Jacko

Whats next, M3s V8s if you pay a subscription. But, 4 cylinders deactivate, the arches collapse and a 320 badge appears on the back when your CC details lapse... Late stage capitalism....

I hope they sell exactly none of it and the people who buy new BMWs laugh in their faces... but they wont. Worlds going crazy.

Can we put a hardline on when BMW stopped being BMW? When did the ultimate driving machine etc die exactly? early 2010s?

Seat belts no longer available. 😕

"Once a vehicle is 14 years old, components of the frontal impact protection system can be removed, provided that the seatbelts for any affected seating positions are replaced with brand new seatbelts." https://www.lvvta.org.nz/documents/infosheets/LVVTA_Info_01-2020_Removal_of_Front_Seats_Fitted_with_Side_Airbags.pdf

LVVTA standard - New belts.

Having to drop $900 on two new front seatbelts to meet LVVTA standards with aftermarket seats, to replace your perfect condition existing seatbelts which are exactly the fekcen same.

The clips are regularly busted too, by apes who cant see where the clip locks, and then they just fall out. Whats the invoice say?

Nah, unless ya butcher a bolt.

An internet rant I missed Tyre and brake pad wear produces nearly 1000 times the carbon particulates that exhausts do, and is unregulated. EVs have big ass 20" chromies, weigh a hundreds of kilos more than efficient vehicles that sip on the waste products of dead dinosaurs. We need to ban overweight vehicles, like EVs and shitty SUVs, and those running too large a tyres on the back of hatchbacks, to save the planet. Stop start is as irrelevant as taxing chicken farts. https://www.emissionsanalytics.com/news/pollution-tyre-wear-worse-exhaust-emissions#:~:text=Using a popular family hatchback,a factor of over 1%2C000.

Bit of an example on chiptunings website of mallarky unfortunately - Both of the listed examples produce exactly the same power, its the same engine with same basic everything the matters. Yet somehow they have different outcomes... SAE changed the standard for measuring BHP in 2005/6, (SAE J2723 if anyone cares), so in BMWs case Pre-LCI e8/9x x30i cars got measured against the old standard, LCI cars against the new. New standard is much tighter defined, and resulted in BMW N52s case of a few hp drop. This is why PreLCI N52s are 265bhp, and LCI 258bhp, yet in reality they produce the same power. Various markets require various standards beyond the SAE stuff (like the German DIN standard), and so even more slight variances occur depending on where the car was sold ( and then when the internet starts spreading numbers in a dick measuring contest, and forgetting the real context - Its the same engine with the same DME, same internals, same intake, and same exhaust)

Most of them are marketing, and by that I mean all of them are marketing, many dyno plots after a generic DME flash show about 5-10hp at the wheels. There was a kiwi company, forgot the name, claim 305hp from an N52 There is a website that most of these guys buy the files from and then distribute, its kinda like wholesale DME dump, and then they retail it with all the claims. Have a look at tuners like BPC/StageFP/Severn who actually do dyno tuning on them for realistic numbers of what to expect... without doing other things (like MILVs) there really isnt much to be had, the N52B30 in a 130 is already at BMWs factory highest state of tune out of the box, and there are no turbos to wind up the boost on.

Staggered tyres and making near the only rear wheel drive hatchback on the planet drive like a front wheel drive generic transport box is one thing, but taking the musical instrument off of an N52 is straight up heretic talk! As Dave says, they look cool. Ive had a good poke around the Simota/GruppeM/BMWP ones in person... The Simota is about the only one that stacks up all around, the GruppeM isnt actually that nicely made, the BMWP one looks nice but likely does next to zilch (and $$$$ if you can even find one), the Simota one is pretty nicely made and makes good induction noises. The stock 130i intake is pretty sh*t hot to start with, and makes hilarious fun noises if you take the lid off anyway. I even started CADing up a new airbox with the best bits of all 3 options, but just dont have the time to do it unfortunately. Ill probably get a Turner motorsport one when do the engine swap on mine, its available and will do as much as any of the others for performance (and noise), no carbon fancyness but meh.

M3 LCAs, and a K&N if that floats ya boat.

Few swipes with a file, will need a few more once I've beaten the heat shield into a new shape.

We need a skidpad and some G meters, so the internet can sleep easy at night.

By the same logic, pull your sway bars out, as front or rear grip balance is perceived . Its about balance front to rear, not absolute grip levels. Understeer is understeer, no matter the load level or road speed it happens at. If you put 255s on the front and back, not that they would fit, grip would break away more evenly at the limit (which all things being equal would admittedly be higher than narrower tyres). Best bet, stickier rubber and even grip levels front to back. Its a near 50/50 balanced hatchback, not a dodge viper 😛 Take a look at the 130 race cars - they are all square setups (some like the 130i challenge, are admittedly for level playing fields, but they run 205s front and back)

Forgot to mention the other benefit, there is always lots of nice cars there to perve at

You'll get a few answers here, but personally, having tried multiple different setups and driving like a f**ken numpty regularly, the best setup is square or maybe like 225/235 f/.r. 240ish hp at the rear doesnt demand monster widths at the back even for off the line traction (0-100 in 5.4s with 225s on the back...), and when loaded up in a corner it just makes for understeer as the fronts got less meat than the rear. (despite looking cool)

Id take it to P&S autos, or all that stuff is DIY as, no idea on the pricing, but they know 130s well and do a good job.

"Make it hot to avoid that touch" (Pretty sure thats a Cardi B song) Rolled the dice, for what they cost they are pretty amazing, pity they dont fit out of the box