As some of you might remember, BMW announced brand new M performance versions of the 1 Series and 2 Series. The upgrade from the M135i and M235i to the M140i and M240i seemed trivial. However, these are nearly as fast as the M2 in the real world.
We know we are never supposed to say such things about M cars, but do you really need the best and the fastest car available? Most people just want to buy the most expensive thing available, but they don't drive the M2, M3 or M4 at 10 tenths.
If you are more of an 8 tenths kind of person, the M140i, and its coupe brother are good enough. The 3-liter TwinPower Turbo engine has been upgraded to 340 PS and 500 Nm of torque (previously 326 PS and 450 Nm). Do you really need more? Oh, and did we forget that unlike the M2, you can have these M Performance cars with xDrive to improve their all-weather capabilities?
Sure, an automatic is not as lighting fast as a DCT. But the ZF 8-speed is still a brilliant transmission. With one of the most powerful 3-liter engines out there in the two smallest BMW chassis, we're not surprised these things are fast.
The standard M140i and M240i with a stick gets to 100 km/h in 4.8 seconds. When you upgrade to the auto, that time falls to 4.6 seconds, while the xDrive shaves another .2 of a second.
Below, we've got your favorite kinds of videos. There's an acceleration test of the M140i xDrive, followed by a walkaround and a really long comparison video of the M2 and M240i.
As you might have noticed, the 1 Series version looks a little better than it did a few years ago. That's because a mid-life facelift happened last spring. With the way things are going, this is going to be the last rear-wheel-drive hatchback BMW makes, so we'd better enjoy it while we can.
Mihnea's favorite cars have already been built, the so-called modern classics from the '80s and '90s. He also loves local car culture from all over the world, so don't be surprised to see him getting excited about weird Japanese imports, low-rider VWs out of Germany, replicas from Russia or LS swaps down in Florida. Full profile
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