[PeteA]

If I'm not mistaken Active steering changes the number of turns lock to lock required depending on the speed of the vehicle. It's still a Hydraulic system. Parked it should be 2 turns from all the way left to all the way right.

One way to tell if your car has active steering is from the reservoir cap design as outlined in this extract I stole from this thread:
http://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=267007

This is the steering lubrication reservoir for a non-AS car:

http://www.realoem.com/bmw/showparts...41&hg=32&fg=20

This is the steering lubrication reservoir for an AS car:

http://www.realoem.com/bmw/showparts...42&hg=32&fg=20

If you have a star shaped cap, you don't have active steering.

From what I can tell just by looking at a 1M engine bay, it has an Active Steering.
http://www.brrperformance.com/blog/w...e-1024x681.jpg

EDIT - Looking up a BMW 1M VIN Number you can see this option. My car does not have it :P
S216A Servolenkung-Servotronic HYDRO STEERING-SERVOTRONIC