How Does The BMW M350’s Drift Moment Work, And What Does Its Boost Mode Actually Do?
by Horatiu Boeriu · BMWBLOGArticle Summary
- In the M3 and M5, rear-drive 2WD only unlocks after you switch DSC off and pick it in the M Setup menu; the M350 does both with a single tap.
- Unlike 4WD Sport in M xDrive cars, Drift Moment has no setting that keeps the front axle driven.
- We're hearing the update is planned for July 2027.
Drift Moment turns the BMW M350 xDrive into a rear-wheel-drive car with one tap in iDrive X. According to BMW, you will touch the icon and DSC switches off completely while BMW’s M-specific control of the multi-plate clutch cuts drive to the front axle, so 100 percent of the car’s 437 hp (326 kW / 443 PS) goes to the rear wheels. Nothing is left running in the background to catch a slide.
The function isn’t in cars yet: BMW will activate it over the air in mid-2027 on every M350, including the ones delivered before then. The M350 also gets a Boost mode on its M steering wheel, and despite the name, it doesn’t add a single horsepower.
How Is Drift Moment Different From M xDrive In The M3 And M5?
The end result is the same as the 2WD setting of M xDrive in the G80 M3 Competition xDrive and the M5. What changes is how much work it takes to get there. In an M car, M xDrive offers 4WD, 4WD Sport and 2WD in the M Setup menu, and BMW only unlocks 2WD once DSC is fully off. Getting a rear-drive M3 means switching off DSC, opening the setup menu, picking 2WD and, if you want it on tap next time, saving the combination to the M1 or M2 button.
The M350 collapses all of that into one icon. Drift Moment bundles DSC Off and rear-wheel drive into a single command, so there’s nothing to configure and no order of operations to remember. Why this approach might be better? Because BMW pitches the M350 as the entry point into the world of M, and its buyers are far less likely than M3 owners to have spent time digging through an M Setup menu. A drift function that lives three screens deep is a drift function most owners would never find.
It’s also new territory for the badge. BMW says rear-drive capability like this was previously reserved for M GmbH’s high-performance cars, and it is keeping Drift Moment exclusive to M Performance models.
Can You Use Drift Moment With xDrive Still Engaged?
No. Drift Moment is rear-wheel drive or nothing. M xDrive cars have 4WD Sport, which lets the tail step out while the front axle keeps pulling, but there is no version of Drift Moment that keeps the front wheels in play. For as long as the function is active, the M350 is a rear-drive car.
Stability control works the same way. Drift Moment doesn’t drop DSC into a looser, more permissive setting; it turns it off entirely, so there is no safety net. That leaves 437 hp and 580 Nm (428 lb-ft) going to the rear tires of a sedan that weighs 1,860 kg (4,101 pounds) unladen, with the standard M Sport differential and your hands doing all the work. Treat it as a track and closed-course feature.
When Does Drift Moment Arrive, And Do Early Cars Get It?
BMW’s official material only promises Drift Moment sometime during 2027. We’re in fact hearing July 2027. M350 production starts in Dingolfing in November, so the first customer cars will spend their early months as all-wheel-drive-only sedans.
Owners of those cars won’t need a dealer visit. BMW says Drift Moment will be activated through a Remote Software Upgrade on M350s that have already been delivered, which means every car leaves the factory with the hardware it needs and only waits on the software.
What Does Boost Mode Actually Do On The M350?
Boost doesn’t add power. The M350’s M steering wheel carries a Boost mode alongside the M mode button, but using it won’t push output past 437 hp. That figure is already the combined total of the B58 3.0-liter inline-six and the 13-kW electric motor built into the eight-speed automatic, and Boost leaves it untouched.
What Boost does is preload the drivetrain so everything is primed to deliver maximum performance the moment you ask for it. There’s no cooldown or usage limit, as far as we could tell.
That’s a different idea from Sport Boost on BMW’s electric M Performance cars. In the i4 M50 / i4 M60, Sport Boost raised system output by 50 kW to 400 kW (536 hp) for roughly ten seconds. The M350’s Boost doesn’t change the number on the spec sheet, only how ready the car is to use all of it.
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