WLKSFTLY Enlisted Member Rep Posts 41



Join Date: Feb 2011 Location: Oakville, Ontario

0) iTrader: (

Drives: Noir 1M ED April 5th 2011





Here is the Exhaust at Start up and some Throttle Blips:









Okay, here we go.



Here is a couple more videos, one (with the car warm, becuase one of the posts nailed it, when it warms up it does get more subdued) driving out of the business we asked for help to fix a paint related issue, and one heading back out into the countryside where we are staying.



The first one, driving out of the SONAX Training Center in Neuburg, is another cold start and roll out of the bay we were using. This and the exhaust sound video were recorded without the M-Button engaged, the response does change with it engaged. Considerably under load and the traction control off....which you'll here in the third video as long as we get it uploaded before we lose battery power. First Video:









This one is a country road outside neuburg, heading towards Ingolstadt (Home of the Audi Factory, beautiful rolling Bavarian countryside) and is 2nd gear pull and upshift to 3rd, just trying to give a street level example of the exhaust:











This is a video from inside the car, windows down (great at the beginning, not so at the end) from nearly dead stop to 180kmh in third gear with the M-Button on, Trac Control Off:









I saw someone post some things related to the Strut Tower Bar, here is the images of the one on the 1M:











I mentioned early in the blog how the swept area of the Brake Rotors were mounted on verticle posts, here is an image so you know what I meant:











We visited SONAX for business related meetings, however, it could not have more timely. Would you believe that twelve hours after picking up the car...a bird crapped on the hood six inches behind the Passenger Headlight after 1am sometime...and it burned through the wax, clearcoat and into the paint before we could get it off at about 10am? I was incredibly lucky to have their trainer and a chemist offer to look at it under a jewelers loop and determine the best plan to minimze the damage, and then walked away as they SANDED it OFF....Yeah...I'm still shaking. When they were done they repaired the paint, Nano Coated the entire car, including the wheels and gave us a goody bag to use into the future. (Thank you Thomas & Erik, below)











Okay, now is as good a time as any to address the gripes. I just dropped 70 big ones, (thats what this thing costs in Canada with our wonderful Tax included), so you have to understand....I'm invested. Not even looking at the negatives yet (~60 hrs in)! But there are some and here they are quickly:



- (This is all me) I should have ordered the NAV....The dash is so simple without it, you'd swear you were driving an Vitz/Echo, excpet the gauges are where they're supposed to be. The use of Alcantara on the dash is awesome, but boy it would have been a lot better if the whole thing was done, or at least a good bit more of it. Or leave the Alcantara off that little strip, and make it Carbon like the accessory piece. (I know, this makes it a 1M...)

- Along these same lines, the interior is sparse. It does seem pretty bare bones for such a car. Have you driven a Chevy Cruze? See what that buyer gets for Fifteen grand???

- The seats are acceptable for such a car, but they could be more...something...more aggressive, Alcantara, something. I can't put my finger on it. They just seem too nomal for such a car.

- There is no "Holy S__t" handles in the back. The driver has one...but not the rear passangers. They need it!

- There is no spare. (I've never owned a BMW, and never peeked in the trunk a 135i...so maybe you all knew this already) There isn't much back there, I didn't see a jack or tools to get the wheels off...Yet. Maybe they're tucked in some creative place I haven't found.

- The front of the car is too high. There are fixes for this, I'll let you know how I fix it one day soon. The rear is not that bad actually, but could be tad lower.

- Shifter could be a little shorter throw. I understand it may already be an improvement over the 135i, however, I could stand it to be shorter yet.

- Doesn't say anything on the brake calipers. As vain as this is, it would be cool.



This is what I can recolect for now. I'll add or expand on this stuff another time.





Here is something that I've been dying to post, but I didn't really get a chance to carry ALL the speed in my last trip down the Highway!



For all the people in Ontario...I discovered that the world DOES NOT OPEN UP AND SWALLOW YOU WHOLE AT 150 km/h!! Not at 200, not at 250...and for some reason, not at an INDICATED (?) 270 either...







Sorry for the blurriness...it was not as smooth a part of the road when we were getting up to this speed. Contrary to what the picture might make you think, the car was rock steady. My picture taker guy was freaking out as we'd been at ~275 and he was a little excited. Everywhere I've read says there is an electronic limiter on this thing, but unless the speedo is way off...we were going faster than that...







I've had some time behind the wheel now and I'm gettng a better feel for the little beast. Here is a bunch of observations: (I have intentionally not read what all the other mags and places have recently published, hopefully I'm not off 180 deg).



- This car does what you want it to do. I'll have a better feel for it at the track on Saturday, but for around town (wonderful), BLVD cruising (wonderful), highway cruising and with a bit of anger (wonderful) and sitting at a light looking great...Wonderful. There will be people who wish for it to have more power (picture me waving my hand), however, I now know that I've got some learing to do with the cojones it has before I add. This thing carries great amounts of speed so effortlessly, its just nutty. More power will make it accelerate more quickly, we all love that, but wait until you feel this thing stick. It sticks. And this is the part I want explore.



- I might be getting old. I love the exhaust at the end of a long day. I'd love it to be louder, until about mid afternoon, then I'd like this one back again, and back again for night time.



- I love small cars, crazy about them. The 1M belies its true weight and size. It feels like a GTI in size, but gosh it's not a GTI. R32ish maybe, but its lighter feeling and more fun.



- I mentioned above I wasn't excited about the seats, but they do fit me well! Especially with the leg supports extended and the bolsters in the sides of the upper part correctly adjusted.



- I've driven the 135i a few times, and the lighter flywheel and more agressive tuning make this a lot nicer to shift and drive. Having said that, I've never pushed a 135i really hard, so I might not be the best to compare the two at their limits.



- The 1M has a very firm suspension. I found it similar to a E46 with a Very Good Coilover, only quieter. The fast ratio steering, the firmness of the suspension and grip of the tires makes for a go-kart type drive. It doesn't have the big heavy serious feel like a 996 or even a Boxster (although I've owned a Boxster and they are pretty amazing, too, just slow). The big difference between this and an E46 on Coilovers is this one soaks up the bumps so effortlessly and altough you can feel the big wheels and tires out there at the corners, the chassis and shocks are keeping them under control. You can tell they're working to keep them under control, but they're doing it happily.



- Steering wheel on the 1M is thicker than I'm used to, but its very similar to a Sparco Faster (bit bigger), or a Ring (bit smaller). At first it wasn't for me, but at 250+ its my new best friend!



- The gauges are SO easy to read, but you BMW customers are used to stunnig gauges.



- The factory wheels, cleaned and polished are stunning against the Black car. If I had chosen the VO or AP, I'd have had new wheels waiting for me back home. But I wanted to see what they looked like against the Black, and they're stunning. This makes the choices a bit more challenging







Somebody asked for a shot of the shock part numbers, here is the rear, I couldn't get the front today, but will tomorrow.







More to come later. I've uploaded this one video before we have to leave for a dinner meeting. I will get back on tonight and get all the others up I planned to have up and answer questions.Here is the Exhaust at Start up and some Throttle Blips:Okay, here we go.Here is a couple more videos, one (with the car warm, becuase one of the posts nailed it, when it warms up it does get more subdued) driving out of the business we asked for help to fix a paint related issue, and one heading back out into the countryside where we are staying.The first one, driving out of the SONAX Training Center in Neuburg, is another cold start and roll out of the bay we were using. This and the exhaust sound video were recorded without the M-Button engaged, the response does change with it engaged. Considerably under load and the traction control off....which you'll here in the third video as long as we get it uploaded before we lose battery power. First Video:This one is a country road outside neuburg, heading towards Ingolstadt (Home of the Audi Factory, beautiful rolling Bavarian countryside) and is 2nd gear pull and upshift to 3rd, just trying to give a street level example of the exhaust:This is a video from inside the car, windows down (great at the beginning, not so at the end) from nearly dead stop to 180kmh in third gear with the M-Button on, Trac Control Off:I saw someone post some things related to the Strut Tower Bar, here is the images of the one on the 1M:I mentioned early in the blog how the swept area of the Brake Rotors were mounted on verticle posts, here is an image so you know what I meant:We visited SONAX for business related meetings, however, it could not have more timely. Would you believe that twelve hours after picking up the car...a bird crapped on the hood six inches behind the Passenger Headlight after 1am sometime...and it burned through the wax, clearcoat and into the paint before we could get it off at about 10am? I was incredibly lucky to have their trainer and a chemist offer to look at it under a jewelers loop and determine the best plan to minimze the damage, and then walked away as they SANDED it OFF....Yeah...I'm still shaking. When they were done they repaired the paint, Nano Coated the entire car, including the wheels and gave us a goody bag to use into the future. (Thank you Thomas & Erik, below)Okay, now is as good a time as any to address the gripes. I just dropped 70 big ones, (thats what this thing costs in Canada with our wonderful Tax included), so you have to understand....I'm invested. Not even looking at the negatives yet (~60 hrs in)!But there are some and here they are quickly:- (This is all me) I should have ordered the NAV....The dash is so simple without it, you'd swear you were driving an Vitz/Echo, excpet the gauges are where they're supposed to be. The use of Alcantara on the dash is awesome, but boy it would have been a lot better if the whole thing was done, or at least a good bit more of it. Or leave the Alcantara off that little strip, and make it Carbon like the accessory piece. (I know, this makes it a 1M...)- Along these same lines, the interior is sparse. It does seem pretty bare bones for such a car. Have you driven a Chevy Cruze? See what that buyer gets for Fifteen grand???- The seats are acceptable for such a car, but they could be more...something...more aggressive, Alcantara, something. I can't put my finger on it. They just seem too nomal for such a car.- There is no "Holy S__t" handles in the back. The driver has one...but not the rear passangers. They need it!- There is no spare. (I've never owned a BMW, and never peeked in the trunk a 135i...so maybe you all knew this already) There isn't much back there, I didn't see a jack or tools to get the wheels off...Yet. Maybe they're tucked in some creative place I haven't found.- The front of the car is too high. There are fixes for this, I'll let you know how I fix it one day soon. The rear is not that bad actually, but could be tad lower.- Shifter could be a little shorter throw. I understand it may already be an improvement over the 135i, however, I could stand it to be shorter yet.- Doesn't say anything on the brake calipers. As vain as this is, it would be cool.This is what I can recolect for now. I'll add or expand on this stuff another time.Here is something that I've been dying to post, but I didn't really get a chance to carry ALL the speed in my last trip down the Highway!For all the people in Ontario...I discovered that the world DOES NOT OPEN UP AND SWALLOW YOU WHOLE AT 150 km/h!! Not at 200, not at 250...and for some reason, not at an INDICATED (?) 270 either...Sorry for the blurriness...it was not as smooth a part of the road when we were getting up to this speed. Contrary to what the picture might make you think, the car was rock steady. My picture taker guy was freaking out as we'd been at ~275 and he was a little excited. Everywhere I've read says there is an electronic limiter on this thing, but unless the speedo is way off...we were going faster than that...I've had some time behind the wheel now and I'm gettng a better feel for the little beast. Here is a bunch of observations: (I have intentionally not read what all the other mags and places have recently published, hopefully I'm not off 180 deg).- This car does what you want it to do. I'll have a better feel for it at the track on Saturday, but for around town (wonderful), BLVD cruising (wonderful), highway cruising and with a bit of anger (wonderful) and sitting at a light looking great...Wonderful. There will be people who wish for it to have more power (picture me waving my hand), however, I now know that I've got some learing to do with the cojones it has before I add. This thing carries great amounts of speed so effortlessly, its just nutty. More power will make it accelerate more quickly, we all love that, but wait until you feel this thing stick. It sticks. And this is the part I want explore.- I might be getting old. I love the exhaust at the end of a long day. I'd love it to be louder, until about mid afternoon, then I'd like this one back again, and back again for night time.- I love small cars, crazy about them. The 1M belies its true weight and size. It feels like a GTI in size, but gosh it's not a GTI. R32ish maybe, but its lighter feeling and more fun.- I mentioned above I wasn't excited about the seats, but they do fit me well! Especially with the leg supports extended and the bolsters in the sides of the upper part correctly adjusted.- I've driven the 135i a few times, and the lighter flywheel and more agressive tuning make this a lot nicer to shift and drive. Having said that, I've never pushed a 135i really hard, so I might not be the best to compare the two at their limits.- The 1M has a very firm suspension. I found it similar to a E46 with a Very Good Coilover, only quieter. The fast ratio steering, the firmness of the suspension and grip of the tires makes for a go-kart type drive. It doesn't have the big heavy serious feel like a 996 or even a Boxster (although I've owned a Boxster and they are pretty amazing, too, just slow). The big difference between this and an E46 on Coilovers is this one soaks up the bumps so effortlessly and altough you can feel the big wheels and tires out there at the corners, the chassis and shocks are keeping them under control. You can tell they're working to keep them under control, but they're doing it happily.- Steering wheel on the 1M is thicker than I'm used to, but its very similar to a Sparco Faster (bit bigger), or a Ring (bit smaller). At first it wasn't for me, but at 250+ its my new best friend!- The gauges are SO easy to read, but you BMW customers are used to stunnig gauges.- The factory wheels, cleaned and polished are stunning against the Black car. If I had chosen the VO or AP, I'd have had new wheels waiting for me back home. But I wanted to see what they looked like against the Black, and they're stunning. This makes the choices a bit more challengingSomebody asked for a shot of the shock part numbers, here is the rear, I couldn't get the front today, but will tomorrow.More to come later. Last edited by WLKSFTLY; 04-08-2011 at 06:58 PM ..