BMW M235i Coupe 2014 Review

BMW M235i Coupe

Yes, there are other variants of the 2 Series Coupe and, yes, they will make up the bulk of the volumes for it, but they’re not as much fun as this one, nor have they had so much engineering attention lavished on them.

There’s a 218d, with a 320Nm 2.0-litre turbo-diesel, the 220d, with 380Nm and 135kW, and the 160kW 225d. On the petrol side, there will be a four-cylinder turbocharged 220i with 135kW, plus rear- and all-wheel drive versions of the 228i, with 180kW and a 0-100km/h sprint of 5.6 seconds.

But this one is the rock star. It’s such a cheeky little bugger that it doesn’t so much cruise in a straight line as swagger, all attitude and cockiness.

There is a dry-sumped six-speed manual gearbox to mollify the enthusiastic, but the eight-speed auto is both faster and more economical. If that’s not enough, there’s a sportier version of the auto as an option, though the manual gets a win by claiming the lightweight stakes with 1455kg -- 15kg lighter than the auto.

It’s bigger than the old M135i, too, in just about every dimension except weight and height, where it drops 20kg and 9mm respectively. Everywhere else, it’s 72mm longer overall on a 30mm wheelbase stretch, it’s 26mm wider overall and the track widths were pushed out 41mm at the front and 43mm at the back to give it a more planted stance in corners.

The extra wheelbase also translates into 21mm extra rear seat legroom and the bigger body gives it a bigger boot. There’s BMW’s traditional fixed multi-media screen that looks like it folds down, but doesn’t, there is a thick, leather-bound steering wheel with all manner of switchgear protruding from it and there is climate-controlled air conditioning.

It’s actually a fruit-laden little sucker, complete with a 40/20/40-split folding rear seat that opens into a 390-litre boot that’s larger than the one in the old M135i (or the cult-status 1M Coupe, for that matter).

It’s plenty of engine for a 1455kg coupe, too. It’s enough to push it to 100km/h in 4.8 seconds (the manual is 0.2 seconds slower) and on to a standing-kilometre sprint in 23.7 seconds. But its real strength is in the mid range, where it sparkles with a fourth-gear 80-120km/h burst in 4.2 seconds (or 4.9 in fifth).

That’s because the torque peak arrives at 1300rpm and stays at its 450Nm maximum until 4500rpm. And then the power takes over, with all 240kW chiming in at 5800rpm and staying on station for another 200rpm. There’s direct fuel-injection, of course, along with variable valve timing and the double VANOS variable camshaft control that was once the preserve of the bigger M cars.

Yet, unlike so many other twin-scroll turbo motors, the M235i doesn’t feel like a low-revving, faux-diesel commuter special. This is a motor that sings, joyfully and cleanly.

There have been doubts about whether this car can replace the 1M Coupe (whose second-hand prices are rocketing skywards in Europe), but it does a pretty good job of filling its boots – at least on our very limited drive program on the flat, slow streets of Las Vegas, plus a few laps of the Las Vegas International Speedway’s infield track.

It is a sweetheart of a powertrain package, hampered only by the lack of a limited-slip differential at the end of it all. That’s an option, but it should be standard, as should the optional variable sports steering set-up and the optional sports automatic transmission, complete with paddle shifters, launch control and faster changes.

It is warm and slightly rumbly, in sound only, at idle, and that meaty vocal status is only enhanced when you trickle it around at low revs. It has no problem pulling tall gears at low revs, which you’d expect, given its wave of torque, but it’s also a fearless revver up high.

The acceleration is crisp and sharp and somehow feels sweeter than you’d expect. There’s no end to the fun in the rev range, pulling freely at every step of the rev range and spinning out to 6500rpm with such a wobble-free turbine action that it feels like it would happily push past its limiter to 10,000rpm, so perfectly is it balanced.

That sport auto is the go, too, with delightful shifts, clean and intuitive rev matching in its Drive mode and snappy, crackling upshifts. It fits right in and, even though the purists might prefer it with the dry-sumped six-speed manual, the auto has advantages in speed, economy and smoothness. So there. The world has moved on, evidently.

The M235i sits 10mm lower than the standard 2 Series versions and it feels like it, too. It tries to corner in a low, flat stance, but it doesn’t always work. On badly worn tyres, it was caught struggling to choose between understeering and oversteering stances, often several times in the same corner.

Still, it was a fun and predictable little unit as it switched between washing out the front and drifting the back and the transitions between them were so easy to manage that we could do it one-handed. Its forgiveness at the limits of adhesion was remarkable, giving the driver eons of time to select and implement a method of correction.

It was sharper in its Sport and Sport Plus modes, where it loosened off the restrictions of the skid control and traction control systems, as well as making the steering sharper.

The M235i loses little to its big siblings in faster corners, despite looking like it carries a teensy wheelbase, and has a remarkable ability to change direction that stands it in good stead for the track days it will surely be used on.

It’s a fantastic little gadget, really, and given its capabilities when the road starts bending, it even rides well enough, despite being a little firm.