Friday 10th December 2010

BMW 1 Series M Coupe Revealed

Entry level M car gets 340hp and er, invisible air curtains

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Here it is at last, the BMW 1 Series M coupe, resplendent in Valencia Orange and the latest weapon in the Bavarian firm's attempt to subvert younger new owners into the ways of righteous performance.

Two other colours will be available - Black Sapphire metallic and Alpine White - but hopefully of most interest to potential recruits to the M brand will be the 340hp straight six with twin turbochargers that gives the 1M a power-to-weight ratio of 227hp/tonne.

The engine has been lifted, apparently pretty much unmodified, straight out of the Z4 - which if true would make the giant 'Powered by BMW M' label under the bonnet seem a little (cough!) fraudulent. Either way, in the 1 series it delivers significant performance including a 0-62mph time of 4.9secs and a limited 155mph maximum. Gear changes are manual, and the six-speed box comes with a short shift lever to help you punch through the changes during emergency acceleration.

Aside from the distinctive colours, the new M car stands out from the crowd with some equally distinctive body mods. The rear wheelarches are fattened to cover increased track width and there's a rear lip spoiler but the most obviously uprated body elements are at the front. A pair of what BMW calls 'air curtains' are generated over the front wheels by twin cut-outs in the front apron, designed not for cooling, but to reduce de-stabilising aerodynamic turbulence around the front arches. Clever stuff, probably!

While the engine hasn't benefited from any significant M-tweaks, underneath the car benefits from uprated suspension that is made almost entirely of aluminium. There's a variable M differential lock fitted as standard, and 360mm front and 350mm rear brake discs hidden behind the standard 19ins wheels.

Internally, the car gets its sporty messages across with little touches like leather sports seats with contrasting orange stitching, alcantara bits and bobs and some M badges. The instruments have a unique grey finish, and you get an M footrest and sill panels as part of the spec.

The car goes on sale in May in the UK, priced from £38k which is £13k less than an M3. So what do we think?

[ljp14]

Still to expensive for younger drivers

[Car Enthusiast 1]

The cars a magnificent machine. That's one of the reasons i've got it on order!

[Cupramax]

BMW 1 Series M Coupe Revealed said:

The rear wheelarches are fattened to cover increased track width

Or flared perhaps...

[Frimley111R]

Nice but £40,000 is a lot of money for any 1-Series. I suspect these will be rarer than hens' teeth.

[wildatheart]

In about four years' time, I expect these will sell for around £18k -that's when I can imagine wanting one of these.

[pilchardthecat]

I don't like the front splitter design, and the engine, whilst very good, is far too mid-range loaded and lacks top end fizz. It's not good enough for an M car.

I don't see much between this and the 135i to be honest - it's more of a 135is (as per the new Z the engine is out of) than an M car.

I'll be keeping the Z4M.

[j_s14a]

Lovely car, but as said, too expensive.

[whoami]

..............during emergency acceleration

[The Curn]

I'd like one of these in this colour.

Probably the closest you could get to a new E30 in the current line up?

[Guvernator]

I feel they've done an excellent job in improving the "challenging" looks of the 1 series. The extra width now means that the car doesn't look as oddly proportioned as the normal 1 coupe. In fact I'd go so far as to say it looks properly aggressive.

However I still have to say I am somewhat dissapointed with the engine choice. I'm sure it will go well enough and I can almost forgive them for going the turbo root, even though it goes against all previous M ethos, I can understand the reasons for them doing this. However lifting it straight out of another car without making hardly any changes is a bit poor imo.

I was expecting a little bit more than 340bhp which is just a 335 with a remap to be honest. Maybe this was done to prevent it from stepping on the toes of it's big brother, the M3 but I just expect a bit more specialness from an M power engine.

Also doesn't seem to be any mention of weight reduction of any kind which they should have at least had a go at. Go to the bother of making new wheel arches which wouldn't have been cheap to develop but then don't do much with the rest. Just seems a little bit half arsed to me. As someone else mentioned, more of a is rather than a full on M. Still I am sure all the journos will be fawning over it.

Edited by Guvernator on Friday 10th December 11:01

[P4ROT]

Gets a 10 from me- had an accident just looking at it!

Best M car since the last M5, and if Chris Harris' review is anything to go by (ed. which it usually is) its going to be an awesome driving tool...

Edited by P4ROT on Friday 10th December 11:03

[em177]

I think it's awesome, this is the sort of car BMW does better than anybody. I would be inclined to add it to the list of the cars BMW have aimed at the sort of person wanting a proper drivers car last seen in the z3/z4 m coupes and e46 m3 csl, yes it is a lot of money for 'just a one series'. But it will be a 1 series that will more than likely be more capable than most sports coupes. Would I be pushing it to say a 4 seat practical alternative to a cayman?

[Beefmeister]

I'm sure it'll be a hoot to drive, but was really hoping for more like 370bhp+ and a 100kg weight saving...

Then it'd be a flyer.

My guess is that they are holding back. Now that the body shape is in series production they will, near the end of the current 1ers life, bring out a CSL version, with the above improvements...

[MagicalTrevor]

[dan101smith]

This looks fantastic.

Heritage gearbox as standard, and a trip to DMS or similar ought to get the right numbers out of that engine.

Throw in Harris's glowing pre-production reviews and there's a lot of promise in that flared body.

[genericguy]

P4ROT said:

... had an accident just looking at it!

Edited by P4ROT on Friday 10th December 11:03

Me too! Little bit of sick came out

[tjlazer]

Cracking looking car. I'd prefer it to have more muscle given the colour scheme but the dodge challenger does that I suppose. I imagine this will look ridiculously tough once someone wraps it in a matt scheme, maybe matt grey?

[Guvernator]

Beefmeister said:

I'm sure it'll be a hoot to drive, but was really hoping for more like 370bhp+ and a 100kg weight saving...

Then it'd be a flyer.

My guess is that they are holding back. Now that the body shape is in series production they will, near the end of the current 1ers life, bring out a CSL version, with the above improvements...

I suspect you may be right. There are certainly rumours flying around that a CSL version of the 1'er might be on the cards. I agree that they haven't taken this nearly as far as they could.

[Jez200]

wildatheart said:

In about four years' time, I expect these will sell for around £18k -that's when I can imagine wanting one of these.

+1

I think it will make a cracking 2nd hand buy in the near future. With the addition of the turbo engines it will be easy to get them upto the power they should have been when they left the factory too!

[P4ROT]

genericguy said:

P4ROT said:

... had an accident just looking at it!

Edited by P4ROT on Friday 10th December 11:03

Me too! Little bit of sick came out

lol me thinks it's going to be a marmite car....