Oh my. I think I just died. This looks incredible!
Can we just talk about that front facia for a second? Holy aggressive! It looks quite menacing all while incorporating BMW’s very slight refresh of the 1-series. Out back you’ll find quad tail pipes along with newly designed LED tail lights.And good Lord, check out those 19 inch wheels! Gorgeous! The design is clean and simple, not too flashy, yet aggressive and masculine all at the same time – exactly the way an M car should be.
But what’s finally under that hood? Speculation had the 1-series M making about 350 horsepower but the official numbers have it pegged at 335 horses and 332 pound feet of torque coming from BMW’s tuned twin turbo’d 3.0 litre inline six. A bit disappointing in power, but remember, German automakers are always very conservative with their power numbers. It likely makes more juice than the numbers on paper. Not to mention the 1 M comes with an overboost feature that can give it 37 more pound feet of torque, which means a 369 pound feet of torque. This is something that has always pissed me off about BMW. If you can make it more powerful, why not just make it that way all the time? Why even have the choice of less power?
One thing that doesn’t piss me off about BMW though, is their dedication to almost always offering a manual transmission and in the case of the 1-series M, it’s the only transmission you get. There were rumours of it also coming with a DSG, but thankfully you we won’t even get an automatic transmission option. A true driver’s car!
The 1M is also 77 pounds lighter than a 135i. Combine the weight savings with the manual transmission and the twin turbo six and the 1-series M will get from 0-100 in 4.7 seconds.
The 1-series M also has a wider track than the 135i by almost three inches. The car itself is wider by 2.1 inches, it’s 0.5 inches taller and is 0.2 inches longer. All t of this, combined with BMW’s signature weight balance obsession means the 1-series M will be one hell of a car on rails.
After my glowing review of the 135i, I was so sure it would be my next car. But it won’t. The 1-series M will be for sure.
I have to stop typing right now to wipe all my drool off the keyboard, but in the meantime, check out these awesome pics of the 1-series M over at Autoblog.
[Autoblog]
