Quote:
Originally Posted by CP 1///M
Not sure how much difference there is mounting a N55 vs N54 into a 1 series, but I think there were enough problems with the N54 to transition it out. 135i stock cars almost always overheat in Track days/HPDE... getting the S55 into the 2 series was a brilliant move though as the M3/M4 were just getting too big
I keep reading that the 1M were produced using the spare manufacturing capacity and in 2012, the 1 series switched to N55 in a planned move (which in my mind, more a cost cutting more than just reliability). If you think of it with the perspective of an unplanned execution, it makes more sense that they only made them for 1 year
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The official reason was emissions standards changing. The Z4 continued with the N54 but it's very low volume even compared with the 135 and 335. The N55 was a much cheaper engine to make. No forged internals, single turbo, and really good performance. That being said it was no N54. The S55 was largely built in the basis of the N54 idea.