Detrich

nice read...

http://www.motortrend.com/roadtests/...son/index.html

delhi

For what? Which one wins the ugly contest?

JRichter

135i FTW...

GULAMAN

Two cars that I would seriously be looking at if I were shopping today. But in usual Motor Trend amateur-hour fashion, they manage to leave me scratching my head.
-what is the true laptime difference? the story says 3.42 seconds, the test box at the end says ~10 seconds. wtf.
-Whyyyyyy did they test a slushbox 135??? I realize the Evo direct-shift gearbox option is capable of 'automatic' gear actuation, we all know it's not fair to pit it against a slushbox

The other thing, (not MT's fault) is it would be interesting to fit the 135 with sticky Yokohamas similar to what the Evo is shod with, and do comparisons afterwards (as opposed to the OEM runflats). the RFTs are probably costing the 135 a second or two a lap.

saturn

The times throughout the article point to a differential of 3.42 in many places including the big track picture. The final stats grid is a misprint.

The "slushbox" for the BMW is actually a very good automatic. It has lockup well below the power band and has some pretty intelligent programming from all accounts. It's still a very fast car and the manual may very well not have had a better time.

It would also be nice to add an intake, etc. Comparing these things stock for stock is fair. Bottom line is that they are surprisingly similar. If it hadn't been a full speed start it's possible the 135i could have done much better seeing as how it goes 0-100 mph 1.9 seconds faster than the Evo MR.

Razz1

Motor trend is not that good.
I discontinued the magazine.

Chris_Bangle

iTrader: (2)

I stopped reading as soon as I got the 135i being an AUTOMATIC part, only a North American magazine would do this

bruce_van

Note to public:

The editors at Motor Trend are ALWAYS going to pick any BMW over all other cars in all comparisons. That is a given like Britney Spears never wears panties.

I didn't even need to read the article to know that the BMW will win. If they compared a 3 series to the GT-R, the BMW will win.

Motor Trend is pretty lame when it comes to comparos. Period.

delhi

No ****! And she drove an RX-8 in one of her videos!

Hornet

Strangely, I thought I saw some stats somewhere on the Evo showing the 5-spd manual transmission being faster in straight line than the TC-SST. That might have made part of the competition closer but by the same token that same place showed the TC-SST transmission even beats up on the 5-spd manual on the track. I just envision that if they did the comparison from a standstill then at some point that 135i (manual or auto tranny) would still be passed before they got halfway through the track...or at least that is what the numbers from this article kind of indicate to me.

Endgame

Agreed. Fit the 135 with BMW factory performance (intake, exhaust, suspension, wheels), and loose the run flats and you would get a MUCH closer comparison. My guess is the 135 may even beat out the Evo at that point. Granted it would then cost about 10k more....

Mech_head

+1

BMW vs Global Warming BMW wins
BMW vs F-22 BMW wins
BMW vs God BMW still wins


And WHY did the BMW not have a stick? If i buy a 36K+ performance car why would i want to ruin it with an automatic?

Rx8urZ

hahahaha that was hilarious

Rx8urZ

ps thanks for the quote

RX8-79

Exaggerate much?

Let's not forget this is the same rag that proclaimed "the king is dead" in the 335i/g37 comparo; never mind the fact that the 3 absolutely kicked the nissan's *** in everything.

If people would take the time to read the articles, and actually understand what's written, they'd see why the 1 won. No one would even have to read this comparison to know that the hopped-up, low-rent economy car stood no chance of winning anything but the track portion.

playdoh43

it kind of reminds me of their 350z vs s2000 vs rx8 comparison where the rx8 was the slowest car in performance categories and track but won the overall prize because of its forgiving suspension, back seats and refinement

saturn

This is a good article because they provide a lot of data. I tend to just ignore who they choose as the winner because many times it really comes down to some irrelevant issue (at least to me). I don't fault them for feeling the need to choose a winner. The data is what I'm interested in.

canaryrx8

iTrader: (3)

because it's not the 1960's anymore and sports cars are no longer "ruinded by automatics" anymore maybe? Isn't the new GT-R only coming in automatic, didn't it run the "ring" in 71/2 minutes? Seriously, folks need to let go and realize auto's aren't dogs anymore, some of them are faster than they're manual counterparts even.

I'm seriously considering this car, only thing that scares me is that it's a first year beemer, it would put me in payments for another 5-6 years, and the color choices are just ...yawn.

Ajax

The GT-R comes with a dual clutch gearbox conceptually just like the EVO's. It's not a traditional automatic. That said, the BMW's automatic is very good, but I would still prefer their new dual clutch gearbox that they're putting in next year's M3 over both the automatic and the manual. I test drove an automatic 135i, because that's all they had for me to drive and I was still very impressed.
I drive a manual now and if I buy the 135i, I'll probably get it in manual trim, but I'm going to drive one before I commit.


EDIT: And it's really not a first year car. The 1 series hatch has been around since 2004 in Europe. That car was built on the E46 platform and this car is built on its own platform, E87. The platform may be new, but it shares a lot of parts (over 60%) other than the engine with the E90 3 series. Even though the car may say "Year one of the one" it's not quite true.

canaryrx8

iTrader: (3)

yeah, I figured that out after my post, forgot the euro's have had that car for a while now, plus the engine itself is proven technology for quite some time now as well.
I guess my point was that there is lot of new technology as far as transmissions go nowadays so whether a car is manual/auto isn't as big a factor as it used to be, I get tired of people bashing auto's like having a third pedal just makes a car "Zomg" or something when it's just not the case anymore. My car is getting a little older now, so I was shopping other cars last night and was researching this little monster, I've no doubt it would be an awesome car, just wish it wasn't so blah on the outside. I also looked into parts for it to dress it up a bit, I don't feel so bad about Mazdaspeed prices anymore now

Mech_head

I don't want to get into a pissing match and you have a point. Manufacturers now have all of these super automated manual transmissions that are faster than any human can be. But i doubt that MT are going to go out and race the car and so what if the car is .0005 slower every lap. I think that the BMW would be MUCH more entertaining with a stick. Because if i am going to spend that much on a car it better be fun. Automatic = no fun for me.

NotAPreppie

Most retarded review ever.

saturn

Awesome post.

canaryrx8

iTrader: (3)

agreed, I still think auto's can be fun though

nycgps

iTrader: (1)

Who know what the lap time will be if GT-R have the Manual tranny option ?

Yeah the new tranny Nissan use is the most advance one on earth. but as long as there is no MT, there is no comparison.