Thread: No 128i Love :(
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      07-17-2012, 12:39 PM   #42
Obioban
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Quote:
Originally Posted by NYC6 View Post
As usual you post up irrelevant threads that do nothing to prove your case, in fact they usually make you look worse. This is no exception.
The thread you posted is in regard to the 135 not the 128.. A car which has ample power with its 'troublesome' turbo(s). Obviously, a lot more than the 128. Its an easy car to enjoy the power within its stock parameters.

No the 135 isnt an M car. Funny that you bring that up. You try to compare the 128 to the E36, 46 M3 yet the 128 doesnt come close to the performance of the cars you list. In power or handling. You got youself fooled, thats about it. Take your dark visored helmet off. Its cooking your brain!

The 135 on the other hand, is a worthy competitor to the cars you mention. The 135's balance of power/handling is plain to see in head to head comparissons. It can run with them in a straight line and in turns, even with the portly engine engine and all, imagine that!
http://www.yotube.com/watch?v=9ZGwpifULe4
http://www.yotube.com/watch?v=f3comQxPNWI
135 easily shows its balance of power/ handling, what you call harmony.
Perhaps you'd share with us a video of a 128 running with one of the cars you mentioned?
The 128 does nothing better than the 135. Straight line, turns, braking, nothing. Your holy grail mantra of weight savings gets you nothing! Yet you continue to belch it out.

The current M3 has a V8, the upcoming model will have a multi turbo plant. The 1M has a N54TT. Its the wave of the future, you can't escape it. So grasp onto your NA I6. Its nowhere near what the M3 I6 was. The N52 is a nice enough engine but seriously now, its not a competitor in todays performance engines or yesteryears.

I'll choose to post in any thread I care to. Whether you like it or not.
Given the same tires and options, the 128i will out corner and out brake the 135i every time. That's completely missing the point, though. The benefit of less weight is better handling, driving dynamics, and enjoyment-- none of which can be measured in slalom times, skidpad grip, or stopping distance. E.G. a Nissan GTR will out perform a Lotus Elise in every metric... but the handing, responsiveness, and driver involvement get totally blown out of the water by the Elise. Clearly a much larger scale, but the same idea as the 128i vs 135i.

Car and Driver did a pretty good job of laying out what actually constitutes handling:

Quote:
The final ranking would be decided by how our panel of judges voted in 10 distinct handling categories. To wit:

We broke overall steering feel into three parts. STEERING RESPONSE deals with how a car reacts to wheel inputs. Is the response smooth or choppy? Does the vehicle require constant correction? Is there a big delay between input and direction change?

How well the steering communicates tire distress and road imperfections falls under STEERING FEEDBACK.

ON-CENTER FEEL is as it sounds—you want a little resistance in the steering wheel off the 12 o’clock position but not too much.

Perfect CHASSIS BALANCE, a 10 on our scale, would mean that the car behaves neutrally at the tires’ adhesion limit, neither pushing with its front wheels (understeer) nor swinging wide with its rears (oversteer). Excessive understeer or oversteer would lower this score.

What we call TRANSIENT BEHAVIOR refers to how a car transitions between two vectors. Think of all the things a skier has to do to change direction—are his body movements economical and crisp? That’s what we’re looking for here.

On a related note, excessive roll or pitch would bring down a BODY-CONTROL score.

BREAKAWAY BEHAVIOR deals with how a car reacts to finding and exceeding its limits. Snap or lift-throttle oversteer would shave a point or two from this score.

BRAKE FEEL AND RESPONSE are combined into one category. A brake pedal should be firm and easy to modulate without a dead spot in the first few inches of travel.

ERGONOMICS refers to the man-machine interface. In this test, we limit ergonomics to handling-related aspects. For example: The driver’s seat, pedal placement, and driving position—not the switchgear—determine a car’s score.

FUN TO DRIVE is, well, pretty much self-explanatory.

All six cars, just by virtue of  being on this list, are starting with pretty high base-level credentials. But only one will claim the title of  best-handling car for less than $40,000.

Beyond that, I find even the engine in the 128i to be a more involving experience than the 135i. All of the great drivers cars share a similar theme with their engines-- not much low end torque, high revving, no lag. Examples: GT3, S2000, M3s, lotuses, ferraris. Pretty much if you can name a car that's known to be a good "driver's car", it will have a high revving engine with not much low end torque. Why? Because having to work over the engine to get the most out of it is a huge part of what makes a car engaging to drive. Low end torque and lag don't create the same experience.


To your "point" on the M cars:
The 128i stats are damn near spot on an e36 M3. The 128 is slightly lighter (30 lbs), revs slightly higher (200 rpm), and has 1 extra gear while the M3 has slightly more horsepower (10). In a drag race, they're identical for all intents and purposes. The e36 M3, btw, was rated as the best handling car at any price in 1997 by car and driver, btw-- better than ferraris, NSXs, etc.


No carbon buildup, HPFP failure, turbo failure, etc is just the icing on the cake.

The 135i is better than the 128i in one category: horsepower. In weight, cornering, braking, fuel economy, handling, driver involvement, and reliability, the 128i is the better car (all else equal, aka same options and mods on both cars). If that's the one that's important to you, Kudos, you got the correct car.
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2005 M3 Coupe, 2004 M3 Wagon, 2001 M5 Sedan, 2008 M5 6MT Sedan, 2012 128i M sport

Last edited by Obioban; 07-17-2012 at 01:04 PM..
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