Manny's BMW M3 Tune

As a proud BMW M3 (e46) owner in real life I was fairly horrified to experience NFS Shift’s interpretation of the e46 M3. In stock trim the game's M3 drives like a package van, and in full-blown Works Conversion (Car Rating: 13.50), it was nearly uncontrollable before the patch, and afterward not much better. So I set out to see if correctly applying the advanced tuning settings really could salvage this travesty of a car.

The tune I ended up with has beaten all the Best Lap times I had for most of the tracks in Shift for cars rated under 16.00. More to the point, to me it actually feels and drives like my M3 (although much faster obviously).

The constant oversteer problem the game's M3 had is completely sorted out and driver induced oversteer can be corrected with a snap of the steering wheel. Some play has been left in the suspension to aid turn-in and braking, but the car is fairly stiff now.
Anyway I’m not setting myself up in competition to Terronium, I just thought I’d share this tune with the good group we have here in this forum and hope I could salvage the M3's tarnished reputation. Hope you like it!


Manny's BMW M3 (e46) - Stage III Works Converted

Car Rating : 13.50

Tire and Brakes

F. Tire Pressure - 33.33
R. Tire Pressure - 34.64
Brake Balance - 58.00

Alignment

Steering Lock - 30.00 (lower to your taste)
Caster Angle - 2.50
F. Toe Angle - -0.30
R. Toe Angle - -0.20
F. Camber - -1.80
R. Camber - -1.20
F. Ride Height - 80.00
R. Ride Height - 80.00

Springs and Dampers

F. Sway bar - 456.83
R. Sway bar - 85.66
F. Spring Rate - 685.24
R. Spring Rate - 399.73
F. Bump Stop Length - 3.00
R. Bump Stop Length - 3.00
F. Damper Slow Bump - 3,900.00
R. Damper Slow Bump - 3,300.00
F. Damper Fast Bump - 2,500.00
R. Damper Fast Bump - 2,700.00
F. Damper Slow Rebound - 5,500.00
R. Damper Slow Rebound - 6,200.00
F. Damper Fast Rebound - 2,300.00
R. Damper Fast Rebound - 3,600.00

Differential

L. Slip Acceleration Lock - 60
L. Slip Deceleration Lock - 30
L. Slip Preload - 90.00
Visco Electronic Lock - N/A

Gearing

Final - 6.04
1st - 3.50
2nd - 2.21
3rd - 1.63
4th - 1.24
5th - 0.96
6th - 0.84

Aerodynamics

F. Downforce - 14.00
R. Downforce - 14.00
Cooler Radiator Opening - 2.00
Brake Duct Opening - 5.00

Look forward to trying it Manny, it would be good to have some more tuners on here (not that Terronium isn't doing a sterling job, but variety is the spice of life). I may even have a go at tuning myself if I can get my head around it!

I'm going to try this tune out. Thanks Manny!

Do you ever drive your M3 on a track or somewhere where you can really push it?

And do you feel that with this tune that Shift is a "sim" of your car?

MowTin

Do you ever drive your M3 on a track or somewhere where you can really push it?

And do you feel that with this tune that Shift is a "sim" of your car?

Click to expand...

Only a couple times on a small track not far from here. And I'd have to say that I didn't push it beyond about 9/10ths of its' limits. Even so, turning off traction control & stability control is an eye-opening experience. Really scary the first time, but also really fun.

No, it's not a sim of the M3, but I was honestly surprised at the similarities. Particularly the predictable and progressive way the Shift car will begin to oversteer if you add too much throttle in a turn. It gives you plenty of warning that you're near the limits and a quick counter-steer corrects it if you go too far.

Thanks for posting this, I too own an E46 M3 and HATED how the car handled in the game - excessive oversteer and constantly bouncing.

I track mine regularly, and with stock wheels/stock suspension the car actually has a tendency to understeer. Hopefully these settings will actually make the car halfway enjoyable. I can't believe they released the game the way it is, did nobody test these cars?

When I was altering aero properties for the last Overhaul mod I discovered that the 36 and 46 have a couple of bugs to do with their aero settings which pretty much kill their chances in the stock game. Front and rear wings for them are essentially zero x wing angle. Which is .. zero.

Whatever else happens with Shift 2 they definitely need to re-think how their QA process works.

boxox

Whatever else happens with Shift 2 they definitely need to re-think how their QA process works.

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The arcadish handling of all the cars must have been done on purpose to attract a wider audience.
I can only hope they rethink this for Shift 2.