Does it ever stop??....plus de flap?

[nw99]

the question seems to come up quite frequently, and the responses are often varied and erroneous.
1. does the sport button change the engine map?

No, it only changes the responsiveness of the electronic throttles, so that less input with your foot on the accelerator pedal yields more output from the throttles than when in normal mode.

2. does it add power when the sport button is pressed?

No, although the car seems to feel invigorated, again you are only getting more fuel into the engine with less effort from your foot.

3. my petrol mileage seems lower when i drive in sport mode?

Yes, yes it does.
actual mileage may vary, it is likely that you will consume fuel at a faster rate with sport mode on.

[Olive]

I fully agree with it regarding the feeling and behaviour of the car with Sport Button. I noticed also the raising of consumption.
One important thing for me : it is less safe to drive with Sport Button "ON" in the moutains. The car is less easy to control...almost dangerous on very small moutain road.
Then, for me, the removal of the flap is a perfect adding of a driving without Sport Button "ON".

[GregorFuk]

To me sport on gives the most accurate representation of a cable operated throttle pedal. Not too many years ago I had a Lotus Elise running throttle bodies that were functioned with a good old fashioned throttle cable. Sport on mirrors this the best. With sport off I find there is an unnatural dead spot in the first 1/3 of the travel. I guess this helps prevent any jerky throttle inputs and makes motorway cruises easier.

As an aside I do feel the SMG is sharper with sport on. Perhaps it's just in my head.

[glendog74]

As an aside I do feel the SMG is sharper with sport on. Perhaps it's just in my head.

It certainly feels that way with DSC off and 'S6' selected :thumbs:

[cslsuperfan]

To me sport on gives the most accurate representation of a cable operated throttle pedal. Not too many years ago I had a Lotus Elise running throttle bodies that were functioned with a good old fashioned throttle cable. Sport on mirrors this the best. With sport off I find there is an unnatural dead spot in the first 1/3 of the travel. I guess this helps prevent any jerky throttle inputs and makes motorway cruises easier.

As an aside I do feel the SMG is sharper with sport on. Perhaps it's just in my head.

My experience also.

Sport on permanently, sod the MPG.

[MarcM]

To me sport on gives the most accurate representation of a cable operated throttle pedal. Not too many years ago I had a Lotus Elise running throttle bodies that were functioned with a good old fashioned throttle cable. Sport on mirrors this the best. With sport off I find there is an unnatural dead spot in the first 1/3 of the travel. I guess this helps prevent any jerky throttle inputs and makes motorway cruises easier.

As an aside I do feel the SMG is sharper with sport on. Perhaps it's just in my head.

Agree. Having owned and used extensively two M cars with throttle cable can say sport mimics them perfectly. I even put sport on to move the car 15 foot back into the garage. Just bought an E46 320d sport touring as a daily smoker (it's Silver Grey as well :smokin it's throttle is probably more responsive than sport off :hahaha:

[terra]

the question seems to come up quite frequently, and the responses are often varied and erroneous.
1. does the sport button change the engine map?

No, it only changes the responsiveness of the electronic throttles, so that less input with your foot on the accelerator pedal yields more output from the throttles than when in normal mode.

2. does it add power when the sport button is pressed?

No, although the car seems to feel invigorated, again you are only getting more fuel into the engine with less effort from your foot.

3. my petrol mileage seems lower when i drive in sport mode?

Yes, yes it does.
actual mileage may vary, it is likely that you will consume fuel at a faster rate with sport mode on.

While sport mode doesn't add power or change timing, it is a bit more complicated than that. In addition to having a more aggressive throttle map, sport mode also allows the engine's torque to ramp up more rapidly.

[select]

Forgive my ignorance but wouldn't mean torque earlier in the range more power aswell?

[terra]

Forgive my ignorance but wouldn't mean torque earlier in the range more power aswell?

When I say it lets the torque ramp up quicker, I mean in term of time, not the rev range. So while you might technically make more power for a fraction of a second, the end result will be the same. What is different is the responsiveness.

[select]

Wow i am impressed, i thought its just some gimmicky feature that makes the throttle way too twitchy.
I shall use it way more from now on. Thank you for clearing that up.

Do you know if the normal m3 shares the same behaviour?
Apart from the function of the flap, of course?

[0836whimper]

I had a normal M3 and the CSL at the same time for a while.

The difference in the sport button on the two was quite marked, the M3 was almost undriveable with Sport on, the CSL less sensitive. Also, the M3 seemed to provide more power lower down in the revs, whilst the CSL is more linear and the fireworks are further up the rev range. Had the effect on making the M3 appear more powerful, but obviously it's the other way round.

The M3 was an early 03 pre-facelift with the SMG logo on the gear stick housing etc, they might have revised the above soon after.

[terra]

I had a normal M3 and the CSL at the same time for a while.

The difference in the sport button on the two was quite marked, the M3 was almost undriveable with Sport on, the CSL less sensitive. Also, the M3 seemed to provide more power lower down in the revs, whilst the CSL is more linear and the fireworks are further up the rev range. Had the effect on making the M3 appear more powerful, but obviously it's the other way round.

The M3 was an early 03 pre-facelift with the SMG logo on the gear stick housing etc, they might have revised the above soon after.

Pretty much all of the maps that deal with sport/non-sport are identical on the CSL and non-CSL; same throttle curves, same delta torques. Main difference is that the non-CSL doesn't have any provisions to deal with the flap.

So the difference behavior comes from somewhere other than how sport mode is handled. There are probably multiple things that contribute. Two things I can think of:

1) The non-CSL does make more torque down low for a given cylinder filling (particularly below 3000 RPM).
2) The CSL goes into open-loop at much smaller throttle angles than the non-CSL

[terra]

Just wanted to update you guys with some info I've uncovered:

The CSL software changes the cylinder filling / volumetric efficiency calculation based on whether or not the flap is open, and it also alters the throttle map depending on the flap status. So if you want to run flapless, it's probably best to keep it open via software rather than just removing it altogether.

[digi]

kool find. thx. :thumbs:

[nw99]

Much appreciated