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Originally Posted by simianspeedster
Excellent point. What's the old adage? A slow car driven quickly is more fun than a fast car driven slowly (or something like that).
This is something I've learned firsthand having traded an N52-equipped car for and N55-equipped car. Clearly the N55 is more powerful across the rev range, but it also lacks character relative to its NA-based predecessors and it's so muted and calm. Part of me thinks I would have preferred a 328i in retrospect.
Simply stated, I think there's more of a visceral thrill to be found winding out an N52 to get to its moderate power peak than there is working the turbo boost on an N55. It starts to run out of breath right where things should get interesting, so it encourages short shifting.
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Yeah. When I test drove the F10 528i (N52) the engine had a sweet and non-muted note that was great. It felt 'alive' and pulled strong all the way up to 7k, and the complete lack of NVH let you know that it could do that all day and love it. Immediately after that, winding out the N55 to redline several times, I seriously had to look at the tach to know what the engine was doing. Matting it from 50-90 mph it was dead quiet, and didn't have the same pull up to redline. Faster yes, but didn't like the overall character of the N55 nearly as much as the N52.
Never heard complaints about sound lack of sound with the N54, although I've never driven one to know. I think maybe the N55 is so quiet because BMW knew they'd be putting them in cars like the 7-series and replacing V8s with them. Come to think of it, the F10 535 did sound and drive sorta like a relatives E66 740iL so maybe there's some truth to that. You get nearly silent torque/thrust, but are isolated from the sound and feel of the engine with the N55, whereas you get the more traditional sweet sounding NA I-6 music with the N52. The N55 is trying to be too quiet like a V8, whereas the N52 is still being a classic BMW straight-6.
No way I'd go with a turbo-4. Maybe the 535i, but I'd have to at least mod it with an intake or something so that I could actually hear it. I'd still have the problem of having too much power to really enjoy though, which would be frustrating where I live. There's like a dozen fixed and mobile speed and red light cameras all within a mile of where I live.
And I agree with your last post on not judging an engine by its numbers also. I've owned or driven more than enough cars by now to know that the numbers something puts out has absolutely nothing to do with how much I'm going to enjoy it. One of the fastest cars I've owned has also been the absolute worst to drive, and some of the slower cars I've owned have actually been pretty fun. One car that had an engine that looked great on paper actually sucked to drive, and some others that had lousy paper specs were actually a hoot. The numbers on this new Turbo-4 are certainly going to look great and will generate a lot of hype, but there's sure to be disappointment down the road. If it looks too good to be true....