BMW BLOG

Jeremy Clarkson gets another BMW in his hands, but this time, he’s not feeling so generous with the BMW brand. A few months back, in a way, he surprised us when he gave the new Z4 nothing but praises. The latest car that went through his purgatory was the BMW 135i Convertible with the M Sport package, but the review was less flattering.

In a way, this surprises us since in his review, he mentions how much he enjoyed the 135i Coupe model, a vehicle that is very similar to the convertible. design, dynamics and performance of that car are nearly identical with the convertible model, hence our confusion, but let’s take a look at what Jeremy had to say.

“Joy’s not really a German thing, I suppose. We do joy. The Americans do joy. The Italians do joy, even though they never laugh. Germans, though? They’re rather better at precision and accuracy and following orders. Which is why I can’t quite understand what went wrong with the new convertible version of the 135i.

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Our close friends and long time supporters of our blog, Julius and his team at WheelSTO, have an exciting project to share with us: a BMW 135i Coupe which went through a series of modifications. As always, we will let them share the story behind the Project 135i.

We picked up our 135i in September 2008. We instantly fell in love with its gorgeous looks, well designed interior, powerful motor, and more importantly the way it made the driver feel completely in control. We chose Black Sapphire Metallic as it’s a beautiful spin on the standard black. Understated and looks brilliant in the sunlight. The car came with the beautiful Coral Red interior as well. As soon as we got it back to the shop we knew we were in for a really good experience.

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Among the BMW community and true addicts, the 135i Coupe model needs no further introduction. Every since its launch in 2007, the BMW 135i Coupe has earned the title of one of most exciting to drive cars in the BMW line-up.

Many BMW owners, tuning and modding shops had and still have fun modifying the standard features and convert the Coupe into an iconic racecar. The white painted 135i Coupe featured in our article belongs to David S., a long time reader of our blog and an even bigger BMW fan. The tuned up 135i made its debut this year at the 24 hour race at Nurburgring and was praised by the press and the community present at the event.

Together with his friends, David S. created a 135i Motorsport kit that turns the 135i Coupe into a real race car. With that being said, let’s take a look at some of the changes implemented by them:

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Ever since I started BMWBLOG, one of the main goals, beside producing the best and most BMW related content, was to connect us with you, our readers. The secret behind any successful car website is the community and I am constantly looking for ways to bring all of us together.

You always help us with stories, tips and wonderful comments, so it is only fair that we would give something back, from time to time. The “BMW Of The Week” series is a way for us to express our gratitude by featuring some lucky cars in our weekly post, a car that will be seen by hundreds of thousands of readers every month.

The Flickr BMWBLOG Group gives us  plenty of choices when it comes to choosing the weekly bimmer, but those choices can be very difficult. Some cars stand out with their tuning jobs, others with mods and extraordinary photography. In some cases, the car itself needs to “pampering” and can be simply stunning.

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We’ve been taking a break from our regular “BMW of the Week” articles, but we are back and we plan on doing this for a long time. As some of you, that have been with us for a while, might recall, a couple of months back, we started an official BMWBLOG Group on Flickr.com where everyone could upload their own BMW photos to it.

At this moment, there are almost 400 photos of your own bimmers and it’s growing every day. Our goal is to reach 1,000 within the next few months and eventually create the largest BMW photo gallery.

So let’s recap a little bit what we’ve done in the past. Week 1 winner trophy was awarded to not one, but three bimmers: 1987 E24 M6, 1992 E36 325iS and 1974 BMW 2002. In the second week, the award went to the previous generation E83 Z4 Roadster with some of the best scenery photos we have seen so far. Third week and the most controversial one, was all about this “funky” modded E36 BMW which went a bit over the top.

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The Automobile Magazine fellows posted one of very extensive and detailed review of a 2008 BMW 135i Coupe. The Alpine White 1er was put through a series of test drives for an entire year and after 20,000 miles, AutomobileMag decided to share their findings.

“Is 300 hp too much power for a compact, four-passenger sport coupe? Back in 1974, singer Barry White softly spoke the timeless line, “I’ve heard people say that too much of anything is not good for you, baby.”

Although White, of course, was referring to the love of a woman, nearly everyone who got behind the wheel of our Four Seasons 2008 BMW 135i coupe had similar thoughts about the twin-turbo six under its hood: was it simply too much for this little car?”

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With all this recent talk about BMW’s Performance Accessories, we think it’s interesting to give you more articles along that line. One of our long time readers and friend of course, Mohammed, decided to share with us a short video of his Montego Blue BMW 135i Coupe equipped with a BMW Performance Exhaust.

As BMW mentions on their Performance Accessories page, the exhaust system invigorates engine output by allowing engine by-products to exit the vehicle more efficiently. Performance is being slightly increased as well, up to 5 horsepower at 6,000 RPM.

But probably the most exciting thing about this BMW Performance Exhaust is the sound, that “roaring”, deep sound that makes our skin crawl. While the original exhaust already “screams of power”, the upgraded Performance system takes it a bit further.

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Here is  a review that hasn’t been posted by us before, it was about time we would have  some different comparisons and step out of the monotony. The Aussie fellows at TopGear decided to take the BMW 135i Coupe on a race track and put it against the 2009 Mitsubishi EVO 10. The 135i Coupe is powered by the award-winning 3.0 liter twin-turbo engine which develops 300 horsepower and 300 lb-ft of torque.

On the other hand, the Lancer EVO is powered by a 291 horsepower 2.0-liter turbocharged inline-4 engine and has the same amount of torque, 300 lb-ft. Both cars weigh around 3,500 lbs, with the 135i Coupe being slightly “skinnier”.

So, the specs are fairly close to each other, but let’ see how they handle on track.

Our friends at IND-Distribution and of course, our sponsors here,  used their modding skills in attaching a new Eisenmann Exhaust on a BMW 135i Coupe.They are the North American distributor for Eisenmann exhausts and a few months back, they visited Eisenmann GmbH’s amazing manufacturing facilities in Hemmingen, Germany for an exclusive view of their old world manufacturing techniques.

The Eisenmann 82/83 exhaust system seen in the video and photos below is priced at around $1,800, but according to many 1 Series fans, it is absolutely worth it. I haven’t had the chance to test it, but after seeing the video below, I have no choice but to join Nate and his team for a ride.

Beside the cool look, the Eisenmann exhaust sound is phenomenal, proving once again that the BMW 1 Series Coupe belongs to the true bimmer fans.

I would tell you more about the exhaust, but I would rather let you enjoy the great video, and wait about three minutes in and you will have another surprise. You’ll see why we like the “IND dudes”.

Photo gallery after the jump
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Honestly, this has to be one of the most weird comparison I have seen in a while, I mean really…what these cars have in common? Different market, different brands, different customers, different philosophy, you name it. BUT, these type of reviews make the reading more interesting, controversial and unique. We are all tired of comparing cars competing for the same segment, from the M3 vs C63 AMG and 335i vs. G37 to GLK vs. X3 or 750Li vs. Lexus LS460.

So, when I saw the article on Car and Driver, comparing the BMW 135i to the Nissan 370Z, Mazda RX-8 and Pontiac Solstice GXP, I knew I would take the time to read it.

Besides prices in the low- to mid-$30,000s, what’s the common thread? Sport. As in “sports coupes cum sports cars.” Granted, that’s an elastic category, but regardless of their differences, all have a little race car baked in. More than a little, usually.

Body styles aside, attitude and agility color all the players in this foursome. To what degree—that’s what we went to Southern California to find out.

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