El Comandante y Alfa Berlina. The image becomes less bewildering once you realize il Partito Comunista Italiano was a major political party in post-World War II Italy, enjoying the support of upward of a third of the electorate up to and throughout the 1970s.
(Image: drivr.be)
Some closing thoughts on the 1 M. For all its flaws, we do applaud BMW for bringing it to market— a new enthusiast car only makes the automotive landscape richer, not poorer. And in any event, we expect the 1 M to sell briskly. But if we were in the market for this level of vehicle, we might go a different route. To wit, instead of this..
why not this..
plus this, with the money left over?
Latest M Coupe versus penultimate, let’s take a quick look at some of the basic numbers:
2011 1-Series M Coupe (E82):
2006-2008 Z4 M Coupe (E86):
What’s more, the Z4M has as its beating heart the stirring, gloriously high-revving S54B32, a naturally-aspirated powerplant we’d pick any day over the E82’s twin-turbocharged N54B30, a fine engine in its own right but ultimately not as special (doesn’t have the same M pedigree) or charismatic.
True, the Z4M is down quite a lot on torque, and the 1er represents the latest in development from BMW M GmbH (the E86 is a penultimate model, after all, and now going on five years in age), but we’d gladly trade that for a car that:
You couldn’t ask for more than a garage that housed these two cars— it really would be a dream garage in every way. Not feeling the 02? Fifteen stacks still buys you a heck of a lot of car (and not just BMW)— older car, to be sure, but one that’s no less desirable. There, the list of possibilities runs long. So when it comes to buying the 1 M or buying the Z4 M, for us it really couldn’t be more of a no-brainer.
A bit of a forgotten 1980s Lamborghini. And you know what? That’s too bad, since we’re really appreciating its relatively understated looks now that we’re older. It’s not as loud and flamboyant as the Countach, and quite frankly, it has probably aged better because of it.
Some quick stats on the Jalpa (pronounced “Hall-puh”):
But first:
h/t! Tamerlane
..just a little ridiculous. With its 19″ wheels rimz (please, bigger ≠ better), exaggerated arches, unsightly wheel gap, and – above all – overstyled front end, it doesn’t look aggressive, it looks chunky and slightly vulgar— like a baby X6 M, only with two fewer doors. Why couldn’t the designers (or is it the marketing people?) have taken a page out of the 1-Series tii Concept’s book and exercised a little restraint? Okay, so we could have done without the latter’s matte black hood and boy racer stripes, but otherwise, there was absolutely nothing wrong with how that car looked.
1-Series M Coupe:
Ugh.
1-Series tii Concept:
We get it, the tii Concept looked too much like a standard 135i gussied up with bolt-ons from the BMW Performance catalogue (almost like a 135iS, as it were), but comparing the two now, maybe that wasn’t such a bad thing. We don’t doubt that the M Coupe drives brilliantly (which it probably does), but its cartoonish looks disappoint. Badly.
Now this is just superb. We don’t even love the Maserati Bora (although we admit the interior does look lush), but the camera work and music just make this clip such a pleasure to take in— one of the nicest TG segments we think we’ve ever seen (which is really saying something). Plus we’ve developed a newfound appreciation of the Bora, not to mention a greater understanding of its reason for being.
Top notch stuff.
Agree with the editors, who wisely declare that there are no real winners and losers in this bunch. Still, we are a bit surprised by their choice at the end.
Don’t know which magazine the article came from – or when – but we believe it’s the now-shuttered UK publication Performance Car magazine.
Boy, this was fun. Okay, we say that in jest (it really was fun), even though it required every last ounce of our concentration to keep the car on the road and pointed straight. The experience reminded us of a wet track day, only more hair-raising. Consider:
Motoring Con Brio 