It was bright and sunny, so we drove the 2009 BMW M3 sedan across the Angeles Crest Highway. Who wouldn't?
Every city has its own place to go if you like driving, and L.A. is lucky to have a couple. Angeles Crest Highway is one of the best. It started out as a Forest Service road into the San Gabriel Mountains in 1929, but it took until 1956 for a paved road to make it across the top to Wrightwood. Max Balchowsky celebrated by driving his Old Yeller I race car up there from Hollywood Motors, his garage on Hollywood Boulevard.
We had something to celebrate, because the road all the way to Wrightwood had just been reopened for the first time since the winter of 2005, when huge storms washed out 17 sections of asphalt clinging to the mountain slopes along a 10 mile section of the route. Once CalTrans officially opened the gates on May 20, the motorcycle guys had been up there in force and news stories had filled the local paper.
Probably the M3 would be the car you'd pick if you were looking forward to the 198 corners between the Shell station at the intersection of Foothill Boulevard and the restaurant at Newcomb's Ranch. But Angeles Crest Highway is no longer the place to rip it up unless you choose your timing carefully. There are too many bikes, too many accidents, and too many CHP cars.
No matter where you drive the M3 on a mountain road, it's not much fun to shift this car's six-speed manual transmission. As ever, the shift linkage feels rubbery, the clutch action is heavy and the pedal travel is long. Sure, it's great to beat your chest and say you prefer a manual transmission, but it's hard to see the point here unless you like to feel like some kind of German farmer plowing his spargle field with a 180-mph tractor. The seven-speed Getrag dual-clutch transmission is the way to go with this car, I think.
But it turns out that there's nothing about the M3's transmission that matters on a winding mountain road. Six-speed or seven-speed, which three gears do you really need today? The M3's 4.0-liter V8 redlines at 8,300 rpm, and 85 percent of the maximum 295 pound-feet of torque is available over a range of 6,500 rpm. Which means you don't really have to shift this engine much at all. Third gear doesn't top out until you hit 105 mph, so it's pretty much all you need.
So that's how it played out. Once you quit playing with the transmission, you can think a little more about the corner ahead, the intuitive action of the steering, and making a smooth transition from throttle to brake pedal and back again. The eight individual throttle bodies of the M3's DOHC V8 deliver incredibly crisp throttle response, so you can modulate the power with incredible precision. And there's just a lot of pleasure that just comes from an engine's ability to change rpm.
It's 66 miles from the Shell station at the foot of SR-2 at Foothill Boulevard to the Shell station at the entrance ramp to Interstate 15 in the Cajon Pass. It was one of those great days, so warm and fine that you had to drive with the windows down. The road starts out at an elevation of 1,300 feet in La Canada and climbs all the way to 7,903 feet at Dawson Saddle, which makes this the ninth highest road in California. Toward the north, you can look out into the desert of the Antelope Valley.
Roads go places. And one of the really great things about a car is that it can take you to them.
Michael Jordan, Executive Editor @ 3,832 miles
stovt001 says:
03:15 PM, 06/ 4/09
I did the La Canada to Palmdale run a few weeks ago. While it may not be as challenging and busy as GMR, the scenery is fantastic and I think you can enjoy the drive a bit more when you're not bothering with the constant stream of control inputs GM requires.
caheew says:
03:16 PM, 06/ 4/09
I wish that Florida had some nice, challenging roads. *sigh* The M3 seems like a fun companion in takling a nice road.
clarkma5 says:
03:31 PM, 06/ 4/09
My GTI also loves 3rd gear, it's all you need from 30 MPH to 100 MPH. I can do (and have done) entire hot laps at Buttonwillow in just 3rd gear.
stephen987 says:
03:58 PM, 06/ 4/09
@caheew: which end of FL are you in? If you're within striking distance, there are a few nice drives in south Georgia. No hills though--just some narrow roads with unexpected off-camber curves to test your nerve.
There's always the possibility of driving a bland one-day transit stage to get you into northern Georgia, northern Alabama, and/or TN/NC. Lots of great roads there, if you can find one the tourists haven't colonized yet.
jederino says:
04:09 PM, 06/ 4/09
I miss the wonderful mountain roads in southern Cal. We have nothing like it in Washington. While we do have wondeful, pastoral type country roads through farmland, it just ain't a curvy mountain vista...
zacbol says:
04:17 PM, 06/ 4/09
Having a e92 6MT myself I have to agree that the somewhat rubbery, vague shifting action is the one weak link in an otherwise excellent car. That said, I don't think it's *bad*, just disappointing considering how good the rest of the car is. I'd also disagree completely with the assertion that the clutch action is heavy. I was actually surprised by how light it was.
As for the advantages of DCT, I'm still torn. I think it's a promising technology, but given the fairly widely reported issues with lag, random stalling, etc (I've seen quite a few complaints on M3 forums) I would say, in the case of the M3, it may not be *quite* ready for primetime. Add to this that while I've not driven the M3 DCT, I have tried the GTR and it just is so much more engaging to me to have a manual versus hitting 'flappy paddles', as Jeremy Clarkson derisively refers to them--even if the shifting action is not, in the case of the M3, "world class"
Mad_Science says:
04:27 PM, 06/ 4/09
Good driving roads are like surf spots.
Best not publicized to the masses.
caheew says:
04:54 PM, 06/ 4/09
@stephen987: I live in the south part of Florida. So there ain't much going on down here. =(
compliance says:
04:59 PM, 06/ 4/09
I've been meaning to try that drive for a long time now. Just haven't gotten around to it.
fuhteng says:
06:26 PM, 06/ 4/09
South Florida, any Great Plains state... yeah, fun roads are hard to find. That being said, I found a pretty fun one in Kansas for me and my G8 GT!
joegibes says:
05:37 AM, 06/ 5/09
I've been looking around SE Michigan for some good driving roads, and while I've found some moderately curvy ones, I'm sure it would help to drive a funner car than a 98 Chevy Lumina.
dougtheeng says:
06:17 AM, 06/ 5/09
Looks like a great road, I'd love to take my MINI for a spin on it. Thankfully where I live in Niagara, there are some decent roads; however, they're all pretty short. Still, windy and short is better then no windy at all.
wayno_san says:
07:59 AM, 06/ 5/09
"Every city has its own place to go if you like driving, ...."
Ummmm, no, there are NONE around Detroit or SE Michigan. Yeah, I can drive to the Hocking Hills or what-not, but typically these are very short sections that just aren't worth driving out to. :(
Damn, I miss Cali.
gil554 says:
08:23 AM, 06/ 5/09
@jederino
There are plenty of driving roads in Washington...you just have to be willing to get out of the Seattle metro area a bit. I dont really want to call out my favorites but the north cascades highway can be a wonderful trip especially if you arent traveling during peak RV periods.
altimadude00 says:
10:01 AM, 06/ 5/09
caheew--I found a road outside Tampa that had five turns in it! Unfortunately, it had two school zones, drives through a residential neighborhood, and has a speed limit of 45. However, it's 3 miles of wooded road that isn't clogged with traffic and there's a big elevation change at the end when you go over Interstate 4.
I know you guys out in California are really impressed! Hehe.
Ok, ok...it's not much, but it's the best I've found so far.
jederino says:
11:21 AM, 06/ 5/09
@gil554, thanks for the tip. Actually, I'm driving up there this weekend to visit Winthrop, so should be fun.