This is long, sorry, want the short version? Twin Turbo baby.
Can't believe it, went to an unveiling while passing through Germany and they had 7 coupes sitting out with different configurations. My wife was there a day earlier and stopped to see the new coupes, but she only got a 30 second garage peek under not-ideal lighting conditions. We just sold our 04 325 and were itching to place an order so we went to the unveiling.
Of course, if your gonna spend the money, the 335 vs. 330 is a no brainer. For our guinea pig we picked the 335i coupe, silver, with sport and premium pkg. Red leather interior really set it off. The look was incredible, a baby 6 for around $40k. The salesman pulled up the car and the wife got in the drivers seat first, he told me he hoped she would let me drive it before returning it. We had about 45 minutes to kill. She took off making a left through oncoming heavy traffic while merging into our lane. 5 pm german time, everyone is on the road. Well, as soon as she cleared the dip at the end of the driveway, she nailed it and WOW.... my wife, who had driven her 325 sedan spirited for two years, gently woke up the 300 sleeping horses, while the DSC let the tires slip for a full second, then shot us out of a canon into traffic so quickly she had to stand on the brakes so not to hit the car that was several hundred yards ahead of us when we started pulling out.
I played with the Idrive while she practiced slowing down then stomping the gas pedal. She was laughing pretty hard because it was like a kid on his first Ninja, you just can't belive something that big can accelerate so quickly. I played with the Idrive and it wasn't too difficult for my first time. Voice commands were useless, I need to find the key commands it will recognize. I wonder if I can add b*tch to it's vocabulary. Anyway, wife drove about 10 minutes out of town and then hit the curves, she was very confident and I was very nervous. I knew the car would protect us, but I would have felt bad if we brought it back banged up with 21 miles on it. Wife was pleased with the predictability and confidence of the coupe but that is what I expected. I wanted to play now.
We pulled over about 20 miles up the road on a side street that was 3 lanes wide. Guys, you know why we picked there. Anyway, pulled over we both got out and admired the posture, stance, look, lines, and tire stance. What a vehicle, what a set of tires...staggered 18's, wide as hell. Trunk was huge with storage area where spare used to be, very small storage area. back seat rather small still. I'm 6 foot even and head rubbed the headliner, but leg room was adequate. I could never sit back there and let another guy drive, I would be scared to death of getting crushed with no exit.
I got into the sport seats and noticed how much of an improvement over the stock seats. Side bolsters and thigh support are much better. Firm is good. Adjusted mirrors (I kept pushing the fold option but that was cool). Adjusted the wheel. Disabled the DSC and brake assist. Then slid the selector into drive, over to sport, the started popping the paddles to see how they worked. Pretty simple, push and pull, either one, don't matter. Okay, here we go.
Locked into first, DSC off, I cranked the wheel and gave it about half throttle, the nose quickly turned and pointed the opposite way, then I stomped the gas and watched the rpms, 6500, I tapped the paddle and immediately, smoothly hit second, where the tire spin slowly started. About 4000 rpms things settled down again and the car was lurching forward, pulling, pulling, pop, third then damn, traffic circle. Stood on the brakes, woops, disabled brake assist, and anti-lock. Those warm tires quickly gripped and we were stopped. Okay, the wife said, is it out of your system yet? NOPE... Realizing safety systems were disabled, I stood on the brakes, and tromped the gas. The tires broke loose and were spinning quite nicely, but the front end was pushing, so I let off the brake. The car spun for about 3-4 seconds then hooked up and we were gone. I quickly did the old sport to drive and back to sport to reset the tranny back to straight sport mode and then played. After noticing the rpms are ridiculousy low at 65 in 6th (overdrive?) we tried some sprints. Next was the standing stops to 100-120mph, then back down to full-stop. I also left the DSC off, hate the computer interferring while I'm playing. No, never hit the cut-out.. 130 was enough for the demo.
I was amazed at a few things with my zero to mach 3 to zero runs. No turbo lag, at least not enough to mention, and No turbo whine. Absolutely none, I understand smaller turbos, less noise, waste gates smaller, but kinda missed it. The exhause note with windows down told everyone this was one of those newer bimmers with the turbos and cool dual exhaust. Very raspy but not too loud. This is not a 78 Camaro with cherry packs, this is a
B-M-W. Tire spin was always on the brink of breaking out, but never did. And stopping was always straight as an arrow, and freakin' hard. Two panic stops and the wife said okay, no more please. At a 100, they are incredible.
Also, the over-emphasized pause with an automatic shifting is gone, I used to enjoy the slight pause between gears, but this is very seamless. I'm sure the larger exhaust helps keep the air flowing through the engine and the large intercooler is a big asset also.
I realized a few more things after parking that beast. It's a monster. The stats of the 07's are being compared to 06 M3's. That is crazy. Okay, so its point-something slower to 60 mph, but it's 10k less on the wallet. And insurance? gas? the list must go on. Also, the back seat is still cramped and what if I have to take my son for a ride with the wife and I? who is going to get out of the car to let him in? she won't, so I'll have to put it in park, get out, pain in my a$$. Next, what about a sedan with that spunk, 300hp, twin-turbo.. that would be cool. So thats what we ordered. same car with 4 doors. And saved over a thousand dollars.. whoo hoo. (thats a joke) But it will pay for the comfort access and part of the bmw assist. And the cool colors? the silver and graphite, they were sharp.
Okay, sorry for the long write but it was a fun drive. Can't wait till May (our choice). Bottom line, lots of car for a lot of money, but a lot of car. It's a rocket.
Can't believe it, went to an unveiling while passing through Germany and they had 7 coupes sitting out with different configurations. My wife was there a day earlier and stopped to see the new coupes, but she only got a 30 second garage peek under not-ideal lighting conditions. We just sold our 04 325 and were itching to place an order so we went to the unveiling.
Of course, if your gonna spend the money, the 335 vs. 330 is a no brainer. For our guinea pig we picked the 335i coupe, silver, with sport and premium pkg. Red leather interior really set it off. The look was incredible, a baby 6 for around $40k. The salesman pulled up the car and the wife got in the drivers seat first, he told me he hoped she would let me drive it before returning it. We had about 45 minutes to kill. She took off making a left through oncoming heavy traffic while merging into our lane. 5 pm german time, everyone is on the road. Well, as soon as she cleared the dip at the end of the driveway, she nailed it and WOW.... my wife, who had driven her 325 sedan spirited for two years, gently woke up the 300 sleeping horses, while the DSC let the tires slip for a full second, then shot us out of a canon into traffic so quickly she had to stand on the brakes so not to hit the car that was several hundred yards ahead of us when we started pulling out.
I played with the Idrive while she practiced slowing down then stomping the gas pedal. She was laughing pretty hard because it was like a kid on his first Ninja, you just can't belive something that big can accelerate so quickly. I played with the Idrive and it wasn't too difficult for my first time. Voice commands were useless, I need to find the key commands it will recognize. I wonder if I can add b*tch to it's vocabulary. Anyway, wife drove about 10 minutes out of town and then hit the curves, she was very confident and I was very nervous. I knew the car would protect us, but I would have felt bad if we brought it back banged up with 21 miles on it. Wife was pleased with the predictability and confidence of the coupe but that is what I expected. I wanted to play now.
We pulled over about 20 miles up the road on a side street that was 3 lanes wide. Guys, you know why we picked there. Anyway, pulled over we both got out and admired the posture, stance, look, lines, and tire stance. What a vehicle, what a set of tires...staggered 18's, wide as hell. Trunk was huge with storage area where spare used to be, very small storage area. back seat rather small still. I'm 6 foot even and head rubbed the headliner, but leg room was adequate. I could never sit back there and let another guy drive, I would be scared to death of getting crushed with no exit.
I got into the sport seats and noticed how much of an improvement over the stock seats. Side bolsters and thigh support are much better. Firm is good. Adjusted mirrors (I kept pushing the fold option but that was cool). Adjusted the wheel. Disabled the DSC and brake assist. Then slid the selector into drive, over to sport, the started popping the paddles to see how they worked. Pretty simple, push and pull, either one, don't matter. Okay, here we go.
Locked into first, DSC off, I cranked the wheel and gave it about half throttle, the nose quickly turned and pointed the opposite way, then I stomped the gas and watched the rpms, 6500, I tapped the paddle and immediately, smoothly hit second, where the tire spin slowly started. About 4000 rpms things settled down again and the car was lurching forward, pulling, pulling, pop, third then damn, traffic circle. Stood on the brakes, woops, disabled brake assist, and anti-lock. Those warm tires quickly gripped and we were stopped. Okay, the wife said, is it out of your system yet? NOPE... Realizing safety systems were disabled, I stood on the brakes, and tromped the gas. The tires broke loose and were spinning quite nicely, but the front end was pushing, so I let off the brake. The car spun for about 3-4 seconds then hooked up and we were gone. I quickly did the old sport to drive and back to sport to reset the tranny back to straight sport mode and then played. After noticing the rpms are ridiculousy low at 65 in 6th (overdrive?) we tried some sprints. Next was the standing stops to 100-120mph, then back down to full-stop. I also left the DSC off, hate the computer interferring while I'm playing. No, never hit the cut-out.. 130 was enough for the demo.
I was amazed at a few things with my zero to mach 3 to zero runs. No turbo lag, at least not enough to mention, and No turbo whine. Absolutely none, I understand smaller turbos, less noise, waste gates smaller, but kinda missed it. The exhause note with windows down told everyone this was one of those newer bimmers with the turbos and cool dual exhaust. Very raspy but not too loud. This is not a 78 Camaro with cherry packs, this is a
B-M-W. Tire spin was always on the brink of breaking out, but never did. And stopping was always straight as an arrow, and freakin' hard. Two panic stops and the wife said okay, no more please. At a 100, they are incredible.
Also, the over-emphasized pause with an automatic shifting is gone, I used to enjoy the slight pause between gears, but this is very seamless. I'm sure the larger exhaust helps keep the air flowing through the engine and the large intercooler is a big asset also.
I realized a few more things after parking that beast. It's a monster. The stats of the 07's are being compared to 06 M3's. That is crazy. Okay, so its point-something slower to 60 mph, but it's 10k less on the wallet. And insurance? gas? the list must go on. Also, the back seat is still cramped and what if I have to take my son for a ride with the wife and I? who is going to get out of the car to let him in? she won't, so I'll have to put it in park, get out, pain in my a$$. Next, what about a sedan with that spunk, 300hp, twin-turbo.. that would be cool. So thats what we ordered. same car with 4 doors. And saved over a thousand dollars.. whoo hoo. (thats a joke) But it will pay for the comfort access and part of the bmw assist. And the cool colors? the silver and graphite, they were sharp.
Okay, sorry for the long write but it was a fun drive. Can't wait till May (our choice). Bottom line, lots of car for a lot of money, but a lot of car. It's a rocket.
