New car

[DaveE]

Both tasty motors. On balance I prefer the Porsche though, sorry Dave.

No apology required...

I have a hot hatch, he has a Porsche!

[GG.]

Mmmmm four litre. Dribble.

[Delphi]

Mmmmm four litre. Dribble.

I know - you'd think he'd have gone for a decent sized engine rather than the econobox model!

[PaulJ]

A bit premature here, but I should be picking this (minus white decals) up tomorrow afternoon. There will probably be no snap as I’ve never posted an image here...

Woah - separate Fred required with thoughts and EOTR on your last one.

More photos will have to wait a while as the car has been on wet roads pretty much all of its current 310 miles. It's been washed twice already though .

As far as an EOTR on my 981 GTS goes I can't sing its praises too highly really, to the extent that I was happy and confident in selling it to a long standing mate. I'd done around 40k miles in it over 5 years and it never skipped a beat or failed to raise a smile every time I raised the garage door.

I've quickly come to a few conclusions about the new car though:
* I'm in love with the colour as are a few of the neighbours who normally don't mention cars at all.
* The exhaust note on the new car is a mild let down so far as it's not as crackly and juvenile as my old one. (Presumably the petrol particulate filters fault). I am only using the first half of the rev range so far though.
* The torque curve on the 4.0 engine is noticeably more robust that the 981, and at my vintage It's probably time to start appreciate torque as much as power...
* There was the unexpected bonus of a single disc CD player in the new car and I had been under the impression it had been deleted. When the mood takes me I can blast out my old punk and new wave stuff to supplement the more polite exhaust note!
* Overall the new car is a slightly better all round version of the last one, and at the time of purchase I thought that was pretty perfect. If it turns out that I don't buy another petrol powered, N/A, manual box sports car, it won't be a bad one to declare on.

[duncs500]

Looks ace Paul.

[DaveE]

And so it begins....

Dropped the car off at Birds BMW this morning for their B1 package.

That's:
- new suspension (springs and dampers, tuned for British roads)
- Quaife LSD
- rear under-floor brace (this is fitted to the 3 doors, but not the 5 doors)

Everything I've seen and read about the above says how it transforms the car.

I'm excited to see how it feels when I pick it up later...

[speedingfine]

And so it begins....

Dropped the car off at Birds BMW this morning for their B1 package.

That's:
- new suspension (springs and dampers, tuned for British roads)
- Quaife LSD
- rear under-floor brace (this is fitted to the 3 doors, but not the 5 doors)

Everything I've seen and read about the above says how it transforms the car.

I'm excited to see how it feels when I pick it up later...

This sounds very Out of interest how does this affect the warranty?I'm not being a party pooper just interested how you get round any issues!

[DaveE]

Wow.

What a transformation.

Everything I've seen and read about the Birds conversion is true.

As standard, the M140i (on passive dampers) has that normal BMW fidgety ride. Lots of short, sharp, choppy movements over every little imperfection. The ride feeling quite "brittle" and not very well controlled.

This kit was always part of the plan in buying an M140i and it's why I decided on one with passive rather than adaptive dampers.

You can feel the difference in the first hundred yards.

It's still firm, but now has lovely, really well controlled damping. The constant fidgety has gone, replaced with a lovely, firm, "well oiled" precision. The whole car feels taught and well tied down. It works really well on motorways as well (again, just soaking up the little imperfections that would have had the car bobbing and fidgeting about constantly).

It really has transformed the car.

I've felt the diff come in a few times (hard acceleration on damp surfaces) - you can feel the car squirm a little, but it keeps pushing forward and the T/C light stays off.

I'm still being quite gentle with the car - it's by far the most powerful I've owned and I don't want to go nuts, run out of ability and bin it. But it feels like a car I will very much enjoy owning and driving.

The people at Birds are really lovely too - all in, the above cost £3600 btw. Not cheap, but it all feels so well developed and made, it's money I'm very happy to have spent.

[Nathan]

Nice one Dave

Have you got NBT EVO iDrive 5 and iDrive 6 ? Should be able to DIY enable Android Auto/Apple Car play

[DaveE]

Nice one Dave

Have you got NBT EVO iDrive 5 and iDrive 6 ? Should be able to DIY enable Android Auto/Apple Car play

I'm ashamed to say I don't really know - will have to check that out as those would be massively useful...

[Swervin_Mervin]

Interesting - one thing I never really liked about our 125i which had the adaptive sports suspension, was the fidgety ride. Non-RFTs helped hugely in that regard but it never felt as planted and controlled as my E91 or the E8x 120d we had prior.

[McSwede]

Wow.

What a transformation.

Everything I've seen and read about the Birds conversion is true.

As standard, the M140i (on passive dampers) has that normal BMW fidgety ride. Lots of short, sharp, choppy movements over every little imperfection. The ride feeling quite "brittle" and not very well controlled.

This kit was always part of the plan in buying an M140i and it's why I decided on one with passive rather than adaptive dampers.

You can feel the difference in the first hundred yards.

It's still firm, but now has lovely, really well controlled damping. The constant fidgety has gone, replaced with a lovely, firm, "well oiled" precision. The whole car feels taught and well tied down. It works really well on motorways as well (again, just soaking up the little imperfections that would have had the car bobbing and fidgeting about constantly).

It really has transformed the car.

I've felt the diff come in a few times (hard acceleration on damp surfaces) - you can feel the car squirm a little, but it keeps pushing forward and the T/C light stays off.

I'm still being quite gentle with the car - it's by far the most powerful I've owned and I don't want to go nuts, run out of ability and bin it. But it feels like a car I will very much enjoy owning and driving.

The people at Birds are really lovely too - all in, the above cost £3600 btw. Not cheap, but it all feels so well developed and made, it's money I'm very happy to have spent.

It'll be a proper weapon now. Well done!!

[Coaster1]

Upgrades sound great Dave

If you’re keeping the car for a while then why not!

[speedingfine]

Great news Dave

[Matty]

Reassuringly expensive! Do you know what the dampers/springs are?

TBH Quaife diffs aren't cheap, so that would have been a big chunk!

[mik]

Even if you assume the diff is £1250, it’s reassuringly expensive.

But.

Dave is repeating what I have read elsewhere - including one of the Highland Hoon guys that comes up here with Ben every year.

And in the context of the transformation it apparently brings - and the fact that takes development time and costs - it doesn’t seem such bad value.

[Foz]

Bilstein dampers, I went for updated with oem on the 911 and they are pretty good.

Said damping above 8/10’s was always where my M140 fellow apart.

Great at 100m powerslides mind

[Beany]

Even if you assume the diff is £1250, it’s reassuringly expensive.

But.

Dave is repeating what I have read elsewhere - including one of the Highland Hoon guys that comes up here with Ben every year.

And in the context of the transformation it apparently brings - and the fact that takes development time and costs - it doesn’t seem such bad value.

Yeah, for such a comparatively low volume application (a niche of a niche of a niche - people who want a BMW, want a fast BMW, want to modify their fast BMW, etc) it's not a shock that it's not just the retail price of the bits and £500 on top for fitting

Sounds like it's worth the spend if you want to enjoy the car in the UK real world.

[JonMad]

Congrats and great to hear some first hand, positive experiences of this.
When I was researching 130is before I ended up with the Swift I ended up down a rabbit hole of various suspension options.

[DaveE]

The Birds package is Bilstein dampers and Eibach springs, to their own specification.

I think the BMW M-Sport diff is a decent chunk of money. It only locks up to 25% and is clutch based, so will wear out/lose locking ability over time.

I did lots of reading and research on this kit, before I bought the car.

It's what dissuaded me from an adaptively damped M140i - it sounds corny, but if you have a decently set up passive suspension, you shouldn't really need adaptive.

Or something.

I do tend to keep my cars for a long time, and I can't see there ever being an attainable, RWD, 6 cylinder car again.

At the moment, I'm not planning anymore mods.

Having said that, with all the particulate filters etc, it does sound a bit muted...