prefer passive suspension, often with an alloy wheel upgrade. And, this time around, those customers will get struts with both main and auxiliary springs, as well as clever shock absorbers that provide additional damping support at the extremes of wheel travel (for improved rebound control at the front axle and better compression support at the rear).
New tech: the next 3 Series’ double-rated dampers explained
Twin-rated passive dampers of one sort or another are fairly common suspension technology, many working through secondary internal reservoirs. Most of them are ‘frequency selective’, and so the damper switches from lesser to greater resistance rates depending not on the overall size of the bump it’s dealing with but is based in effect on the steepness of the bump’s profile: on how quickly it’s forcing oil to move from one chamber to another.
The 3 Series’ passive shocks are different; they ramp up to a secondary firmer setting progressively and only at one extreme of the suspension strut’s range of travel (the rebound end on the front axle and the compression end at the rear). At the front, the effect is achieved though a secondary ring the damper piston has to push against which is governed by a separate hydraulic circuit; at the rear, the piston runs up against a cone-shaped restrictor at the bottom end of the main reservoir.
BMW 330i M Sport specification
Engine 4cyls in line, 1998cc, turbocharged petrol; Power 255bhp at 5500rpm (tbc); Torque 295lb ft at 2000rpm (tbc) Gearbox 8-spd automatic; Kerb weight circa 1500kg (DIN, tbc); 0-62mph tbc; Top speed 155mph (limited); Economy tbc; CO2, tax band tbc; Rivals Alfa Romeo Giulia Veloce, Jaguar XE 2.0 i4p 250 R Sport
https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/new-cars/first-drive-bmw-330i-m-sport-prototype
First drive: BMW 330i M Sport prototype
Compact executive saloon icon enters a remarkable seventh generation later this year – and it’s getting its sporting mojo back
The G20 3 Series: world leader in waiting?
It’ll be another few weeks until BMW is ready to reveal how the exact technical details of the new 3 Series, codenamed ‘G20’, will depart from its forebear. As background for this taster, however, we were told that it’s a slightly longer and wider car, with a longer wheelbase; and that, having been built on BMW’s Cluster Architecture, it’s made of a higher proportion of aluminium, magnesium and high-strength steel than its predecessor, and is a slightly lighter (up to 55kg) and torsionally stiffer (by 15-20%) car to boot.
The 3 Series’ axle tracks have both grown, with MacPherson strut suspension used up front and a multi-link arrangement at the rear. A wide-ranging overhaul of the suspension and steering hardware has left little untouched. There’s a new ‘variable sport’ steering box (although it isn’t speed-sensitive ‘active steering’, which hasn’t featured on a 3 Series since the E90 generation); there are new optional adaptive dampers from Tenneco if you want them; and there's firmer springing and bushing for cars with M Sport suspension than of like-for-like current-gen cars. But there are no air springs (at least not for the saloon) and no four-wheel steering. Contrary to what you might have read elsewhere, Munich is clearly content to leave features like those at the more expensive end of the executive saloon spectrum.
BMW has, in fact, made an effort to rationalise its investment of new suspension componentry and development resource with this version of the 3 Series; to focus on the hardware that customers actually buy; and to attempt to imbue this version with a simpler, more direct and more discernably sporting character. Dynamically, at least, it aims to head back towards the 3 Series’ roots; and, as roots go, they were pretty good. For an admission of the fact that BMW is in defensive mode, ready to protect the territory it has owned for so long from the likes of Alfa Romeo and Jaguar, look no further than that.
By and large, 3 Series drivers don’t buy adaptive dampers, and so devoting a large proportion of development time to fine-tuning those dampers, as BMW has in the past, just doesn’t make sense. Buyers tend to prefer passive suspension, often with an alloy wheel upgrade. And, this time around, those customers will get struts with both main and auxiliary springs, as well as clever shock absorbers that provide additional damping support at the extremes of wheel travel (for improved rebound control at the front axle and better compression support at the rear).
New tech: the next 3 Series’ double-rated dampers explained
Twin-rated passive dampers of one sort or another are fairly common suspension technology, many working through secondary internal reservoirs. Most of them are ‘frequency selective’, and so the damper switches from lesser to greater resistance rates depending not on the overall size of the bump it’s dealing with but is based in effect on the steepness of the bump’s profile: on how quickly it’s forcing oil to move from one chamber to another.
The 3 Series’ passive shocks are different; they ramp up to a secondary firmer setting progressively and only at one extreme of the suspension strut’s range of travel (the rebound end on the front axle and the compression end at the rear). At the front, the effect is achieved though a secondary ring the damper piston has to push against which is governed by a separate hydraulic circuit; at the rear, the piston runs up against a cone-shaped restrictor at the bottom end of the main reservoir.
BMW 330i M Sport specification
Engine 4cyls in line, 1998cc, turbocharged petrol; Power 255bhp at 5500rpm (tbc); Torque 295lb ft at 2000rpm (tbc) Gearbox 8-spd automatic; Kerb weight circa 1500kg (DIN, tbc); 0-62mph tbc; Top speed 155mph (limited); Economy tbc; CO2, tax band tbc; Rivals Alfa Romeo Giulia Veloce, Jaguar XE 2.0 i4p 250 R Sport
https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/new-cars/first-drive-bmw-330i-m-sport-prototype
