[chiefneil]

I never really pay much attention to the oil temp gauge, but on a trip to the mountains this weekend I thought I might catch the active temperature management in action.

When stuck in traffic at 65mph around 1800 rpm in comfort mode the temp was at it’s typical ~240F. But when I could break free, I’d flip the transmission lever to the sport side and was bombing uphill at 85+ around 3500 rpm. Occassional flat-out bursts while passing left-lane hogs on the right. Engine temp dropped about 30 degrees to around ~210. This happened even in a zone with one of those “turn off a/c to prevent engine overheating” signs (gotta love the extra cooling capacity of the m-sport).

Soon as I slowed down again and dropped back to comfort made, the temp would slide back up to 240.

Very cool to see that semi-hidden and definitely obscure performance feature in action. For those not familiar, BMW runs a higher temp in standard cruising for fuel efficiency. More demanding requests of the engine kicks in a lower temp mode for better performance.