The trouble with the BMW 1-Series was its engines. It could never be the Ultimate Driving Machine, while its most powerful version was a four-cylinder diesel. Those other BMW boasts - rear-wheel drive, and by association, equal weight distribution and uncorrupted steering - were almost meaningless when there wasn't the performance to exploit them.

Rear-wheel drive just meant extra cost, and rear legroom that was on the cozy side, even for garden gnomes. Well here's the remedy. BMW's sensational new six-cylinder petrol, in its most powerful form - yes, at 265bhp it actually serves up a few more horsepower than in a 330i or 630i. And if it makes the big beast 630i a quick car, just imagine how hard it kicks something the size of a Focus.

The test car also has an M Sport pack, with that M-style family gob below the front number- plate, and a new rear bumper too. Plus the M trim, sports seats and more important, a stiffer M suspension setup. M, M, and more M. Mmm. All of which sets my mind racing back to the last BMW that really made me laugh out loud.

The late-1980s' M3, the four-cylinder one. It might have looked like a spoilered-up shoebox, but boy did it zero in on my leisure centres. It had 240bhp and was a genuinely small BMW. The 130i is an even more powerful compact BMW, and it's far better than the old M3. But at the same time, rather worse.

Like that M3, it really punches forward. It's geared pretty short, so you can make use of all six gears. The engine might be making 88bhp per litre, but it isn't peaky. Just floor it and if it's spinning above 3,500 or so, you'll get really eager action, a hum then a growl as it hunts down the 7,000rpm limit.

This is near-supercar poke: 6.1 seconds from 0-62mph must mean 0-60 in the fives. In Germany, I'm straight through 100mph as if it wasn't there, on to 120, 135, 145... 155. Softly on to the limiter with another gear still to go, a lovely mechanical threshing sound from under the bonnet, a definite impression that if it wasn't for the limiter, more speed would be available.

But it's a small car. This means - and I think this is a plus-point - it doesn't totally isolate you from the outside world. You can enjoy the fact that you are going pretty fast, yet the whole rig has enough stability and integrity that means it doesn't challenge or concern you. It might be small, then, but it is a proper BMW.

Most of BMW's best technology is standard - or else somewhere on the Tolstoy-length options list. The test car totted up to about £33,000. The only thing that makes you aware it's a huge engine in a small car, is that the fuel tank is far too small to cope. If a huge engine in a small car is good for the straights, the 130's small design ought to be able to keep you intimate with the curves.

Chalk up another one to that new straight-six. It's cast of fancy lightweight metals, so it doesn't turn the 1-Series' front end into an evil hammerhead. It turns keenly, hardly rolls and then, when you pour the power in, it squats, grips a lot and swats you imperiously down the next straight.

That said, the 130i also sees the introduction of active steering to the 1-Series. It's £925 and was fitted to the first 130i I drove. BMW say it has a more subtle effect than active steering on other BMWs, which is another way of saying they've toned it down a bit and made it more - but not enough - like the standard system.

It's fine in tight corners, but in fast ones it's still uncertain on the turn-in; distant and vague. You don't feel like you're going to be able to place the car right. I don't want my confidence nibbled away like that, especially in quick corners.

The relationship between the driver and the front wheels of a BMW is a special and intimate one and it's a minor disaster when some box of electronics goes barging into that private space and having an opinion. So I tried one without active steer, and it was fine. Crisper, more predictable and easier to aim by the millimetre. Even though it didn't have the M kit, it was still on slightly higher springs and 17-inch wheels instead of 18s.

But however you spec it, the 130i is never a truly inspired drive, not like that original M3 was. Its edges are too polished and it's too good: too refined, too comfortable. In the old car you were mainlining the experience. In the new one, you are merely partaking in it.

Which got me thinking, last month I was driving a new 325i Touring. It cost about the same as this 130i. It rode better and looked a whole lot better, outside and in. Yet it didn't deprive you of any interaction or communication, even if it wasn't quite so urgent on the acceleration front. Of course it had a whole heap more space - a proper boot, estate versatility and a rear seat worth sitting in.

Anyone of adult size in the back of a 1-Series has to be a contortionist, willing to look deep vein thrombosis in the eye. That's the trouble. It isn't a proper hatchback because it's too cramped. But you can't file it under coupés because it's so ordinary looking. And if you try to forget all that and think of it as a sports car, you'll be disappointed because the driving experience isn't quite set-up that way.

So the 130i never quite lit my candle. Big-engine/small-car hot- rods are usually unbalanced, but occasionally they're brilliant: still bursting with such fireworks that you'll eventually forgive them. With the 130i, BMW has tried so hard to avoid the lash-up end of the spectrum that it has missed out on the magic. If only by a whisker.

Traduzione parti salienti a venire. Abbastanza approssimativa


I problemi della Serie 1 sono i motori, non puo essere il meglio se la versione piu potente è un 4 cilindri diesel.
Trazione posteriore significa costi extra e spazio posteriore per le gambe adatto a gnomi da giardino.

Ecco il sensazionale rimedio BMW, un nuovo 6 cilindri a benzina, 265 cv. Motore montato anche nella 630i e che rende questa "grande bestia" una macchina veloce, figuriamoci lo stesso motore in un auto grande quanto una Focus.
La macchina del test monta anche il pack MSPORT tra cui delle sospensioni modificate e sedili sportivi. 

Paragonata all'M3 che comparve sul finire degli anni 80, 240cv in una compatta e genuina BMW, questa 130i è si piu potente e migliore della vecchia M3 ma allo stesso tempo è anche molto peggio.

Come quell'M3 la 130i spinge veramente. Ha marce molto corte e cio rende facile l'uso di entrambe le 6 rapportature. Se si sale oltre i 3500giri si otterrà realmente cio che si desidera, un ronzio e poi un ruggito fino al limitatore ai 7000giri.

Le prestazioni sono quasi da supercar: 6,1sec da 0-62mph. Un meccanica stupenda con l'impressione che se non ci fosse il limitatore la macchina ne avrebbe ancora per correre.

Ma è una macchina piccola. Questo significa (cosa molto importante) che non ti isola dal mondo circostante. Puoi apprezzare il fatto di andare molto veloce tuttavia il mezzo non sfida i limiti e cosi non c'è competizione. E' una piccola BMW ma è adeguata

La macchina del test costa oltre le 33.000£. L'unica cosa che ti puo tenere lontano è il fatto che ci sia un imponente motore in una piccola macchina e il serbatoio è troppo piccolo. Se questo connubio è buono per i rettilinei la compattezza della 130i da il suo meglio nell'affrontare le curve.

Lo sterzo con l'active steering è buono nelle curve strette ma è incerto nell'entrata delle curve veloci, distante e vago. Sembra che non si riesca a mettere l'auto dove si vuole e non è una buona cosa non avere confidenza soprattutto nelle curve veloci.
Senza ACTIVE STEERING è molto meglio, come un mirino che ti permette di mettere l'auto dove vuoi, al millimetro anche se sul modello senza AS non c'era il kit M e avevo ruote da 17" anziche 18".

Ma comunque la 130i non è come l'originale M3. Troppo rifinita, troppo comoda. Nella vecchia la prima cosa era l'esperienza di guida, in questa no.

Quello che mi fa pensare è che una 325i Touring che costa quasi come la 130i va meglio in tutto, sia dentro che fuori anche se naturalmente perde in accelerazione. Ha piu spazio, versatilita e per salire nei posti posteriori non bisogna essere dei controrsionisti. Questo è il problema. Non è ne una compatta "classica" ne una coupe a causa del suo stile ordinario e se tenti di dimenticare tutto questo pensando che sia una macchina sportiva sarai deluso perche l'esperienza di guida non è poi tanto buona.

Cio dimostra che enorme motore/piccola macchina spesso comporta un connubio non bilanciato anche se puo essere brillante.

quoto questo passaggio, come ho detto ogni volta che se n'è parlato...è una gran macchina tecnicamente ed esteticamente pure piacevole, ma con quegli interni e quell'abitabilità finisce con doversi confrontare con i coupè senza avere la linea di un coupè...