Rated M
05-11-2008, 07:40 PM
copy Wheels 04.01.08. Mike Mc Carthy.
"I hate to be a bearer of bad tidings, but there’s something you should know straight up about BMW’s 135i Coupe.
No one could blame you for liking what you see here. Nor for figuring that at the expected $80K-odd price, the 135i is a God-sent chance to get into BMW coupe culture, especially one with the magic 3.0-litre twin-turbo inline six engine … or about $30K less than the little-larger 335i Coupe.
No, what’s difficult to reconcile is that the 135i Coupe (due here mid-’08) must share the supply-constrained yearly allocation of just 200 or so cars with the yet undriven, low-$60K 125i version. Odds are that the queue for the range-topper will stretch into disappointments.
We can empathise because, after an appetising taste of what the 135i is and does, waiting to fully experience it on local roads is a test of patience. Maybe its looks are deceiving. After all, the styling is a degree more formal than, say, the Audi TT or Alfa Brera. Which is to say its 1 Series roots are unmistakable in its sharply creased shoulder and sculpted sills. In other respects, the 1 Series Coupe has its own personality with different/deeper lower air intakes up front, fatter wheelarch flares, an entirely new roofline and a pert tail with cleanly integrated spoiler and L-shaped tail-lights.
Physically, the Coupe aligns with other 1 Series models in its platform, running gear, wheelbase and width, though it is almost 120mm longer. It also shares their nominal track widths (dependent on the particular wheels involved) and ordinarily has about the same height too. But the 135i differs in being shod with 215/40R18 front rubber (on 7.5-inch rims) and 245/35R18 rears (on 8.5-inchers), spreading the track an extra 20mm, while uprated springs, dampers and anti-roll bars further discipline the 135i’s suspension and drop the ride height 13mm.
Where the other 1 Series Coupe variants have electric power steering, the 135i gets a conventional hydraulic system with engine-driven pump — not because it’s intrinsically superior, BMW says, but simply for packaging reasons. The muscular 135i engine doesn’t leave room for electric power steering.
Frankly, m’dear, we don’t give a damn, because all that matters is that the thing steers like a beauty, something we quickly learned to appreciate while skirting some 250km of Gotland (Sweden’s sort of offshore verdant outback) and playing, uh, boy-racers on the island’s newly opened race track.
Like most racetracks, Gotland Ring isn’t particularly kind to road cars. With no effective straights to speak of, the 3.2km blacktop ribbon relentlessly twists left or right, often while also climbing or diving like a Disneyland rollercoaster. Easy on a car it ain’t, as the 135i’s brakes and Michelin front tyres can attest.
Even with 338mm front and 324mm rear rotors (just a tad smaller than on the 335i sedan and coupe), clamped by six-piston front and two-piston rear calipers, the anchors’ bite and pedal eventually wilted under the track’s unrelenting demands. However, just a short pause amid the day’s single-digit ambient temperature restored the normal, God-like, brake efficiency.
The Gotland Ring also revealed that gearing which works so well on the road, where the six-speeder offers a ratio for every occasion, is caught with its dacks down where 2nd and 3rd are about a half gear lower and higher than ideal. Although the manual shift is as good as it gets at this performance level, we suspect the optional six-speed paddle-shift auto would have the edge for most drivers and most driving, Gotland Ring included.
The sinuous track consistently confirmed the 3.0-litre twin-turbo engine as being an immensely smooth, lag-free and majestically torquey powerhouse. And lapping near (or over) the giddy limit graphically demonstrated the 135i’s great sense of balance and always benignly co-operative behaviour, regardless of how the driver busied himself and the chassis. So, despite our best and other efforts, the coupe’s handling remained steadfastly foolproof.
Pending a local drive/test we’ll simply summarise BMW’s impressively refined pocket rocket as a good-looking, big-booted, proper four-seater coupe that goes like stink and handles as though its mission is to reaffirm what the fun and purity of rear-wheel drive is all about. It’s major downside is its 1485kg kerb weight which is, incredibly, only 40kg lighter than the manual 335i Coupe.
So if this sounds like your kind of car, your kind of BMW, keep in mind its limited availability, keen price, and the likelihood of serious queuing to come.
BMW 135i Coupe
2979cc inline 6, dohc, 24v, tt
225kW @ 5800rpm
400Nm @ 1300–5000rpm
6-speed manual
5.3sec (claimed)
$80K (estimated)
mid 2008
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7855004455404125100
"I hate to be a bearer of bad tidings, but there’s something you should know straight up about BMW’s 135i Coupe.
No one could blame you for liking what you see here. Nor for figuring that at the expected $80K-odd price, the 135i is a God-sent chance to get into BMW coupe culture, especially one with the magic 3.0-litre twin-turbo inline six engine … or about $30K less than the little-larger 335i Coupe.
No, what’s difficult to reconcile is that the 135i Coupe (due here mid-’08) must share the supply-constrained yearly allocation of just 200 or so cars with the yet undriven, low-$60K 125i version. Odds are that the queue for the range-topper will stretch into disappointments.
We can empathise because, after an appetising taste of what the 135i is and does, waiting to fully experience it on local roads is a test of patience. Maybe its looks are deceiving. After all, the styling is a degree more formal than, say, the Audi TT or Alfa Brera. Which is to say its 1 Series roots are unmistakable in its sharply creased shoulder and sculpted sills. In other respects, the 1 Series Coupe has its own personality with different/deeper lower air intakes up front, fatter wheelarch flares, an entirely new roofline and a pert tail with cleanly integrated spoiler and L-shaped tail-lights.
Physically, the Coupe aligns with other 1 Series models in its platform, running gear, wheelbase and width, though it is almost 120mm longer. It also shares their nominal track widths (dependent on the particular wheels involved) and ordinarily has about the same height too. But the 135i differs in being shod with 215/40R18 front rubber (on 7.5-inch rims) and 245/35R18 rears (on 8.5-inchers), spreading the track an extra 20mm, while uprated springs, dampers and anti-roll bars further discipline the 135i’s suspension and drop the ride height 13mm.
Where the other 1 Series Coupe variants have electric power steering, the 135i gets a conventional hydraulic system with engine-driven pump — not because it’s intrinsically superior, BMW says, but simply for packaging reasons. The muscular 135i engine doesn’t leave room for electric power steering.
Frankly, m’dear, we don’t give a damn, because all that matters is that the thing steers like a beauty, something we quickly learned to appreciate while skirting some 250km of Gotland (Sweden’s sort of offshore verdant outback) and playing, uh, boy-racers on the island’s newly opened race track.
Like most racetracks, Gotland Ring isn’t particularly kind to road cars. With no effective straights to speak of, the 3.2km blacktop ribbon relentlessly twists left or right, often while also climbing or diving like a Disneyland rollercoaster. Easy on a car it ain’t, as the 135i’s brakes and Michelin front tyres can attest.
Even with 338mm front and 324mm rear rotors (just a tad smaller than on the 335i sedan and coupe), clamped by six-piston front and two-piston rear calipers, the anchors’ bite and pedal eventually wilted under the track’s unrelenting demands. However, just a short pause amid the day’s single-digit ambient temperature restored the normal, God-like, brake efficiency.
The Gotland Ring also revealed that gearing which works so well on the road, where the six-speeder offers a ratio for every occasion, is caught with its dacks down where 2nd and 3rd are about a half gear lower and higher than ideal. Although the manual shift is as good as it gets at this performance level, we suspect the optional six-speed paddle-shift auto would have the edge for most drivers and most driving, Gotland Ring included.
The sinuous track consistently confirmed the 3.0-litre twin-turbo engine as being an immensely smooth, lag-free and majestically torquey powerhouse. And lapping near (or over) the giddy limit graphically demonstrated the 135i’s great sense of balance and always benignly co-operative behaviour, regardless of how the driver busied himself and the chassis. So, despite our best and other efforts, the coupe’s handling remained steadfastly foolproof.
Pending a local drive/test we’ll simply summarise BMW’s impressively refined pocket rocket as a good-looking, big-booted, proper four-seater coupe that goes like stink and handles as though its mission is to reaffirm what the fun and purity of rear-wheel drive is all about. It’s major downside is its 1485kg kerb weight which is, incredibly, only 40kg lighter than the manual 335i Coupe.
So if this sounds like your kind of car, your kind of BMW, keep in mind its limited availability, keen price, and the likelihood of serious queuing to come.
BMW 135i Coupe
2979cc inline 6, dohc, 24v, tt
225kW @ 5800rpm
400Nm @ 1300–5000rpm
6-speed manual
5.3sec (claimed)
$80K (estimated)
mid 2008
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7855004455404125100