Harder, better, faster, stronger

Earlier in the week evo reported that BMW have confirmed plans to build a new M1. Well, two, actually. One will be a supercar drawing heavily on the M1 Hommage and Vision EfficientDynamics concept models. The other will be a lighter, better, faster 135i. It seems likely the M1 badge will be reserved for the supercar option. That leaves us with the Tii nomenclature from the iconic 2002 as the current tip for naming the M-prepared 135 Coupé.

According to evo‘s report the baby-M will could pack a 300kW punch. It is also expected that, true to its Tii roots, the car will be shedding some weight—as much as 70kg from its current 1485kg figure. Add a 7-speed dual clutch transmission and tricky diff and you end up with an awe inspiring proposition. Whatever is going on inside BMW’s headquarters I hope it is along the lines of, let’s get this thing to market as quick as we can!

However, today’s news from Drive.com.au may also raise a few eyebrows. Apparently BMW Australia wants a (slightly) harder, better, fatser, stronger 135i as well. And it doesn’t want to hang around for the Fatherland to produce the goods. No, the Aussies want to prepare up to 50 enhanced 135is with a mild power increase, from 225kW to 240kW.

The extra power would come courtesy of a BMW Performance kit and BMW Australia would carry out the modifications locally, rather than importing them ready to run. BMW spokesman Toni Andreevski has confirmed Australia is already in discussions with Munich, and hopes to have a decision locked away on the manual only model inside three months.