Article Abstract
- The RWD M135i feels closest to BMW’s basic method: compact dimension, straight-six energy, and throttle-adjustable stability.
- The N55 delivers clean, keen efficiency with a broad powerband and a redline that encourages you to make use of it.
- Manufacturing unit setup makes use of an open diff with brake-based e-diff habits; a mechanical M Efficiency LSD sharpens exits, however the inventory automotive is already energetic and keen to slip.
I get why the F20 BMW M135i slips by means of the cracks. It by no means received the complete ///M mythology, it wasn’t bought all over the place, and on paper it appears to be like like “simply” an M Efficiency automotive from the early 2010s. However the first time you drive a rear-wheel-drive M135i the way in which you’re alleged to—actually decide to an entry, breathe off the throttle, let the rear take a slip—you understand BMW perhaps unintentionally constructed one thing particular.
Not particular within the “future basic” approach folks toss round too simply. Particular within the extra significant approach: it appears like a BMW from the period when the corporate nonetheless obsessed over stability and adjustability, not simply traction and lap-time heroics.
Sure, there was an xDrive model afterward, and I’m not going to fake that isn’t interesting in case you stay someplace winter is half the calendar. However the RWD M135i is the one which stays closest to the “Final Driving Machine” thought. It’s the one the place the entrance axle is allowed to give attention to steering, and the rear axle is allowed to have a persona.
And it helps that the automotive appears to be like proper even earlier than it strikes. The F20 has that basic BMW stance: an extended hood, brief overhangs, and a cabin that sits again on the wheelbase just like the engine truly issues. In hatchback kind it’s an unusually cool form—compact, usable, and nonetheless unmistakably BMW in its proportions. You get the practicality with out shedding the format that makes a BMW really feel like a BMW.
The numbers nonetheless land
The M135i isn’t a “huge quantity” automotive by right this moment’s requirements, however the spec remains to be the sort that makes fanatics nod: 320 hp, 450 Nm (332 lb-ft) from the three.0-liter N55 inline-six, paired with both a six-speed handbook or an eight-speed automated. In interval, BMW quoted 0–100 km/h in 5.1 seconds with the handbook and 4.9 seconds with the automated. That was correctly fast when this automotive confirmed up—particularly wrapped in a compact hatchback physique.
Weight issues right here greater than folks admit, and the M135i didn’t arrive bloated. Relying on the way you measure it (DIN/EU figures), it sits across the 1,400-1,500 kg vary. That doesn’t sound surprising till you drive it back-to-back with newer “sizzling” vehicles and understand how a lot lighter it feels in transitions. The M135i doesn’t have that fashionable sensation of carrying mass into each nook like a backpack you possibly can’t take off.
The N55 is the explanation the entire thing works
I’ve pushed the N55 in a bunch of locations—the 335i, 435i, and the M135i—and it’s a kind of engines that retains proving itself. It has torque all over the place, but it surely doesn’t really feel like a torque-only equipment. It’s clean, it’s keen, and it rewards you for utilizing the highest half of the tach.
One of the best half is how linear it feels for a turbo motor. The ability doesn’t arrive like a light-weight change. You roll into the throttle and it simply builds—cleanly, predictably, with sufficient urgency that you just don’t must “set it up” to make it quick. And if you preserve it pinned, it doesn’t go flat. It stays completely happy all the way in which to the 7,000 rpm redline, which is strictly why folks nonetheless fee this engine so extremely.
Then there’s the sound. The N55 doesn’t want pretend noise to have character. It has that straight-six metallic edge, particularly if you’re onerous on it, and it makes the M135i really feel prefer it’s punching above its class.
Steering and chassis: it’s not a museum piece, it’s a device
The M135i runs electrical energy steering, and no, it’s not going to offer you E46-style hydraulic poetry. However it’s fast, correct, and it permits you to place the automotive with out second-guessing. That’s what issues when you begin driving it onerous.
The place the M135i actually exhibits its persona is the chassis stability. It doesn’t simply grip and go. It strikes. It reacts to weight switch. It is going to rotate in case you drive it such as you imply it.
We hung out tossing one round on observe and it clicked virtually immediately. The automotive likes dedication. Flip in with some intent, settle it, and you’ll really feel the rear axle getting mild in a approach that makes you smile as an alternative of sweat. You possibly can steer it on a carry. You possibly can tighten a line with a contact of path brake. And if you decide up throttle early, the M135i doesn’t all the time take the “secure” route—typically it can begin to come round, and you’ll catch it and maintain it. That’s the type of enjoyable plenty of fashionable vehicles are lacking.
It’s tail completely happy, however not in a scary approach. It’s the type of tail completely happy that comes from a compact chassis, an actual rear-drive format, and sufficient energy to regulate the automotive mid-corner with out a lot effort.
The diff query, defined like an fanatic
From the manufacturing facility, the F20 M135i doesn’t get a mechanical limited-slip differential. It makes use of an open diff, and BMW depends on digital intervention—brake-based torque management—to handle wheelspin and assist the automotive put energy down. Individuals name it an “e-diff” impact, as a result of the system can brake an inside wheel and affect the place the torque finally ends up.
Whenever you’re onerous on throttle at nook exit, the electronics can create a second the place the automotive rotates greater than you anticipate. Generally it feels prefer it’s serving to you. Generally it feels prefer it’s nudging you into mischief.
A mechanical LSD does an identical job in precept—biasing torque and bettering traction—but it surely does it extra straight and extra rapidly, with out counting on braking. That’s why BMW supplied a dealer-installed M Efficiency mechanical LSD as an adjunct for these vehicles. When you’re monitoring the automotive, tuning it, otherwise you simply need cleaner exits and extra constant throttle adjustability, it’s one of many upgrades that makes instant sense.
RWD vs xDrive: The purpose isn’t the spec, it’s the texture
The xDrive M135i exists for a cause. When you cope with snow, ice, or tough climate half the 12 months, it’s a wise possibility. However the RWD automotive is the one which feels most like a standard BMW compact efficiency machine. It’s additionally the model that makes you perceive what BMW was doing in that period: constructing a compact automotive that would do every day life with out sacrificing the driving really feel that made the model well-known.
Why it’s underrated
The M135i is underrated as a result of it’s straightforward to mislabel. It’s not a halo automotive, so folks don’t speak about it like one. It’s an M Efficiency automotive, so some fanatics assume it’s simply an look and badge package deal. And for lots of readers, it’s additionally a “forbidden fruit” BMW—one they didn’t get of their market (like within the U.S.), so it by no means turned a part of the shared possession tradition the way in which an E82 135i or 1M did.
If BMW had introduced the RWD M135i to the U.S. in its prime, I’d have been first in line. Straight-six, handbook possibility, compact hatch practicality, and a chassis that’ll fortunately rotate if you push it—that is precisely the kind of BMW that reminds you why we care within the first place.
