My M4 is finally here! [photodump]

"Spasoje" (Spasoje) 09/20/2020 at 17:07 • Filed to: None

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And I took it on a road trip almost immediately! The break-in service happens at 2k kms (fluid changes, software blocks removed, inspection) - I covered most of that distance in a single long weekend. 

Before I get to the photodump from the road trip and subsequent smoky-skied bunch of days, lemme tell you guys the story behind the car.

*********

The original dealer simply ordered the car for their inventory. Being an Ultimate Package car, a full Merino leather interior comes as standard, with no option for cloth like the non-Ultimate Pkg cars have. Plus, for MY20 only, a handful of Individual colors were included at no extra charge, one of which was the Speed Yellow my car is finished in.

Sometime around August or September of last year, the car arrived at the dealer... The Individual Speed Yellow looked great, but then they opened the door and...cloth seats!?!? WTF??

Turns out my car has an impossible configuration because of a mistake at the factory. 

So they parked it in their showroom, where it was still to be found in June of this year. A local guy who had just won the lottery walked in, sat in the car, and without even test driving it, said “I’ll take it.”

Despite that, the car was still sitting there a while after. “Red tape, red tape, I don’t have the money yet,” repeated the lottery winner every time he spoke with the dealership. After a month of this, the dealer got fed up and put the car back up for sale...

*********

Meanwhile on the other side of the country, I was sitting in the break room at work this past winter, perusing the BMW forums. I found out M4 production (for the final model year of this generation, no less) was to end early. Too early for me, so I slept on it - realizing that it’s my last chance, I decided to go for it anyway. And good thing I did - in March, I snagged one of the final four build slots. Success! 

But then Corona hit and BMW canceled my order, along with all orders that weren’t yet assigned a VIN...

It was still March at this point. I scoured dealer inventory across the country using as many online sources as I could find. There were four brand new M4 Competition manuals left in the country: one in the adjacent province, and the rest on the opposite coast. One of the latter had that Ultimate Package, which was five figures more than I wanted to spend with my very lean factory order...but just like that ultimately-futile order, the Ultimate Package car was also in Speed Yellow with cloth seats... 

When my salesguy told me they canceled my order, he mentioned that they can ship any new M4 found in any other BMW dealer’s inventory to their dealership, at no extra cost to me.

I was on the fence, though - an extra five figures was nothing to sneeze at. I told him I wasn’t really sure if I wanted to spring for an Ultimate Package car, even though it had the exact equipment I otherwise wanted (right down to the same special order color and rare cloth seats). I told him that given everything at this point, I wanted to try some competing cars out.

So in July, with the Corona situation being much more clear than it was in March, I spent a week test-driving a bunch of cars: a C63S, Carrera T, V8 Vantage, RS5, M2C and Challenger Hellcat. After all that, the M4 was still the favorite, and all four of those M4s were still available...

I called my salesguy the week after: “if you can get me that yellow one for a great price, I’m buying it today.” He does, so I do.

*********

Unbeknownst to me, the sold sign on the yellow one was taken off while I was doing my various test drives. Literally a week after they gave up on lottery guy, they get a call from my dealer securing the car for me!

With a heavily-delayed shipping trip now in the history books, the car’s finally mine, which means it’s time for that photodump.

CarsofFortLangley - Oppo Forever > Spasoje 09/20/2020 at 19:19

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oooooooh damn!  We should organize a Vancouver drive sometime soon...

PyroHoltz f@h Oppo 261120 > Spasoje 09/20/2020 at 19:31

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Sweet setup and congratulations on the purchase. Tell me more about these seats, d o they offer them in other vehicles? Can you get them heated ? Are they comfortable?

Spasoje > PyroHoltz f@h Oppo 261120 09/20/2020 at 19:52

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Why yes, I’d love to geek out about the seats 

Irrespective of seat material, these are the Competition Package seats, distinguishable by those holes in them (weight savings). The base/non-Comp seats have the lumbar support that these don’t come with, because the base seats don’t have these holes.

Comp or not, they’re firm but comfortable, though because of how they’re sculpted, you’ll need to find the ideal driving position before long drives become comfortable. Once you do, though, there’s no going back.

They’re full power and heated but not cooled, no matter if you get them in cloth or leather. No thigh extensions (though as a tall guy, I don’t miss them at all), but you can adjust the side bolsters in and out. The M4 logo also lights up when you unlock the car.

Every M3/4 has these seats (except for the convertible), with the Comp versions being found in the Comp, CS, and GTS.

You get these seats in base form (but in leather only) in the M2C as well. The new M2 CS gets the Comp seats in a mix of leather and Alcantara.

Also, the cloth option is called “Carbonstructure”, because the weave pattern mimics that of carbon fiber. 

Spasoje > CarsofFortLangley - Oppo Forever 09/20/2020 at 19:53

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I’m down, especially before it gets too cold.

MUSASHI66 > Spasoje 09/20/2020 at 20:21

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Damn dude. Do jaja!!

Spasoje > MUSASHI66 09/20/2020 at 21:03

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Da znaš!   (hvala hehe)

Tripper > Spasoje 09/20/2020 at 22:32

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Congrats, great color. I love that they still haven’t changed the shift knob in the m cars cars.

MiniGTI - now with XJ6 > Spasoje 09/20/2020 at 23:19

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Hearty congratulations. My 2008 MINI approves of the color.

John Norris (AngryDrifter) > Spasoje 09/20/2020 at 23:37

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Very nice.   Congratulations.  

Danny Korecki > Spasoje 09/21/2020 at 00:00

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Welcome to the ///M family

Exage03040 @ opposite-lock.com > CarsofFortLangley - Oppo Forever 09/21/2020 at 00:21

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We live in this dreary fun zapping city with the brightest, enjoyable vehicles!

Exage03040 @ opposite-lock.com > Spasoje 09/21/2020 at 00:28

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Cool, a BaM4Wa! (Banana - B M4 W)

I’ll wave at you if I see you around Van, we won’t miss each other.

Mark - Sixpots None The Richer > Spasoje 09/21/2020 at 10:15

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Nice car! I wish you lots of M-otional experiences with it!

Vicente Esteve > Spasoje 09/21/2020 at 10:53

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What a solid purchase, congrats! 

ZHP Sparky, the 5th > Spasoje 09/21/2020 at 11:48

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Wow that’s an awesome story and what a unique spec. Congrats!!!

CaptDale - is secretly British > Spasoje 09/21/2020 at 13:48

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Damn that is one sweet ride! Congrats on the purchase. Can’t wait to see many more posts. 

davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com > Spasoje 09/21/2020 at 13:51

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Stunner.

Great photos!

Spasoje > davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com 09/21/2020 at 15:19

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Thank you! And thanks for the repost!

CarsofFortLangley - Oppo Forever > Spasoje 09/21/2020 at 15:47

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https://oppositelock.kinja.com/vancity-cruise-pitches-1845132799

CarsofFortLangley - Oppo Forever > Exage03040 @ opposite-lock.com 09/21/2020 at 15:47

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https://oppositelock.kinja.com/vancity-cruise-pitches-1845132799

NYankee1927 > Spasoje 09/21/2020 at 17:14

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Welcome to the club! Love the small carbon trim updates my 2015 was not available with. How is the rear grip with the updates to everything? I find mine severely lacking, which makes it basically impossible to drive around in full sport + mode without putting stability control in MDM.

Spasoje > NYankee1927 09/21/2020 at 17:46

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Thanks!!

All the exterior carbon trim/splitter/side skirt trim was just part of that Ultimate Package, though you can otherwise get any and all parts online as an accessory from the M Performance catalog!

I will say I haven’t driven it in Sport Plus yet (though I did that with all three I test drove ), but I found I could attack some very demanding roads in Sport without regard to speed. Everything I’ve read about the Competition Package said that it fixes any rear end grip problems the non-Comp has , and so far I’d agree with that 100%.

With winter coming relatively soon, it may be a minute before I have at some roads with all the nannies off -  but based on everything, I expect it’ll do very well!

NYankee1927 > Spasoje 09/21/2020 at 17:54

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Thanks for the feedback, keep me updated as you start to push harder. I haven’t broken the rear end loose in the corners yet, just under accel. I also have the dual clutch. It has the tenderness of a 2 year old in a lego store  during full throttle, full sport shifts, so that does not help the situation.

newnamesameme > Spasoje 09/21/2020 at 18:07

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Damn! This is sweet! All the congrats and i hope you two have years of happy motoring together. This is probably the nicest M4 ive ever seen. 

Future next gen S2000 owner > Spasoje 09/21/2020 at 18:22

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Nice! While the car is amazing, I’m wondering how you got that old jet to hover.

CB > Spasoje 09/21/2020 at 18:27

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That’s a wicked car and I love the colour. Congrats!

Also is this plane floating?

Spasoje > NYankee1927 09/21/2020 at 18:27

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It’s funny, I got the rear end to break loose on a straight in Efficient mode yesterday, though I deliberately floored it to see how it would handle it haha

Though now that you mention it, on e of the F8x cars I test drove was a DCT M4  Comp - the rears did slip on that one when I gave it some more aggressive throttle coming from a dead stop. At the exact same place and in the exact same conditions, my M4 didn’t lose any grip at all.

Spasoje > newnamesameme 09/21/2020 at 18:28

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Thanks!!

Spasoje > CB 09/21/2020 at 18:31

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It’s trickery 

That RCAF plane is on static display and is mounted to a pole. I just ‘ shopped out the part of the pole visible between the bottom of the plane and the  top of the car!

Spasoje > Future next gen S2000 owner 09/21/2020 at 18:33

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It’s good ol’ trickery 

That jet is on static display and is mounted to a pole. I just ‘shopped out the part of the pole visible between the bottom of the plane and the top of the car!

NYankee1927 > Spasoje 09/21/2020 at 22:05

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Yea I can do it with efficient mode by being rough. In sport + the throttle is so touchy, you can easily send the car bucking at low speeds and get the tires to break loose at high. I want efficient throttle mapping but along with the pops and burble of the sport +. Also, I want more responsive, but not harder shifts if that makes sense. Porsche’s PDK does this so well. Instant shift response to my paddle, but it isn’t slamming the next gear or upsetting anything.

Spasoje > NYankee1927 09/21/2020 at 22:46

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I totally get you. Didn’t know they tied shift responsiveness to shift harshness, but I’m not surprised . My time with a DCT was only one 20-30min test drive, after all.

Suppose it goes without saying, but the inherent control of the manual really lets you dial in all of what you’re looking for, exactly the way you want it  (except having the loud exhaust in Efficient mode).