heavy clutch, but "they all do that"

I finally got the 8 out today, after several weeks of ice and snow.
I had been driving a GM car with a very light clutch...
Wow! I forgot about that BMW clutch! It took me a while to get it wrestled down to the floor.
Is it a BMW thing, or a German thing?
Going back and forth between these two cars is going to be a problem for my left leg.

Sorry, nothing of tech interest to contribute - just happy to be driving the E31 again. :)
Mark W in mid-MO
2011 Cadi CTS coupe 6-speed
1993 BMW 850Ci 6-speed
http://forums1.roadfly.com/preferenc....php?img=89637

I drove a Maserati Khamsin once with Citroen's amazing hydraulic system. Even the clutch was hydraulically assisted:

<a href="http://www.tedperkins.com/hydraulic_clutch.htm">A descripton of Systeme Hydraulique Citroen</a>

Smooth as silk - you wondered why nobody else offered it.

The braking system offered zero mechanical lash - it just measured pressure applied by your foot and pushed back a like amount. Zero movement of the brake pedal.

The <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lu8Bj3p8J8s">DIRAVI steering</a> was clinically insane by American standards. Two turns lock-to-lock, with a powered return to center. No mechanical linkage between steering wheel and road wheels (well, actually, there's an emergency link with a several degrees of slop).

The French take a lot of heat from us Yanks, but their hydraulic systems technology is world-class and licensed by Rolls Royce and Mercedes-Benz for their cars.

With the hydraulic clutch on the E31, if there is high pedal pressure, you need a new clutch........before you need a new flywheel AND clutch.

I suspect I am heading for a new one - as far as I know it still has the original clutch at 124K miles!
But also as far as I know, the pedal pressure is normal. I really can't tell anymore after driving the Cadillac for a month. Every BMW I have ever owned had a very heavy clutch compared to American or Japanese cars.
No slippage that I can detect - yet.

time I could get one over there. Amazing ride, and singular technology, as you point out. But I also know plenty of Pierres who spent fortunes fixing their cars at around the end of the warranty period.