Reviews
Gallery 1
They don’t make them like they used to is a saying anyone pre-midlife crisis has heard all too often.
Yet, in terms of BMW, with every model in the range now sporting a turbocharged engine, it holds some weight. The days of highly tuned, naturally aspirated offerings seem to be long gone for the venerable Bavarian marque. However, it’s not all bad news. Few would consider the 1 Series to be a part of the silver lining, but the M140i is already a gem.
A new exhaust also sports chrome tips. On the inside, the 1 Series cabin has been swathed in Alcantara, which covers the steering wheel (with red centre line), shift knob and dash. Like the M4 GTS, the baby Bimmer also scores open-pore carbon fibre and a plaque signifying the build number.
The 3.0-litre inline six is brilliant. It’s elastic, rev-happy and offers ample mid-range torque. Yet it’s delivered in such a linear fashion that you could mistake it for an M3 of yesteryear. It pulls from low down in the rev range and continues a heady surge of pace all the way to the 7000rpm cutout.
Refreshingly, it won’t make you look good if you don’t put in the effort. Rush into a corner with too much speed and the front can push wide on entry, however, the understeer can be countered with your right foot. With the LSD, there’s no frying the inside rear wheel like a VS Commodore pulling out of Subway with a one-legged footlong either, as the locker insures both 19s are spinning in unison.
MORE
reviews
Still, it’s a package that is rewarding and fun to punt on just about any road. While the rev-matching, to mimic the art of heel-and-toe, won’t be to everyone’s taste and the ZF eight-speed automatic is excellent, there’s a theatre to slotting through the short-throw ’box to extract the Performance Edition’s brilliance.
Specs: Engine: 2998cc inline-6cyl, DOHC, 24v, turbo Power: 250kW @ 5500rpm Torque: 500Nm @ 1520-4500rpm Weight: 1450kg 0-100km/h: 4.8sec (claimed) Price: $71,900
