Project 135i- Engine performance

With a smidge over 1200 miles on the clock, the Vishnu PROcede installed, and more seat time, I'm ready to talk about the performance of the 1series.

The engine is a peach. As you can see from the graph, power and torque are up globally. Low end torque is softer than my 335i, but the overall mapping is much nicer across the board. At wide open throttle tip in, it just pulls harder and harder to the point that getting in trouble in a hurry would not be an issue. The tires will lose traction and rip on the 1-2 upshift, and again on the 2-3.

There is some concern about the high RPM puke-n-die. I spoke with Dustin at Vishnu about this, and he said it is intentional for hot air correction. I've revved it just beyond 6500 on the street, and I have not felt it exhibit this behavior at all. Looking at the shape of the dyno graph, this power reduction would be really easy to detect.

I'm satisfied with these numbers, particularly since they were attained with only 860 miles on the car. With 200 pounds less weight, nearly 20whp more, less mods, and a superior area under the curve, this car would humiliate my poor little old X in a contest of speed.

Project update 12/22:




Intakes and corresponding mapping picked up a ton of power on the dyno.

Purple- Stock
Red- PROcede S0 Doomsday mapping
Navy- PROcede S1 nonDoomsday mapping + intakes

Project 135i- Initial review

I've had a few requests for a 135i review. I can accomodate that, but only partially, because the engine isn't fully broken in yet. So far, I haven't spun it higher than 4500rpm. I have a Vishnu PROcede en route and dyno time scheduled, so the power portion of this review will have to be saved for a slightly later date.

The first thing that struck me about the 1 series was its fit and finish. This car was screwed together much better than the Evo it replaced. It also has higher quality components than the Evo: Instruments, dash, seats, body panels, headlights, paint, etc. This lessens somewhat when compared to my 335i. While the instruments and seats are the same, the dash plastics and materials are visibly downmarket from the 3 series. I guess they have to have a few solid reasons to justify the price difference.

I am loving this transmission. The notchy shifter in the Evo X was one step from making me go completely postal; the shifter in this car is like butter. Slow standing starts on an incline couldn't be easier thanks to the hill holder feature, which also helps to minimize clutch wear. The gearing has allowed me to return better fuel economy than the Evo, even with two extra cylinders and another liter of displacement. Since the powerband is wide, the somewhat taller gears are not a problem.

This car is more nervous than an E90. Again, I haven't really had the chance to really put it through its paces, but it has less poise than the E90. The wheelbase is suspect, as well as the small front tires. The car can go from understeer to oversteer with throttle lift, but it pushes way more than I would like. This is not to say the car does not handle well, but its a pretty convincing downgrade when coming out of an SAWC Evo X.

The drive by wire on this car is a bit laggy. The engine and turbochargers are NOT laggy, building boost strongly from 1400rpm, but I never thought I'd say the throttle mapping on a Mitsubishi would be so superior to a BMW.

The powerband of the BMW's N54 engine is lucious. I have awesome passing power in sixth gear from low speeds, something you'll never see in a turbo four. With this car weighing in at 200 pounds less than my Evo X or my 335i, its gonna be downright nasty-fast with the PROcede installed.

The runflat tires are garbage. This is evident when you hit a pothole or especially an elevation imperfection. There's one such spot on the Interstate I hit going home everyday that makes me feel like I am being uprooted when I strike it. Really bad.

The open differential is cheese, and I'm sure I'll notice that more when a few miles pile on.

This car shines at just being a great vehicle. Its quiet as a church mouse, its comfortable, the leather is of high quality, and the ride is fine if you aren't testing the runflats over bumps. The standard hifi radio is even good, even though I had my heart set on the premium unit. I upgraded the tweeters from some leftover Focal Polyglass componets, and they sound brilliant. Even at 25x4 on the main speakers and 40x2 on the subs, it seems to have plenty of power.

Although this review is a mixed bag, I think this car is a way better canvas for performance than a 335i. It is a couple hundred pounds lighter, after all. The brakes are just massive, and should be amazing with better pads and a good aftermarket fluid. The understeer could be helped with wider front wheels and tires to match the sizes of the rear. A rear swaybar and a hot alignment should help a ton as well. None of this stuff is expensive. All that with the aforementioned PROcede should make this one heck of a run ride. Add all that in with the fact its a RWD car with an almost 50:50 weight distribution, and things are looking good.

As a total package, I have absolutely no regrets going from the Evo to this car.

More coming soon...

Project Evo X- The trouble with 10

As many things that are outstanding with the Evo X, there are some negative issues that are worth mentioning:


1)Weight. This is the Achilles heel of this platform. A two liter four cylinder engine is just too small of a powerplant to move around a car that weighs 3500 pounds. For an Evo X to be able to accelerate like an Evo IX, it needs more power, to the tune of 25whp. With the stock turbo on this car, there is just not as much potential in the forward thrust department unless you have a larger financial outlay for modifications.

2)Transmission. I’m not going to mince words, the gearbox in this car is not really good. It is compromised with a shorter final drive than the IX to make the extra weight a bit less obvious. The downside of that is poor fuel economy and high RPM on the interstate, making for loud and buzzy travel, particularly with an aftermarket exhaust. The other thing about this transmission that is unacceptable is how notchy some of them are when upshifting to second and third gear in normal driving… It was a borderline gear grind in my first X, but my second one is a lot better.

3)Paint. The overall shape of the sides of the X are concaved like lots of modern cars, but this one allowed tons of pebbles and road debris from the front tires to spray the sideskirts and rear sides, causing several small paint nicks down to primer. Mud flaps in the front and a 3M clear repellant skin were the best workarounds for this. I have Rally Armor flaps only on my current X, and it has seen no damage. My prior X looked sandblasted on the side from the rock spray without these flaps.

4)Interior rattles. I don't expect this out of a Japanese car, especially a new one. There is a glove box door rattle (really common in these), an ash tray rattle, and door rattles.