2013 Chevrolet Malibu Eco - Prototype Drive Review
Selasa, 18 Oktober 2011
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This fifth-generation M5, known internally as the F10, is due to arrive in the U.S. late next summer, likely as a 2013 model and at an expected base price of about $90,000. BMW wants this M5 to be more flexible and everyday drivable. So those hoping for a twitchier, more-involving adrenaline generator than the outgoing E60 M5 might go away disappointed. The M5 remains unapologetically a heavyweight, an executive express, a velvet-wrapped hammer, a shark in whale’s clothes that should bolt its comfortably well-off owner to 60 mph in 3.8 or so seconds, roughly a half-second quicker than the old M5 with the SMG single-clutch automated manual. It might not be a four-door Elise, but this new M5 can scoot.
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Hydraulic Steering Is Better, but Not Perfect
As is the M way, all that performance is disguised by rather understated mods to the basic 5-series, including squarer front and rear fascias, the requisite four tailpipes, new sill skirts, a trunk wing, fender vents, and special 19-inch wheels (20s are optional). Inside, there are a thousand buttons and dancing needles and digital readouts, including a head-up display projected on the windshield that disappears if you wear polarized sunglasses. Upholstery is a sea of stitched leather, and the rest is soft-touch plastic accented by an unusual band of vertical-striped metal trim that recalls the corrugated roof of a Quonset hut.
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Smokes If You Got ’Em
Thanks to the M5’s sharper camber and caster settings, the helm quickly executes your commands and does everything you could desire—everything, that is, except talk back with those little organic tugs and sags that make lively cars feel, well, alive. But the suspension of forged control arms, links, and knuckles, which share virtually no part numbers with the current 550i, is more neutral than the old M5’s and more easily and progressively throttle-steered through corners. It may be heavier, but the new M5 felt lighter on its feet at the 3.4-mile Ascari circuit south of Seville, pea-shooting from corner to corner with blazing power, turning in smartly without noticeable roll in the body or squish-down in the tires, and then oozing out in one long, lurid, controllable drift.
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Power delivery from the 560-hp, 4360-cc twin-turbo V-8—yes, 560 horses from only 266 cubic inches—is a blast, literally, from about 1500 rpm to 6000, during which the two Honeywell turbines nestled into the valley of the engine block blow their strongest breezes. There’s so much torque steaming aft that, even with an electronically locked clutch-plate differential and larger 295/35 Michelin Pilot SuperSport rear tires, the back end easily breaks grip from a standstill under wide-open acceleration.
The tach needle will swing all the way to 7200 before it hits red, but it doesn’t need to. The stated reason for the 4.4’s lofty redline is track lappers who might want to hold gears longer, but we suspect the real reason is to pay tribute to M’s heritage of lofty top ends. The old E60’s V-10 spun to 8250. In this engine, Elvis pretty much leaves the building at 6000 rpm, and he shuffles out quietly, as the engine’s fierce guttural blat is heavily muffled by the turbos.
Manual Transmission in Limbo?
Dubbed the S63 TU for “technical update,” the oddly configured “reverse flow” V-8—in which the intake manifolds feed from the outside and the exhaust exits into the vee—has large and small changes from the S63 in the BMW X5 M and X6 M. The basics remain the same, but BMW’s throttleless Valvetronic induction control is deployed on the S63 TU, as are larger turbos and intercoolers, different injectors and control electronics, and a higher compression ratio of 10.0:1.
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“There are days you can hear it clear across the Atlantic Ocean: ‘We need a manual transmission!’ ” says Albert Biermann, vice-president of engineering for BMW’s M division. “Some days the guys in Munich hear it, some days not.” Solution: Scream louder.
One thing BMW did hear were the complaints about the E60’s small fuel tank. The F10’s holds an additional 2.6 gallons, or 21.1 in total. When EPA testing is completed next year, average mileage could land somewhere in the low 20s, we’re told, a substantial gain over that of the old M5 automatic, which was rated at 11 mpg city/17 highway.
The M5 is a quantifiably superior car to its predecessor. Some things can’t be quantified, however, such as the sublime joy of a sky-high redline and the sound of an expensive precision instrument winding up to reach it. And therein lies BMW’s conundrum, and ours. We’re all for more-efficient, more-powerful torque monsters, but perhaps not at the expense of personality.
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