Thoughts on the BMW 1 Series M Coupe

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The BMW 1 Series M Coupe has finally been revealed. BMW Blog chews all the information to the cud and gives us some interesting thoughts about the newest member of the prestigious M family.

The engine power figures will be disappointing to a large number of enthusiasts.

The chassis is the weak link in the 135i, especially at higher speeds. And anytime you can dump the runflats . . .

The ‘air curtain’ wheel airflow management technique is really good tech. If Hummer had done that with its H2 they may have increased it highway MPG number.

The styling does a good job of hiding a heavy set of shoulders and hips now the track has been widened front and rear.

Our own Shawn Molnar quickly picked up on the new six speed tranny. In an earlier article I thought that the DCT would not be included because it would take too long to sort its software out with the revised ECU software. Looks like that was wrong. It would appear that the DCT was not included because of the total torque available to the 1 Series M.

Why oh why can’t we get cloth seats on any 1er, let alone the performance 1 Series M where that slippery leather will leave you slip sliding away in the esses.

And why do they insist on the silly cast bridges that keeps the brake pads from being changed without having to drop the calipers from the rotors.

It will be interesting to see if the ride comfort is acceptable. In the best of all worlds, the driver will get more feedback from the suspension and steering, while the passenger feels a barely perceptible difference at normal speeds. The handling difference between the 1 Series M and the 135i should be like the difference between the E46 M3 and E46 330i ZHP.

While pricing has yet to be announced, it would be worth speculating that US pricing will be constrained by the presence of the 335is in the lineup. Price the 1M beyond the 335is . . .

In fact, who would consider the 335is as an alternative to the 1M?

The lack of any form of automatic transmission automatically (pun intended) limits the audience for this car. And maybe that’s a good thing.

The 19×9 inch wheels up front hopefully will banish understeer to the sixth circle of hell.

BMW claims the 1 Series M will do 0-60 in 4.7 seconds. Which buff book will fix that number below 4.2 first?

I wish that the peak power would be extended to about 6500 RPM and make that last surge to the redline at 7K worth the effort. But then they’d be stepping on the toes of the M3. However, if you just extend that fabulous fat/flat torque curve to 6000 RPM, the HP number goes to about 380; still well below the M3.

Source: BMW Blog