Test drive BMW 3 E46 2002 - 2005 sedan
Easy breath
Usually the taste of the latest technical innovations is not easy to evaluate. Indeed, by and large you are not warm and cold from the fact that the car, equipped with the latest catalytic neutralizer, throws half a percent impurities less than a neighbor’s car into the air. And isn't it all that you do not use asbestos in the brake linings? And the advantages of the generator with liquid cooling in your pocket cannot be put. However, there is a pleasant exception for any rule. A new BMW treshka with a motor equipped with Walvtronika system, just one of them. How much is the tightening of the face?
However, the new 3rd episode is said too much. A little changed, it will be more true. Wider branded nostrils, united in one block of headlights and turning pointers, developed front bumper with new
Fogams - it would seem, two or three strokes, and the classic appearance becomes fresh, as if washed by morning dew. And with all that, the treshka remained one hundred percent recognizable. This makes me happy. The price of the 318th model, most affordable from collected in Kaliningrad, is not pleased. Indeed, in comparison with the predecessor, the eighteenth has risen in price by about $ 1,500. Is it too much for beautiful eyes, on -board computer and headlight washers? After all, the rest of the treshka remained unchanged. The same strictly black-business salon, which became the same classic as the Beatles. The same suspension, which has won the 3rd series, the glory of the standard of behavior on the road. The same magnificent brakes that, with all the desire, you will not blame for either low efficiency or the complexity of management. The updated treshka, in principle, remained the same. So, we ask again, is it worth a sheepskin?
Quantum leap This is what the invention of Walvtronika is called in the BMW. The refusal of the throttle is compared with the transition from carburetors to injection, the abandonment of pre-cell diesel engines in favor of the Common Rail. Indeed, the dosing system of a combustible mixture using intake valves can be called a work of art. It looks simple in appearance. In ordinary internal combustion engines, the air is sucked into the cylinders through a slightly ajar gap near the throttle. Hence the inevitable losses of fuel and the inhibition of the reaction, because in the process of dosing the combustible mixture, as it were, the intermediary is involved. In the new BMW engines, it was possible to get rid of the parasitic element, and the role of the flap is performed by the intake valves themselves, the opening of which is regulated by a cunning computer system. Press the gas more strongly - above the valve lift - more fuel is in the cylinders. Thus, fuel consumption is reduced, powerful return increases and at the same time the motor does not need special fuel, like direct injection engines.
But how difficult it was to do all this! After all, Walvtronika requires simply cosmic manufacturing accuracy. Tolerances when casting some parts of the system make up one hundredth of a millimeter! Truly a technical masterpiece. True, with all its advantages, Walvtronik is not forever. They are prepared for serial production of the electromagnetic drive of the valves.
Old and new The answer is yes, of course. Indeed, on the previous 318th there was no Walvtronika. The old engine did not differ at all. What is only a two -valve head of the block! True, despite its unmarried archaic, one and nine could not be called Letargik. 118 Forces quite approached the character, albeit inexpensive, but still BMW. But efficiency, vibration and noise deficiency were not among his virtues.
Well, what about the notorious Walvtronik? Just great! Moreover, you need to start not with economy. Here, as they say, not Europe, here is a different climate, and in Russia, I am sure, not to find a BMW buyer, weighed with thoughts about the appetite of the car. But in that focus that Valvtronik helps not only save fuel, but also gives the driver much more pleasure from driving.
It is not only the amount of horsepower. Although the 2-liter four BMW (143 hp) and bypasses this indicator Audi, Mercedes-Benz and Volvo. So, after all, it also seems that the engine engine is more powerful than it really is!
Where does something come from?
Believe it, you want not, but at first I even thought that I was mistakenly issued the wrong car. Maybe not the 325th, but 320th for sure. I had to stop, verify the data of the technical passport with a sign under the hood. No, everything seems to be true ... But why then is a modest look of the engine literally the earth grows under it? Where does the impression are that at least twenty assertive horses are hiding under the hood? Is it all the whole thing in Walvtronika? Imagine that!
The fact is that there is no suffocating throttle at all, and the intake valves are engaged in the dosing of the mixture in the cylinders! The engine breathes easily and reacts to the fuel supply instantly - barely managed to press the pedal, and the car is already torn forward. And the arrow of the tachometer rushes to the zone of operation limiter with the determination of Kamikadze. This is the pressure! The first, second red zone did not have time to switch the traffic light.
No, it’s impossible, you have to control yourself! And this is completely easy. The 318th, who had just struck the riot of a predator, may well pretend to be herbivore. Indeed, like human lungs, Valvtronik smoothly and imperceptibly regulates the amount of inhaled air (read: gas-air-air mixture). And at low speeds, the motor will receive exactly as much fuel as necessary, neither a gram more, nor a gram less. Only a little smaller gas, a little more often than switching, and you fit into a stream at ease, and uninstallingly crawl in the innight.
But the longer I rode on this BMW, the more often I caught myself thinking that I began to look for ruptures in the stripes, slow down later than usual, and the blinking of a yellow traffic light pupil already equated to the seconds that remained before the start of childhood, stupidity! Yes, whatever you like, I don't care. But what a damn pleasant feeling is it when the drivers of large, expensive and black ash, beaten in a traffic light duel, was surprised to find a modest nameplate 318 on the lid of the trunk. Yeah, know ours!
The best, definitely the enemy of the good. Many, admittedly, thought and still continue to consider that four -cylinder - not entirely full -fledged BMW. Valvtronik proves the opposite. There is a desire and an opportunity - for God's sake, overpay for in -line sixes. Now this is rather a matter of prestige than necessity. Yes, and fuel consumption, even if in our conditions it is not the main one, but, you see, by no means an important position. For 100 city kilometers - and here is standing in traffic jams, and twisting the tachometer to the red zone, and anything, except for the practice of economical driving skills, the 318th broke 12 liters of gasoline. The usual 2.0-liter ICE could hardly have met 15 liters.
Competitors are not asleep
Not all, however, are equally optimistic regarding the future victorious procession of valves management systems. Dr. Rolf Leonard, the head of the Bosch gasoline engines, believes that direct injection has greater potential (up to 20% of fuel saving) and the use of turbocharges will help to reveal it. According to him, this is a sweet couple who has long been looking for each other. The border of detonation, which usually limits the amount of air pumped into the cylinder, can be pushed by the injection in time. And here is the forecast: with boost, direct injection in gasoline engines will become as popular as in diesel. In the meantime, such a 4-cylinder engine introduced a Mercedes-Benz.
The motor is like a motor, you will not guess about the existence of Walvtronika outside. All miracles are hidden under a voluminous plastic lid
Mikhail Medvedev, photo Alexander Sadovnikov
Source: Magazine "Limousine" [04/02]
