the Bucket: TwinPower Turbo

Showing posts with label TwinPower Turbo. Show all posts

Thursday, March 23, 2023

Bucket Seat: BMW 3 Series LCI Official Launch

BMW's much loved model, the 3 Series has gotten a cosmetic enhancement with some extra tech goodies to add to its charm. It's the most popular model in the world globally from the brand and for decades it was made right here in our own country until a few years ago when the last F30 LCI model rolled out the factory in Rosslyn outside Pretoria. Now the plant assembles the new popular kid on the block, the X3 but we won't delve into that as I am here to tell you about the brilliant new 3 Series LCI, yes I said its brilliant and some of you must be wondering what is "LCI"? Well, it stands for Life Cycle Impulse which is a pretty name for face-lift but I get why BMW go for the elaborate name because its more than just a face-lift, it feels like a brand new car.

The design is more sportier, with the stance lower and wider than the original G80, the iconic kidney grilles are narrower, with vertical slats and the new headlights have a reverse L daytime running LED design that add so much more character to an already menacing face. The front bumper has been reconfigured with the side air intakes now in a an narrow angular deep shape and the main grille larger and prominent following the same lines as the sides. The 3 Series LCI comes in two style packages, this was decided by BMW SA since the two most popular were the Sport and M Sport package. These packages I feel accentuate the cars flow and make the modifications to the design stand out more. Moving to the back, the tail lights receive a minor design upgrade with the rear diffuser getting a more angular design and all models coming with twin big tailpipes. There is a variety of colours to choose from but Brooklyn Grey being my standout.

On the inside, the major talking point is the new display, which see's BMW do away with its conventional dual screen set up and opt for a large curved screen display, it still is split into two, this is to allow a separation from the drivers instrument cluster to the cars infotainment touch screen display. It doesn't feature BMW's latest iOS but it still works pretty well with quick phone connectivity, easy to use menu and great graphics. Another thing you will notice that is different on the interior is the gear selector which is changed to the smaller minimal type, that allows more room in the center console area of the cabin. As always, the textures and trims in the BMW is second to none with a range of colours and fabrics to choose from.

On launch I got to drive two engine variants, the 320d and the range topping M340i, both offering their own charm and uniqueness but both being thoroughly enjoyable to drive. First up we went for the big boy, the M340i, offering so much power and performance, every time I drive it, I wonder if it really is worth dropping all that more money for an M3, but that is a conversation for another day when I actually get to go behind the wheel of an M3. The 3.0L, 6 Cylinder beast churns out 285kW and 500Nm of torque, combined with its xDrive system which can dictate how much power gets transferred to the front and back wheels, makes it all the more exciting to drive. Launching this car sees it race from 0-100km/h in just 4.3 seconds but I've done it a few times and I'm pretty sure its quicker than that. Handling is just superb, with that xDrive system along with the adaptive suspension and M Performance braking, makes it easy to tame this beast around corners.

The 320d, while not boasting the same crazy figures as the M340i, still delivers a decent 140kW and 400Nm of torque from its 2.0L TwinPower Turbo Diesel engine. On the launch I tweeted that this still remains my favourite car from the model line up, it offers the perfect balance between performance and practicality. The Diesel motor from BMW is extremely efficient and when dialed in the various driving modes it can certainly deliver the power when required. With the new concept of offering more as standard in the BMW line up, one will find that the usual options list has dried up dramatically, with again BMW SA opting to choose the popular options that were purchased in previous generations of the car. This is certainly putting BMW in good steed with the market as the purchase price is more attractive with so much included in the base models. The model has been available since December last year and with the amount I've been seeing on the roads already, its already looking like a winner in its segment.

Wednesday, June 5, 2019

Bucket Seat: BMW M8 Competition Coupe & Convertible

So after numerous leaked imagine, spy photos and renders, the BMW M8 has finally shown its face officially and boy is it a great looking one. The 8 Series has already gained lots of attention since its launch locally and it most certainly does turn heads when its on the road, the presence of it is unmissable, add on BMW's most powerful V8 engine to it and you just have a recipe for all kinds of beautiful. Well, I doubt BMW would want the word beautiful and the M8 to be in the same sentence since this is the ultimate M car from their stable (yes, yes I know the M760Li has a V12) but in sports car terms this is the pinnacle of M cars there is to BMW.

Along with the M8 Coupe and Convertible, BMW have also shown us the Competition package for both variants. These will include added extras like Individual paint cars, black chrome kidney grille, along with the side gills in the same colour. Mirrors, rear apron inlay and rear spoiler finished off in high-gloss black and exclusive forged 20-inch light alloy wheels in biclour. The Competition pack also comes with an M Sport exhaust system with black tailpipes which from the launch video sounds brutish as hell.

In the heart of these beasts you'll find the high-revving V8 power plant which as mentioned before is the most powerful V8 produced by BMW, it's a M TwinPower Turbo that develops 441kW and 600bhp for both the M8 Coupe and M8 Convertible. In the Competition, the performance has been tweaked for the 4.4 liter unit, with it producing 460kW and 625bhp. The cars come with an eight-speed M Steptronic transmission which has drivelogic, helping the cars perfect balance and optimal power to wheel ratio is the M xDrive system. Zero to hundred times for the M8 Coupe are 3.3 second with the Convertible lagging by 0.1 seconds, while the Competition Coupe does it in 3,2 seconds.

The chassis is model specific and has been designed and tuned with specific demands of track use in mind. One of the features of the chassis that stands out in particular is a newly developed integrated braking system, an M-specific version of which presents the driver with two different brake pedal feel settings. The new range topping models from BMW M will celebrate their world premiers as part of the BMW Group #NextGen event taking place at BMW Welt in Munich on from the 25th of June till the 27th. Now official word from BMW SA on when they will be available locally but I have a suspicion with BMW M Festival due in SA this October, keep an eye out for this one.

Wednesday, May 9, 2018

Bucket Seat: BMW M5 Competition - First Impressions

BMW SA launched its all new M5 in the country about a month ago, the much anticipated super saloon was everything and more than what people expected. Being the first M5 with four wheel drive, it sure did astound many journo's and one would have thought this would be the pinnacle of the super German sedan but in true German fashion, they pulled a trump out, with the new BMW M5 Competition which was relieved earlier today. So whats the deal? Well obviously its more powerful, although it shares its 4.4L M TwinPower Turbo V8 with the standard M5, it has an extra 25bhp power more taking it up to 625bhp and producing 460kW allowing for high revving in longer periods. Which catapults the car from 0-200 in just 10.8 seconds, which is 0.3 seconds quicker than the standard BMW M5. The engine also has specially designed mounts to optimise responsiveness and cornering characteristics.

Now many might be thinking, why would BMW release the Competition so soon after the standard M5 was launched? Well I'm sure there were many deciding factors to this, with rivals showing their cards with their new models, which on paper look to perform better than the standard M5, Germans being Germans cannot have this so they must have decided to through this one out a bit earlier than anticipated, but thats just my take on it. Don't treat it as gospel, also another key factor would be pricing, while we don't know at what price the Competition will come in at when it arrives in the country in the third quarter of this year, it will be a few pennies more than the standard one. So for some, maybe the bank will only grant them finance on the standard version as apposed to the Competition.

So, if you had the money, why would you chose the Competition over the standard version? Apart from the performances differences, their are elements to the car that sets it apart from the other. The Competition is offered in BMW Individual paint options, high gloss black kidney grille and mirror caps, exclusive 20" forged lightweight alloy wheels, a blacked out "M5 Competition" badge, sports exhaust system with black tail pipes, BMW look at the Competition product as a new category which in the future will offer the most powerful variants of its high-performance cars as standalone models, we've already seen this in the M2, M3 and M4 Competition. Overall, the BMW M5 Competition takes the standard BMW to the next level in terms of performance, while still having the aesthetics of a modern four door saloon. While figures might be close or less than its direct competitors, we will have to see how it performs to make a final judgement on the car.

Friday, February 5, 2016

Bucket Seat: BMW M135i

I'm not the biggest fan of hatchbacks, we've only ever owned sedans in my family and big ones at that. Learning how to drive in a large sedan did prove useful to me as anything else that I needed to drive didn't seem like a big adjustment. Hence my love for them continued, even whilst many raved about hatchbacks, I never really took the liking to them, yes I admired the hot hatches but the urge wasn't there. Yes sure they're great cars and most are great value for money but maybe I just preferred having an actual boot?

BMW called me up earlier this year and said they were going to send their M135i to me for a week, this was the second time this car was scheduled for me as the last time someone had some trouble with the power of it and it had to go in for some minor repairs, so I was really looking forward to getting this car. Having driven the 120i late last year, I knew the 1 Series was one of the better in it's range compared to it's competitors so having a go in their range topping model was an opportunity I was waiting for.

Since the day it arrived, you knew this car was special. It rolled in, painted in their signature Estoril Blue, with 18" smoked alloy rims, flared air in takes on the front M Sport bumper which was painted in silver and the twin black performance exhausts that hummed to the tuned of its roaring 3 liter, 6 cylinder engine. It made the hair on the back of your neck stand up, this car was no soccer moms car but a proper hot hatch and as much as you can read stats out of the booklet, there's no true way to describe this car unless you experience it yourself.

BMW cars come in 4 driving modes, Eco-Pro for your conservative driver, Comfort, for your everyday, any type of driving style, Sport, something to beef up the engines response time and then lastly Sport + which beefs up the engine as well as switches off any car aids such as tractional control and ESP. In a car like the M135i, one won't even bother with Eco-Pro as once you take off in comfort with your foot planted to the floor, all you want it more!

The roar from the exhaust is exhilarating and unleashes various emotions while driving it, all of them good though! I described this car as such in one of my tweets, the raw power of the motor working with the twin turbo's is magnificent, it evokes the pure passion of the guys from the factory in Munich. It's relentless and hard working but delivers performance every time you need it. It left me flabbergasted to be honest. It got to a point that I wanted to drive all them time while I had it, I offered people rides to places and even took pointless drives.

Style

The One Series isn't much to write home about in terms of styling but I really like what they did with the face-lift. The revised lights both at the front and back add real character to the car and gives it that more executive feel. With the M Sport Package, it really beefed the car up. The M front bumper with large air-intakes, blacked out kidney grille and the non-existence of fog lights really gave the car a menacing look. The side profile has had some tweaking with M135i badged into the side skirts of the doors, the rear which had a splitter in the back bumper with it blacked out at the bottom completed the devilish look of the car. Something different about this car is the day time running lights, normally with the BMW we're used to seeing the "angel lights" or halo around the main lights but with the One series, it's more of a tear drop at the bottom which I thought was quite cool.

Comfort

Getting into the car, it seems like any other BMW, pretty much a standard setup with the added extra's of the M Sport package, that being lots of chrome, silver and sporty finishes, not forgetting the electronic racing seats. The M Sport steering wheel is probably my favourite steering wheel ever, if they can be such a thing. The look, the feel and the styling of it is just great. Being a sports model, you would expect the ride quality to be quite stiff and hard but it was quite the opposite, you cant tell the difference of the ride quality between this and a 318i.

Performance

Where do I begin? All you wan't to do with this car is give it horn's and its more than happy to reciprocate. Acceleration is phenomenal, 0-100Kph in 5 seconds and it just keeps climbing at the same pace, no slowing down until it reaches it's governed speed of 250Kph. Unfortunately unlike the German's autobahn one needs a private road or test track to achieve this as our national speed limit is 120Kph. The engine is the same one that get's fitting into all of the '35i badged cars, well now they're being re-badged as '40i. You won't get the most out of this car from day to day driving as it isn't as thrilling as taking it out on the open roads, which is why I did a trip to the Natal Midlands over the weekend.

Driving

There's no ill I can speak about the car, it performs like a beast, handles like a dream, comfort of any other car in the BMW stable and it makes such a beautiful noise. Maybe there is one thing, but that would be a given, it does tend to make you notice more than you would like. The fuel consumption, the booklet claims it to have a combined consumption of 8 liters per 100Km but realistically its more like 10.9, switch over into sports mode and the figure almost doubles, hence I said at the beginning to throw the booklet out. The estimated range on sports mode drops faster than the Rand when we change Finance Ministers. Is it worth it though? Hell yes! Every single rand to liter is worth it with this car.

Extras
The car came with pretty much most of the thing standard on the M Package but notable extras were the reverse camera with front and rear PDC, Satnav and larger display screen, lane departure warning which comes handy at high speeds, Xenon lights, Memory seats, Sunroof and light package.

Verdict
This car gives you an andrenilin rush of note, it gets your blood pumping and awakens your soul. Yes it is small and not the most powerful engine from BMW but the complete package is simply mind blowing. The amount of joy it brings you from driving it is unbelievable and it will leave you with a stupid grin on your face every time you get out of the car. Compared to the other hot hatches it lines up against, it's not the fastest but I'd rate it the best in terms of what you're getting. It's not badly priced and the quality of the product is great. If I could afford one, I'd definitely have one in my garage.

Specifications

3 litre, 6cylinder TwinPower Turbo
8 Speed Sports Automatic Transmission
240kW
450Nm torque
Consumption: 8.0ltr/ 100km
Top Speed: 250kph
0-100kph: 5.1 seconds
Price: R572 000 (excluding extras)

Friday, January 29, 2016

Bucket Seat: BMW 320d & 318i

Late last year BMW released their face lift to their 3 Series, it was an important milestone for the company as it marked the 40th year of production for the popular sedan as explained in my review of the 320i. Although not much was revised in terms of styling of the cars, 90% of the range received brand new engines and of this I spoke very highly about the 320i, I fell in love with that over the 7 days I had it, it honestly seemed like the perfect fit for my life and driving style. This year however I was given two other variants that got me thinking and could eventually sway may decision.

I got a call in the second week of the year, the BMW 320d and 318i were both available for test, of course I said yes to both. On one had you got the intro level diesel engine and the other, the much talked about 1,5ltr engine that had everyone raving about. The 3 Series is BMW's money maker, it's the most sold in volume and iconic in it's very own right as it was for most part of it's 40 years the entry level range to the German Motor manufacturers stable, so it was good to see that the latest variant was living up to the values of its predecessors.

Style

320d - First up, the 320d rolled in for a week, the colour, Jatoba Metallic which was a brownish, charcoal colour with a full creme interior that matched it to perfection. The car sporting the Luxury package with high gloss wood finishes, chrome edges and elegant smoked 17" rims made it look like a proper luxury saloon. That's the thing with BMW, yes the optional extra list can go a bit but you can customise your car so well with it. Making your own unique and to your taste.

318i - In what was almost a spitting image of the 320d I had the week before, the 318i was almost exactly the same. The differences came with the rims and of course, single exhaust pipe as the diesel model had twin. The rims being the standard alloy colour didn't suit the colour as well as the smoked rims did, so that took me a while to get used to. Other than that, the car looked immaculate.

Comfort

Going inside the car, the colour combinations of dark wood and creme leather and carpets was pleasing on the eye. The ride quality on the 320d and 318i were no different to that of the 320i I had last year. For a sedan aimed at the working class market, buyers of the car are getting premium finishes that one can also find in the 6 or 7 series. That's what I like about BMW, no matter the model, there is a consistency in quality that you won't find in other manufacturers. Same goes for ride quality, as it's unparalleled to its competitors but maintained throughout the range.

Performance

320d - the 2ltr 140kw diesel engine was impressive in terms of power and performance, plenty of torque with minimal turbo lag from the Twin Power turbo plant. Improved fuel economy which saw it's average consumption dropped to 4.0 ltr per 100km in ideal conditions, I managed 6.3ltr per 100km and I'm sure I could get it down to 5 if I drove it diligently but with all that torque, it would have seemed a waste to do so.

318i - While engine used in this car is shared with a Mini Cooper, don't be fooled by what it can do. Yes it is a bit sluggish on take off but it more than makes up for it when you on the road as it picks up paces quite quickly after passing 60kph. I was very impressed with the pulling power and the way it managed to carry the heavy body of the car even with a full load of passengers. I had the standard automatic gear box with this one and normally I do feel the ratio's and timings are poor with it but they seemed to have fixed that issue, so no unnecessary high revving and wasting fuel, which ultimately does wonders for its consumption.

Driving

320d - Honestly, driving both cars was a pleasure but with obvious reasoning the 320d did offer the better drive. It was more responsive on acceleration thanks to the torque, more faster but even though the engine has been refined, the sound is unmistakably diesel. It doesn't bother me at all but for many this hinders their choice in purchasing diesel. For me the cost savings speak for itself. Diesel is many places is cheaper than petrol and it doubles your range than what you would get in a petrol engine of the same capacity.

318i - While it did lack power at times, I can't fault the driving experience in the 318i. I was really impressed by by this car. As said before, the engine is more than capable to haul this big sedan around with ease and without using more fuel which is an added bonus. I was told that due to the coastal conditions that this car will perform even better than it would in higher altitude, so you have to take that into consideration as well.

Extras

Both cars came loaded with the best that the 3 series range had to offer, the lighting package really makes the car look stunning at night with welcome lights below the door handles. The camera package is becoming more and more essential to my needs with the car, not that it makes you lazy when it comes to parking but it provides you with a view of things you wouldn't normally see from your mirrors. If you want to be lazy you can always opt for the park assist feature which firstly scans for an appropriate parking spot then parks your car for you! Other extra's included the Harman Kardon hifi sound system with stereo 7 logic and one extra which I love, the adaptive LED headlights.

Verdict

Overall after driving both engines, I can't say which one is better as they both have that charm about them and of course their use for a driver. the 318i is perfect for your daily run around, whether its to work or picking up the kids from school and running errands whilst the 320d is great for that was well but on long distance travels it really shows it's class with great speed and even better fuel consumption. If I had to choose, it would be the 320d, it suits my driving style and lifestyle. It's a cruise but packs that punch should you want to open it up a bit every now and then.