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BMW M135i Is Faster Than a Porsche Panamera Turbo on the TG Track

Nearly two weeks ago, we wrote about Jeremy Clarkson’s increasingly stupid way of reviewing cars. Ok, we understand that the trio from Top Gear is no longer doing any sort of journalism but just making fun of various cars but sometimes they go a bit too far.
BMW M135i 1 photo
Photo: BMW
Case and point: the hot hatch test from 2 weeks ago. Jezza decided that the A45 AMG was too expensive and that the M135i was a dangerous and treacherous car therefore leaving the Mk7 GTI to take the crown. It’s as simple as that, we explained it before, won’t go through the same discussion again.

However, he also put the three cars to the test on the usual Top Gear track. That’s when we noticed something interesting. The M135i might’ve come in a bit slower than the mental 1M Coupe but it was also faster than several other, more powerful and expensive cars.

Here’s how the list goes, as seen on the series:

01:24.9 Bentley Continental Supersports[5]
01:24.9 Porsche Boxster Spyder
01:24.9 Mercedes-Benz E63 AMG
01:25.0 Noble M12 GTO-3R
01:25.0 BMW 1 Series M Coupe (damp)
01:25.0 Caterham R400
01:25.1 BMW M135i
01:25.1 Lotus Exige S
01:25.3 Porsche Panamera Turbo
01:25.3 BMW M3 (E90 Saloon)
01:25.4 Ford GT40
01:25.7 Lotus Evora
01:25.7 Audi RS4
01:25.7 Lamborghini Gallardo Spyder
01:25.8 Lamborghini Gallardo (wet)
01:25.9 Morgan Aero 8 GTN
01:26.0 Mercedes-Benz CLK 63 AMG Black series

As you can see, the little hatch was slower than a Mercedes-Benz E63 AMG but managed to be faster (also marginally) than a Porsche Panamera Turbo, for example, or a Lamborghini Gallardo, both having over 500 HP at their disposal.

Of course, over the years, the driver changed and so did the weather conditions but you have to admit that whoever played the Stig in the series was more than capable of taking any of these cars to the absolute limit and the differences between the drivers couldn’t possibly be extremely big. Therefore, the comparison stands and BMW could be proud of what the M135i achieved. Furthermore, as we found out in our test drive of the car, compared to the others, the Bimmer can also be used on a daily basis without too much struggle, which makes it a perfect car from certain points of view.
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