I understand how the BMW 1M Coupé was a rare car and demand is still high enough they are still trading above their original list price, but Axis despises garage queens and have little patience for those who spend more time polishing than driving.
....Which is why seeing this Dutch rally prepared BMW 1M makes us happy!
France's Motorsport magazine was at the Nürburgring for BMW's 40th anniversary festivities and made this clip with the sounds from a few of ///M's greatest hits.
E92 GTS, E46 CSL, 1M Coupe, E92 Competition Pack, E92 CRT, which is your favorite?
Gratuitous shots of one of our favorite cars doing what it does so well and so gracefully.
"Car is a BMW 1M Coupe with JRZ suspension. The movie was shot on the Papenburg ATP test track in Germany with Driftdagen.nl. Most drifting was done in 3rd gear. Speeds reached of 140km drifting the long corners/straights."
Young people are not interested in cars anymore, or at least that's what the research and marketing people tell us. "Millenials", what an awful term, are more into smart phones and updating their Facebook status than even getting a drivers license, forget about sports cars. Potential reasons for this are outlined in a recent Atlantic article and manufacturers have scrambled to reconnect with "those kids" with various degrees of success.
Let's face it, driving has become more and more of a hassle, expense, congestion, law enforcement. There are a few surviving ways to really enjoy your car, especially your performance car: organized track days (or autocross) are one and increasingly, virtual reality.
Sims have gotten to a point where even commercially available games can offer you an experience that is beyond what hyper exotic stand-alone systems could offer ten years ago. Every professional driver will learn a new track on a sim now, many using iRacing or Simraceway (who just announced a huge deal with INDY car). It is just the way things are done now.
BMW has been ahead of this, a year and a half ago they began collaborating with British game developer Eutechnyx and their Auto Club Revolution, a browser based racing game aimed at the enthusiast. ACR will combine real world tracks with forums and links to manufacturers and the aftermarket. The idea is to build a community for race fans, aftermarket tuners and manufacturers where you can experience and share real world cars and parts.
BMW will offer, within the game, a special "BMW Experience" which includes a specially designed race track, where players will be able to demonstrate their driving skill just with the BMW 1 Series M Coupé. Once they have successfully completed this BMW challenge, players can transfer the BMW 1 Series M Coupé to the main game for free, and set new track records by themselves or with friends..
Andreas-Christoph Hofmann, Vice President Brand Communication BMW, Marketing services BMW Group: “Our customers are tech-savvy and love to be able to put their dream car together the way they want. Auto Club Revolution has the possibility to make our models accessible to a large number of car enthusiasts. It was extremely important to us that our models be portrayed realistically. In Eutechnyx we found a partner who shares our highest quality standards.”
Will this work for BMW? We'll see. Perhaps we need to do a real world comparison with one of the Axis 1Ms... certainly the smoke looks close to what we were able to make when we had a chance to play with one!
Team Axis was at New Jersey Motorsports Park this past week end and we had a change to grab some real life Traqmate data from young Eddie's new BMW 1 M Coupe and compare it, side by side, on the same day, on the same track with my 2001 M Coupe. As usual we give you our data so you can dig into for yourself, at your leisure.
OK, lets start with the various disclaimers so you can calibrate this comparison. The 1 M is stock save for:
- KW Clubsport shocks and springs. Serup comes with Camber plates which allowed a -3.2 degree of camber up front.
- the car was corner balanced with driver
- Stock brakes with Hawk race pads (sorry, can't recall the compound now)
- 18x10 wheels with non sticker Toyo 888, 275 all around
Not stock, but not an unreasonable setup for anyone doing regular track days. Best lap time: 1:15.097, Theoretical best lap 1:14.614 (combined best segments from the whole session)
Top speed in session, 133.28 mph
My 2001 M Coupe (s54) is also modified:
-Ground Control/Koni Shocks/camber plates
-Diffsonline LSD, 3.46 final drive (from 3.15, making the gearing almost identical to the e-46 M3)
-stock brakes, PFC Direct Drive rotors, PFC race pads
-9x17 and 9.5x17 wheels with 245/45 and 275/40 Kumho 710 (year old)
Best lap time 1:14.470, theoretical best time 1:14.342
Top Speed in session 132.58 mph
What do we see from the data? well, while it's not the perfect comparison because it's two different drivers, it's amazingly close. I was surprised by the acceleration curves being so matched but I think I had to work much harder to get there than Eddie did even with an almost 300 lbs weight advantage. Slap some fresh Hoosiers on that puppy by and you got something pretty awesome on your hands.
Here is the bonus, there were no overheating issues at all despite the 95 degree, 100% humidity day and the brakes held up fine. Great news for the lucky 1 M owners!
Have a look at the Traqmate data for the BMW 1 M vs MZ3 , play around with it by downloading the free software (windows or mac via parallels) HERE
"..That combination may say "stick" on paper, and it does... until you disengage the traction control. And trust me, you will.
With the system set to Normal, the Axis light on the dash flickers with the insistence of a Christmas tree with an electrical short, pulling power at the faintest hint of wheel spin..."
we don't necessarily condone this setup but some people love it. Our friend EC was over at Stee's house last night swapping in a set of KW Clubsports. We'll let you know how it works. Gallery after the jump
Because we know what you really want to know about the BMW 1 M Coupe and you can read specs and regurgitated press releases anywhere....
What you want to know is, does it kick ass? Well, perhaps we'll let pictures do the talking as the Freep and I had a bit of fun with the Baby M's today, check it out after the jump
Is it good? Yes, very. Does it go? It's got loads of thrust as turbos do. Does it grip? Quite a lot and you can really feel the M Diff doing its thing. Does it slide? Well, yes but it takes some firm provocation. Does it stop? Better than the M3. Is it a good street car? A great one, agile, quick and frugal too. Does it sound good? it's a turbo... How's the gearbox? Slick, literally. BMW put many low friction parts in this 1M specific box and even clutchless downshifts are a breeze.
But as promised let me try and answer some of your specific questions from Facebook and twitter:
@nkavassalis: "General driving feel, modern BMW M-cars all feel too disconnected to be as enjoyable as your e36 M coupe ever was."
I felt very much at home in the 1M, it's like the stock Z3MC except way better dynamically. Both "part bin" cars, both legends.
@Robboso " is it throttle steerable? Is it a real M?"
Yes and Yes
@mistic192 "how well it swings out the back-end in corners of course"
See attached video...
@AndyTaylor_isme "Does it feel as heavy as the stats suggest that it is?"
It does have some heft but it masks it well, short wheelbase, wide track, big tires help. Anyway, it's lighter than the e46 M3 but with more power.
@Nivola "Compare & contrast its flickability to your Z3 M coupe. Also, like to hear your opinion on its diff."
Nothing is as flickable as my MCoupe now but the 1M is LOADS better than the stock Z3M ever hoped to be. The diff is the M Diff, it works great.
@CG "drive it really hard and see if it overheats? 5 consecutive laps at full throttle in reverse?"
Yeah, I tried asking about the reverse laps.... It does run hotter than the S54 but Friday was a cool day and they did not make it so you could run consecutive hot laps. None of the cars seemed to get heat soaked or brake faded. By contrast, the M3 Sedan's brake pedal seemed a bit long.
@blotto649 "Re. the 1M, curious about clutch pedal travel/feel - 335 feels too light/long. I'm hoping it's like my R53 Cooper S"
That's hard for me to say, had no issues with it seemed standard BMW M material.
Philip Stuhpid "is it really a proper successor of the e30 m3 and how´s the sound?"
The e30 M3 is a legend and has a racing pedigree likely never to be matched, that said the 1M would destroy a stock e30M3 at the track.
Michael Valdez "Is it worth the price? And why should one choose that car over the ///M3?"
What else RWD can you buy in that price range, a Mustang? a 370Z? Nobody will choose it over the M3, the M3 is a very different beast. Both fun but in different ways but the 1M will be much more rare than the M3.
Jean-Noel Moyne "I'm very jealous. The question for them is why are they making so few of them (and will I get one and if so when? ;))."
Many want to know, but from what I understand it boild down to production capacity and the position of the car in the 1 series life cycle. There is a possibility that the 1M will be a 1 model year car! Joe Hudson "How good is the ///M dynamic mode of the stability control? Does the car rotate well on throttle lift?"
M is very proud of their MDM, I feel bad because I shut it off after two laps, It's actually not very intrusive and as an instructor I would endorse using it 100% as a built it teaching tool. I'm sure it's great in the rain. The car responds to mid corner throttle lifts in a very balanced and neutral way.
And finally...Dale:
Dale Lomas "How does it handle jumps? How many jelly beans can you fit in the door pockets? How easy is to drive no-handed? What's the top-speed of reverse gear?"
It's well dampened but somewhat soft, it will be good at the ring... Jelly beans are frowned upon if you want to keep things lightweight and, fast enough for a bootlegger.
More question? use comments
Thanks to BMW for including Axis in their 1M press drive, Much appreciated and Axis approved!
