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Posts filed under ‘BMW’

Saturday Afternoon Bimmerfest

July 23, 2011 by Matt

2012 BMW 128i Coupe

My 7-year-old son Luke and I visited the “BMW store” today to stroll the lot and check out the recent 1-series coupe facelift, pictured above.

It really is a very mild refresh for the coupe, in contrast to the Euro-only redesign of the 1-series hatchback. The headlights have gained subtle “eyebrows,” the taillights have acquired horizontal bands a la E60 refresh, and the body lowers (side skirts and front and rear valences) have been reprofiled. I don’t believe they actually changed any of the sheet metal. The 135i receives the single turbo, 300 hp N55, while the 128i soldiers on with the naturally-aspirated 230 hp N52, same as before.

I was very pleased by the way it looked. The new front valence of the 128i adds distinctiveness and character to what was previously a by-the-numbers goatee. The eyebrows give the eyes a more athletic squint, and the taillights’ striations relieve some of their chunkiness.

If you haven’t already guessed, the 128i 6-speed, as stripped-down as I could option it with the exception of performance bits like 17″ wheels and a limited-slip diff, would be my 1-series flavor of choice. Indeed, if I had to buy a new BMW, it would be the one I’d opt for, being the lightest, most straightforward and “unencumbered” car they currently produce. Why not the more powerful 135i? Well, for starters, call me a purist, but I’m still having difficulty warming to the idea of a turbocharged BMW, as good as the N54 and N55 were and are. The predictability of a naturally-aspirated torque curve is hard to simulate. The biggest reason, though, is the weight difference—the 135i weighs close to 170 lbs more than the 128i, not an insubstantial figure for a small car, especially considering the 128i already weighs more than a car of its size should, at 3208 lbs.

I picked up a glossy brochure on my way out. I told my wife that it was difficult to resist the impulsive mental contortions I embark upon in order to justify the purchase, but there is absolutely no responsible way to reconcile even a used 128i into our family plan at the moment. Maybe I’ll snag one in 5-10 years, if I can bring myself to drive what still basically amounts to a computer on four wheels, with increasingly little for us shadetree mechanics to do in the way of repairs, one of the great joys/frustrations of owning a car. We’ll see.

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Substance Over Style

July 19, 2011 by Matt

BMW 2002

How can such a homely car as the BMW 2002 generate such devotion and enthusiasm in its owners? For those of us who own BMWs, the answer is obvious, perhaps, but for those on the outside looking in, it’s an object lesson in the ability of vehicle dynamics to transcend curb appeal.

All of which isn’t to say that it wasn’t exactly the right car at exactly the right time for BMW—the context of its introduction here in the US certainly made a difference. It combined brilliant handling; the practical, upright lines of a boxy coupe; and a tough, torquey and reasonably economical 4-cylinder with excellent build quality and a hint of European cachet. No other car put all that together in 1968, the year of its debut here in the States. Our choices then ranged from amped-up muscle cars that wouldn’t know a corner from a carburetor, to effete British roadsters that leaked when driving through fog and required a valve adjustment every other week just to start consistently. So as remarkable as the 2002 itself was, it also benefited greatly from a vacuum in the marketplace.

As a BMW owner myself, I really enjoyed this clip, put together by Depth of Speed. Whatever a particular model may look like, I don’t know of any other brand of car that sells itself so well by way of experience. I may get up on the wrong side of bed one morning and decide I’m utterly bored with my car’s lines, but by the end of my commute, I’m irretrievably smitten by the fluidity and brilliance of the way it drives. Again.

Click on the jump to watch.

(more…)

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Selling Out: BMW to Introduce FWD Cars?

July 11, 2011 by Matt

BMW S38

In all fairness, I don’t know if I can blame this entirely on BMW.

It’s been rumored for years now, but it would appear that BMW is finally going to make the switch to front wheel drive. Mind you, they own Mini, and developed their cars, all of which are FWD, so some have argued that there already are FWD “BMWs” out there. To most enthusiasts, though, it’s more a matter of brand perception than cold, objective vehicle dynamics, so to us, it’s not actually a FWD BMW until the roundel is on the hood.

I’ve heard all the arguments. I’ve been told time and again that BMW buffs whined and moaned and complained when the much-beloved, modern E30 came out in the mid-’80s, saying BMW was going to pot. Then their storied M30 was replaced in the early ’90s with, of all things, a modern, all-aluminum, 32-valve V8 (the M60), and the purists were again up in arms, saying BMW had sold its soul by axing its big six. Then, in the mid-’00s, for the first time, they introduced a turbocharged gasoline engine (the N54) in a worldwide production car, and we all said they were hopelessly compromised as a brand. None of it was true. Even with the added layers of electronics introduced in the ’90s and ’00s, BMWs still remained peerless drivers’ cars.

Guess why? Mechanical balance. You can smooth out the power delivery of a turbo’d engine with proper tuning; the low-down torque of a good V8 is a proper substitute for that of their old M30; you can still maintain a connection between man and machine in spite of electronic gadgetry, but you can’t fake mechanical balance. There is simply no way to make a FWD car feel as balanced as a RWD car. No possible way. Among others, Honda and Lotus have made particularly valiant efforts in the past with their last-generation Prelude and ’90s Elan, respectively, but even they had dynamic limitations that could be felt by any driver.

It’s a fundamentally qualitative difference. I don’t care how good your FWD car is, or if it can run circles around my RWD clunker—it doesn’t feel the same to drive when all the weight is over the front axle, and the two front wheels are doing all the work. Period. And therein lies BMW’s problem, and why this sea change is different from all the previous upheavals.

Finally, in BMW’s defense, I realize it’s their brand. They have final say over its defining characteristics; they can do whatever they want with it. If they want to slap a BMW emblem on the hood of a Smart Fortwo, it will be a BMW (lest we forget, the Isetta was). I won’t say otherwise. And also, as alluded to at the beginning of the post, as with the regulatory-driven styling problems with the nose of their latest 6-series, it could be a situation they’re forced into, and are trying to make the best of. I know the latest EU fuel economy standards are pushing a lot of companies that wouldn’t otherwise contemplate small cars to do so (see: Aston Martin). With that, I wish them good luck. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go cry in my German beer. At least that’s still pure and uncompromised, right?

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The Third Shark: BMW’s F12 6-Series

July 3, 2011 by Matt

BMW F12

Having owned an example of the original—and still the best—version of BMW’s 6-series coupe, I feel more than qualified to pass judgment on the newly-released F12 (BMW’s internal code for the redesigned 2011+ iteration).

Certainly, I haven’t driven it (nor its predecessor, the E63), so I can’t comment on the dynamics, which I’m sure are impressive, and obviously leaps and bounds ahead of my lowly, recently-sold ’86 635CSi. I can talk about the design, though, an area where they’ve made improvements over the E63—one of the most hideous BMWs in recently memory—but are still falling short in a few areas.

The most notable problem, as Autoblog points out, is the nose. BMW seems to half-acknowledge it isn’t the car’s strongest point, and offer this in the way of explanation:

We’ve been told and retold that the discrepant front end with its schnozzola double kidneys and heavily recessed lights was a solution concocted to satisfy global pedestrian impact regulations.

Be that as it may (and unfortunate, if regulations are the main driver of a design decision), I think part of the justification for the more upright grille was an attempt to get more of the classic BMW forward-swept kidney rake into the profile. Sadly, with the F12, it doesn’t go nearly far enough, and the overall profile is still very lozenge-like and anonymous. Contrast this:

F12 Profile

with this:

E24 Profile

and you’ll see what I’m after. The classic car’s profile has so much more character, especially the swept-forward nose, which is what gave the car its “shark” nickname in the first place. Had it been the first of its kind, I doubt the new 6-series would inspire any nickname so distinctive.

Otherwise, the lines are tidy and handsome if, again, not particularly worthy of a second glance. Vanilla. And another problem is that their current 3-series coupe intrudes on 6-series territory, not only performance-wise, but especially visually. Compare a rear 3/4 view of both cars; the C-pillars and taillights follow very similar lines. The net result is that there’s little to set the F12 apart from even its own company’s model line.

Overall, I think BMW’s made great strides, but at the end of the day, Audi’s A5/S5 is still the high-water mark for German luxury coupes. It wins on style, the determining factor in the big, stylish coupe market niche. And with the improvements Audi has made in the chassis (the A5/S5 is built on their B-platform), it’s probably a wash dynamically as well.

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Bavarian Nonsense: The BMW M3 CRT

June 26, 2011 by Matt

BMW M3 CRT

The warlocks at BMW’s M Division have unleashed their latest creation on the automotive world: The M3 CRT.

The raison d’être for the techy-sounding suffix?

CRT stands for Carbon Racing Technology. Intelligent lightweight design is an important component in the BMW M repertoire, directly inspired by the world of motor racing. The BMW M3 CRT is the first model to use a material that originated in an innovative BMW production process for lightweight components. The cuttings left behind from the body construction of the new BMW i models BMW i3 and BMW i8 are woven into CFRP mats of various sizes, impregnated with synthetic resin and hardened.

So…they’re making an M3 with lighter body panels, tarting it up with some fancy upholstery, adding all the suspension bits likely already available from the BMW catalog (or at least from aftermarket tuners closely associated with the company), installing the GTS’s V8, which, I might add, produces a whopping 30 more horsepower than the standard M3 mill, and charging upwards of $150K for the privilege? Color me underwhelmed.

As much a fan as I am of lightness in all aspects of automotive design, for an extra $100K (!) over the regular M3, this one’s just not worth it.

From the press release, to whit:

When all extraneous equipment is taken out of the equation, the BMW M3 CRT weighs 70 kg less than a BMW M3 sedan.

What “extraneous equipment?” Why wouldn’t they factor that into the weight of the car? Could it be because it weighs 70 kg or more and would render the whole thing a pointless exercise?

Nevermind that 70 kg (~150 lbs) isn’t exactly something to write home about. Especially when your run-of-the-mill E92 M3 coupe probably weighs less than the E90 sedan by close that amount.

The moral: Buy a regular M3 coupe, bolt on some performance suspension bits, add an aftermarket exhaust (handily making up the 30 hp deficit) and save yourself the money.

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