What does sport mode really do

[X5Sport]

Originally Posted by Mdorphin

False. The setting/button is about as useless as a fat one armed midget trying to do a cartwheel.

All it does is give a higher throttle response by remapping the throttle pedal position sensors. For example, if your using 15% of throttle w/o sport mode, in sport mode that would calculate to say 35% (made up numbers).

Of course it FEELS faster to accelerate in sport mode than w/o it....but that's about it.

It does not add any horsepower, increase torque, or do anything else to boost the car's performance. It feels faster because it takes less pedal input to push more fuel into the engine.

You are not getting any extra power. Keep dreaming

On my 2005 X5 3.0D 6spd Auto shifting to Sport does make a difference to all of the shift points and also brings 1st gear into use. Normal driving only uses 2nd to 6th and the gears shift at about 3,000rpm depending upon throttle application. Put the car into Sport mode and 1st is now used at pull away, all gears will only shift at the red line and 6th is not available below 110mph. In 'D' you're in 6th gear at 50mph and the gearbox will not go to the red line in any gear until you're in 6th.

If you think it's a useless button you either have never used it or have a faulty gearbox. It worked exactly the same way on our E46 5sp auto too.

The only comment I can agree with is that you certainly get no extra power - the engine's max torque and bhp don't change as they're fixed, but the way in which the engine and gearbox use it does indeed change.