Slashdot Mirror
The First Automotive Easter Egg?
automandc writes "The October dead-tree issue of Popular Science is reporting that the new BMW M3 contains what they are calling the "first automotive easter egg" in its transmission control software. Apparently, the proper combination of commands to the electronically controlled manual transmission will cause the car to rev up to 4000rpm and drop the clutch (premitting burnout, which is normally impossible). According to the article, use of the feature more than 15 times voids the warranty in Eurpoe. Other limitations of the "acceleration-assist" feature are discussed in this Car and Driver article. According to popsci, U.S. laws won't allow the warranty limitation, so the U.S. version of the software only revs to 1500rpm, but dealers will install the european software if you ask. The only other mention I could find on the web is here."
....it's was originally called the 'kamikazi dyno', where you trick out the software and the only place you can test it is out on the street.
Messing with software to control a car is not new, and I can think of many 'features' that could qualify as easter eggs, such as holding the pedal down on 1985 Fords with EEC-IV would shut off the injectors, resulting in a no start.
So who else is anticipating the day some idiot tries rolling his own acceleration software and winds up killing a dozen people?
For everyone that has the $141,000 car (*cough*, umm, yeah I have 2) this is how you do it.
1) Disable traction control
2) Select Agressive Shifting mode
3) Hold the shift lever forward for a few seconds
4) Slam the pedal
Your electronically limited to only 30 "acceleration assisted" burn-out's for the life of the clutch (torque converter) and only 1 per hour.
Fun but, for $141,000 I want a damn 5-speed.
Floor it? Is the sole purpose of this to simply do a burnout or possibly a 360? This will not get the car out of the hole faster then a controlled start. With advice like that I can see why they electronically limited this.
No, the purpose of this is to launch the car with the engine already at an RPM level that is in the max torque range. Basically you trade off wasted rubber and a bad transmission experience for the 10th of a second or so that you would have wasted to bring the engine up to max power.
Even though the 3.2 liter engine is awesome across the RPM band, it is clearly weaker under 4000 rpm. I know, my wife has one (an SMGII).
I have a measly ~250RWHP Mustang with a 2.73 differential. Dumping the clutch (or faster then normal release) at anything higher then 2000 rpms on street tires sends the car into almost an immediate sideways condition. At the track its worse, without a concrete launchpad its about 1500 rpm's and asphalt you can not avoid spin at any RPM.
That's weird. I have a '99 Mustange cobra, ~260RWHP, 2.73 gears. Maybe it's thanks to the independent rear suspension (IRS) that your model may not have, but the perfect launch in my cobra is at 2,400 RPM. There is very little no wheel spin, and the car is almost instantly at the sweet and sick power range starting at 4,000 rpm.
At the track, if you warm your tires properly, you should be able to go even higher. In any case, with the proper 2,400 rpm launch you can easily smoke Carreras. The M3 though will eat your lunch, considering that it has more power on the low range (
Which is why I totally disagree with the AU article posted to start this discussion: the guy correctly states that one could potentially shift like the SMG II, but he incorrectly assumes that one will do that not only consistently on the upshift, but will also never blow a heel & toe downshift. That's totally wrong.
The only little gripe about the SMG II is that sometimes you wish it would start the downshift a little quicker. There is a split-second delay between your request for a downshift and the start of the neutral->throttle blip->downshift sequence.
Way to understand how it works.
Part of doing the easter egg is FLOORING THE PEDAL.
Somehow I don't think this will be triggered by accident.
-- Dr. Eldarion --
First off, the SMG gearbox is NOT an automatic. It is an improvement upon a manual gearbox (the computer automatically double-clutches downshifts, etc etc)
secondly, C&D is not known for spectacularly reproducible test conditions or scientific thoroughness.
Finally, the only thing that would make a standard gearbox faster than this one would be less weight, or different gear ratios. I suspect the SMG box is slightly heavier, but do not know that to be the case.
Lets put it this way. On the ferrari SMG gearbox, schumacher had a faster laptime than on the 6 speed in the exact same car. Schumacher is also about the only person who gets a better laptime with ferrari's traction control turned off.
My opinions are my own, and do not necessarily represent those of my employer.
those limits aren't in the system, they are written into the warranty as this feature is DOCUMENTED in europe. There is a version on US cars that revs to about 1500rpms and there is no limit on that. As far as the speed goes, you can remove that by getting a chip from many different sources. It will reprogram your ECU giving slight HP gain, remove top speed governor and provide a couple hundred more RPM's of revving room.
I don't have one of the rice-rockets or one of the various expensive eurosports coupes or sedans. Just a plain old Mustang with a 4.6 and a 5 speed (and only a mediocre rear end at 3.27) and no gotterdamerung ABS. But it's a hell of a lot of fun to drive hard and a bit of a challenge to handle winding down nice backwoods roads.
Sure, I could have a faster gearbox, an OEM supercharger, a lower ratio rear end, a dropped and tunable suspension, etc. (And I suppose I'd enjoy the 5.4L engine...)
But the fun of driving the car is in seeing what you can do with the hardware available. The skill of the driver isn't in having the most expensive hardware, its making the best use of the available hardware.
And having fun!
-- Mal: "Well they tell you: never hit a man with a closed fist. But it is, on occasion, hilarious."