100hp sport mode.

hey one thing thats been bugging me is that trying to work out if with the sport mode on the panda makes it faster 0-60 or if its just making the throttal response quicker?
your thoughts please.

Can't think it would make the car quicker to 60 as it should still accelerate at the same rate, but it would be interesting to find out. My car has never stayed out of sport mode long enough for a 0-60mph run

Chris

The sport mode can be turned off?

According to dyno runs on one members car, there was only about 1 bhp difference in power between sport mode on or off - which to be honest could be down to repeatability.

Howdy - new member here

All the Sport button does (other than reduce the assistance to the PAS) is advance the throttle map, so full throttle occurs earlier in the pedal's travel. It could possibly make a very small difference to the 0-60 etc as due the advanced map the throttle may be wide open fractionally longer, but in reality I doubt it'll make any difference.

Ben

I find that when my finger gets within 3" of the SPORT button, I get a shooting pain and I have to abandon the attempted press....

lol.

Agree with Ben on this one. Shouldn't make any difference to performance at all.

Does anyone here drive without sport mode on? I switched it on within 200 yards of the dealer's forecourt and it's stayed on ever since.

That said, I suspect it may vary car to car. The 100hp I test drove was almost impossible to drive smoothly at low speeds in sport, but mine's child's play. Anyone else found the same?

Sorry Ben, getting rude in my old age. Meant to say welcome to the forum too.

I've found on occasion the car can get a bit jumpy with Sport on, especially driving slowly on uneven surfaces where the added throttle pedal sensitivity amplifies the movement of your foot on the pedal caused by the car bouncing around. I did try switching Sport off to see if it cured it, but the throttle and steering feel were horrible so it went back on pretty promptly!

Sport still stays on all the time though and like the M-series Beemer's sport button, I'm wondering why it even exists and why they just didn't make it always sporty out of the factory.

Chris

I'm sad to stay my sport button remains firmly off for the majority of the time. To be perfectly honest although I prefer the weightier steering I can't stand the different throttle map.

It increddibly difficult to drive smoothly with the Sport button on if you aren't pushing on so I've resigned myself to only switching it on for 'spirited' drives.

Going to Bedford Autodrome next week though so I'll be keeping it on for the whole time while I'm there.

Likewise. Sport's not ideal sometimes but I'll deal with that compared to how rubbish the car feels without it. I think the brake pedal modulation is far worse compared to the throttle though, but I'm putting that down to the master cylinder not being moved across from LHD to RHD production - a common occurrence on cheap cars.

Re: BMW M Power products, in the last M3 (E46) the car was impossible to drive when cold with sport on which is why I'm assuming the button was there in the first place. In the latest M5 and M6 the 'Power' button actually changes the engine map from 400 to 507bhp.

Ben

Agreed - sport button on all the time. I too went a few yards from the dealer thinking this is no good until said button was pressed. Can be a bit sensitive, but without, it is truly rubbish and almost undriveable and so slow. Which makes me think that it is little more than a nice gimmick.

50/50 use for me.
I never blast the 4 miles to work and back anyway. so seems pointless having it on all the time.
I seem to turn it on for roundabouts though!

My commute is through London, but I still prefer the responsiveness and added steering weight of Sport. As ever, each to their own.

As mentioned before, I do wonder if some cars are more 'jumpy' in Sport than others?