[ozinaldo]

The best I6 BMW engine that would fit in the 1M like a glove was the N54T, this engine contributes a lot to 1M to have its own character. First of all it has probably more torque and clearly at a much broader range than their best NA engine to date (which imo is E60 M5's V10 S85) and on top of that it practically matches the hp of their best NA I6 too (E46 M3 CSL engine with its 360 ps); I am talking about avarage dyno results here which we had witnessed more than enough, 1M does have around 360 hp and 550 nm at crank, that is a absurdly joyful combo.

It would be just a little(r) M3 with a wrong (read: too short for a V8 NA engine) chassis if the V8 packed in it or would be merely a newly dressed 2011 model year E46 M3 with the other alternative, thankfully it is neither now, it has the chassis capability of the M3, size, weight and agility of E46 and real world power coming from their ground breaking N54, in its best form.

So with this tq and hp combination, and this twin turbo set up reknown rightfully for its smoothness and incredible in-gear power delivery, and probably the industry best level of response for a turbo engine, I see nothing serious to complain about the choice of N54T for the 1M. It is a better choice than BMW's past I6 engines or actual V8, for this car. This engine's weaker points are also relatively easy and cheap to cure, with a good exhaust and a few bolt on mods.

And when you reach to its N52-like 7000 rpm limit you have the best manual shifter BMW developed to date to utilize, which is a joy to do So, I believe BMW M made the very right choices indeed, not only on the body style and chassis-wise but with regard to the engine too.