BMW M240i - Slightly "Breathed on"
Discussion
Hi all,
Long time lurker, first time poster!
At the age of 25 I've had a distinctly average car history although by working in the motorsport industry I've always tried to go for the more sportier options available in my budget.
The college and University days saw a E36 316i Compact and a handful of Mk5 Fiesta Zetec S' - one of which has been residing for too many years in my parent's garage with aspirations of becoming a little race car. I then graduated to my first turbo car, £2K's worth of 1.8T Audi A3 5 door.
I started doing more and more race event work and therefore needed something reliable that I didn't have to worry about getting me there and back as I travelled up and down the country.
I managed to get myself in at Ford Dunton for a year as a student development engineer as part of my degree course and took advantage of the great employee discounts and ordered one of the first Mk 7.5 Fiesta ST's - an absolutely brilliant fun and capable little car that I was very sad to see go.
If I'm honest the Fiesta was possibly the more fun car to go for a B road blast in, the chassis was brilliantly chuckable and the punchy little 1.6 engine meant you could have fun without doing license losing speeds. However, the Recaro seats and pedal layout meant at the end of anything over a 90 minute journey I had back, hip and butt ache, no matter what I did with the seat adjustment, and I consider myself to be a relatively fit and in shape bloke!
I've recently started up my own consultancy motorsport engineering business, in which I'm fortunate to have some luxury brand OEM customers and the boy racer image of the Fiesta was something I was trying to lose!
Which brings me on to my new car and the reason for this thread as I feel it is my first PH worthy car!
Earlier on in the year I became the proud owner of a Mineral Grey F22 BMW M240i. I ordered it in manual with only a select few extras of Harmon Kardon speakers, driver comfort package and de-badged.
Originally I didn't think I could afford the car but I found out about Tony Lewis (TRL) on the Baby BMW forums and the great deals he could get (after a lot of bargaining my local dealers they still couldn't get within £100 a month of what Tony could!) I contacted Tony and soon found out he is a long standing sponsor of one of the BTCC teams I had done some work with so a great deal was struck and I picked up my new '17 plate car a few months ago.
It simply is brilliant and I'm struggling to think of a better and more usable every day car - except for the bigger (and pricier) brother M2.
The engine is brilliant, just a wall of torque throughout the Rev Range and the gearbox is slick and nicely on the weightier side of gear changes.
I'm really impressed with the chassis balance, just a seemingly endless amount of turn in and front end grip that you shouldn't really be getting near the limits of on the public road - I have no intentions of tracking it.
TC off and you can slide it around roundabouts in your favourite Chris Harris styleee (I worked with Chris in the Bentley GT3 last year but that's not relevant to this thread!)
It doesn't get great press, but given my previous car history, I think the interior is a really nice place to be! The I-Drive, Spotify Integration and HK sound system coupled with the infinitely adjustable leather seats although for comfortable, brain-off motorway cruises from one of the country's race tracks to another - Unfortunately this is the majority of my driving at the moment! But when the opportunity does arise, a click of the sport button and the engine pops and bangs on the over run and you can really chuck it about and "make progress" - The only issue being, without really trying I'm already looking down at the speedo, reminding myself that I'm dependant on my license to earn a living and backing off, something that wasn't an issue in the Fiesta ST!
I don't have many other criticisms really; the brakes lack feel under light every day around town applications - you have to apply a fair bit of pressure before they do anything - they are brilliant when pushing on though, completely unaware of the size and weight of the car.
The noise is another bug bear I must admit - for a 350hp performance engine its just far too quiet in the cockpit as standard, even in the loudest Sport Mode. In the regular comfort mode it's not even audible - on more than one occasion with a light bit of Spotify on in the background, I've found myself cruising along on the motorway in 4th gear for a good 10 miles or so before I realise I haven't yet shifted up to 6th and the engines been pulling 4.5 / 5K Revs as it's just so quiet!
Little annoyances aside, I really like everything about the car as standard, a great all round everyday car, the only thing I feel that lets it down is the standard aesthetics! In my eyes they don't match the sporty performance of the car so I set about changing a few things.
19" M4 CS Replicas in Gloss Black from CM Wheels - 8.5" Fronts with 9.5" Rears on Conti Sport Contact 6's
AutoID Carbon Wing Mirror Covers and Rear Boot Spoiler
MPerformance Front Chin Spoiler & Black Kidney Grills from Cotswold BMW
And Tinted the Back Windows and Rear Screen
I've done a few things to the Interior too to make it slightly sportier - MPerformance Alcantara & Carbon Gear Shift and Handbrake Gaiter and picked up some 3M Carbon Wrap and Wrapped some of the Interior Panels
That's about it for now, I have a Black Alcantara with Silver Stitching Steering Wheel on order from Royal Steering Wheels to complete the interior and I'm also toying with getting Lowering Springs but need to do my research on them first as I ideally would also like to increase the roll stiffness at the same time as a 20mm or so drop, if I can.
Would love a MPerformance or similar Diffuser and a slightly Sportier Exhaust but that will have to wait for now as I promised myself I wouldn't get into £4 figures modifying it!
I'm looking at getting out and about more in it and meeting up with other BMW / Performance car enthusiasts for car meets etc. so if anyone is around the Essex and South East London area then let me know. I work as a race engineer so my weekends are usually taken up with work but hoping to get down to the German car fest at Brands this weekend, if I can, on a rear weekend off.
Those of you on Instagram can check out more "artsy" pics of it and pics of various GT and Touring Cars on my @Newmagram account.
Long time lurker, first time poster!
At the age of 25 I've had a distinctly average car history although by working in the motorsport industry I've always tried to go for the more sportier options available in my budget.
The college and University days saw a E36 316i Compact and a handful of Mk5 Fiesta Zetec S' - one of which has been residing for too many years in my parent's garage with aspirations of becoming a little race car. I then graduated to my first turbo car, £2K's worth of 1.8T Audi A3 5 door.
I started doing more and more race event work and therefore needed something reliable that I didn't have to worry about getting me there and back as I travelled up and down the country.
I managed to get myself in at Ford Dunton for a year as a student development engineer as part of my degree course and took advantage of the great employee discounts and ordered one of the first Mk 7.5 Fiesta ST's - an absolutely brilliant fun and capable little car that I was very sad to see go.
If I'm honest the Fiesta was possibly the more fun car to go for a B road blast in, the chassis was brilliantly chuckable and the punchy little 1.6 engine meant you could have fun without doing license losing speeds. However, the Recaro seats and pedal layout meant at the end of anything over a 90 minute journey I had back, hip and butt ache, no matter what I did with the seat adjustment, and I consider myself to be a relatively fit and in shape bloke!
I've recently started up my own consultancy motorsport engineering business, in which I'm fortunate to have some luxury brand OEM customers and the boy racer image of the Fiesta was something I was trying to lose!
Which brings me on to my new car and the reason for this thread as I feel it is my first PH worthy car!
Earlier on in the year I became the proud owner of a Mineral Grey F22 BMW M240i. I ordered it in manual with only a select few extras of Harmon Kardon speakers, driver comfort package and de-badged.
Originally I didn't think I could afford the car but I found out about Tony Lewis (TRL) on the Baby BMW forums and the great deals he could get (after a lot of bargaining my local dealers they still couldn't get within £100 a month of what Tony could!) I contacted Tony and soon found out he is a long standing sponsor of one of the BTCC teams I had done some work with so a great deal was struck and I picked up my new '17 plate car a few months ago.
It simply is brilliant and I'm struggling to think of a better and more usable every day car - except for the bigger (and pricier) brother M2.
The engine is brilliant, just a wall of torque throughout the Rev Range and the gearbox is slick and nicely on the weightier side of gear changes.
I'm really impressed with the chassis balance, just a seemingly endless amount of turn in and front end grip that you shouldn't really be getting near the limits of on the public road - I have no intentions of tracking it.
TC off and you can slide it around roundabouts in your favourite Chris Harris styleee (I worked with Chris in the Bentley GT3 last year but that's not relevant to this thread!)
It doesn't get great press, but given my previous car history, I think the interior is a really nice place to be! The I-Drive, Spotify Integration and HK sound system coupled with the infinitely adjustable leather seats although for comfortable, brain-off motorway cruises from one of the country's race tracks to another - Unfortunately this is the majority of my driving at the moment! But when the opportunity does arise, a click of the sport button and the engine pops and bangs on the over run and you can really chuck it about and "make progress" - The only issue being, without really trying I'm already looking down at the speedo, reminding myself that I'm dependant on my license to earn a living and backing off, something that wasn't an issue in the Fiesta ST!
I don't have many other criticisms really; the brakes lack feel under light every day around town applications - you have to apply a fair bit of pressure before they do anything - they are brilliant when pushing on though, completely unaware of the size and weight of the car.
The noise is another bug bear I must admit - for a 350hp performance engine its just far too quiet in the cockpit as standard, even in the loudest Sport Mode. In the regular comfort mode it's not even audible - on more than one occasion with a light bit of Spotify on in the background, I've found myself cruising along on the motorway in 4th gear for a good 10 miles or so before I realise I haven't yet shifted up to 6th and the engines been pulling 4.5 / 5K Revs as it's just so quiet!
Little annoyances aside, I really like everything about the car as standard, a great all round everyday car, the only thing I feel that lets it down is the standard aesthetics! In my eyes they don't match the sporty performance of the car so I set about changing a few things.
19" M4 CS Replicas in Gloss Black from CM Wheels - 8.5" Fronts with 9.5" Rears on Conti Sport Contact 6's
AutoID Carbon Wing Mirror Covers and Rear Boot Spoiler
MPerformance Front Chin Spoiler & Black Kidney Grills from Cotswold BMW
And Tinted the Back Windows and Rear Screen
I've done a few things to the Interior too to make it slightly sportier - MPerformance Alcantara & Carbon Gear Shift and Handbrake Gaiter and picked up some 3M Carbon Wrap and Wrapped some of the Interior Panels
That's about it for now, I have a Black Alcantara with Silver Stitching Steering Wheel on order from Royal Steering Wheels to complete the interior and I'm also toying with getting Lowering Springs but need to do my research on them first as I ideally would also like to increase the roll stiffness at the same time as a 20mm or so drop, if I can.
Would love a MPerformance or similar Diffuser and a slightly Sportier Exhaust but that will have to wait for now as I promised myself I wouldn't get into £4 figures modifying it!
I'm looking at getting out and about more in it and meeting up with other BMW / Performance car enthusiasts for car meets etc. so if anyone is around the Essex and South East London area then let me know. I work as a race engineer so my weekends are usually taken up with work but hoping to get down to the German car fest at Brands this weekend, if I can, on a rear weekend off.
Those of you on Instagram can check out more "artsy" pics of it and pics of various GT and Touring Cars on my @Newmagram account.
Lovely car, I test drove a M140i not long back and it was superb, not sure why I didn't buy it to be honest.
Agree with you on the noise front, from outside they sound great it just doesn't filter it's way into the cabin, nothing a intake and exhaust wouldn't sort but it was the only area that I felt it was lacking in. I owned a N54 engined 335 and it certainly sounded a few notches louder.
Interested to see where you take it.
Agree with you on the noise front, from outside they sound great it just doesn't filter it's way into the cabin, nothing a intake and exhaust wouldn't sort but it was the only area that I felt it was lacking in. I owned a N54 engined 335 and it certainly sounded a few notches louder.
Interested to see where you take it.
Very nice, they are awesome cars aren't they!
Nice to see someone else with a manual, we seem to be 2 of just a handful of Mx40i owners who didn't go for the auto box
Nice little mods too, i was also a little disappointed with the noise so went for an MPE and a resonator delete, so much better!
There's a meet on this Sunday at Berry BMW Heathrow if you around, 4pm onwards i think
Nice to see someone else with a manual, we seem to be 2 of just a handful of Mx40i owners who didn't go for the auto box
Nice little mods too, i was also a little disappointed with the noise so went for an MPE and a resonator delete, so much better!
There's a meet on this Sunday at Berry BMW Heathrow if you around, 4pm onwards i think
ery nice, you have picked a great "do it all" car I say.
I have a 2015 M235i and agree with everything you have said regarding handling / engine and brakes. I actually dont think that its too quiet in the cabin when in sports mode, the engine gives off a lovely burble. I must admit though, it can be hard when thrashing it to "hear" the engine note and know what revs you are at (mines the 8 speed ZF), and have been hitting the redline unintentionaly!
Ive heard that a decat should give the standard exhaust a bit more noise...
I have a 2015 M235i and agree with everything you have said regarding handling / engine and brakes. I actually dont think that its too quiet in the cabin when in sports mode, the engine gives off a lovely burble. I must admit though, it can be hard when thrashing it to "hear" the engine note and know what revs you are at (mines the 8 speed ZF), and have been hitting the redline unintentionaly!
Ive heard that a decat should give the standard exhaust a bit more noise...
Nice car OP, I had an M135i for 3 years until fairly recently. I like your mods but I can't recommend a new exhaust enough. I used the BMW OEM performance exhaust and it was incredible. Got a good deal via BMW tunbridge wells if memory serves.
I didn't fully get on with my car (manual on passive dampers) for the usual reasons with the original M135i's, the steering and the body control when pushing on didn't inspire confidence. I gather the 2 series setup goes a long way to solving this and is further improved in the latest '40i' version, so it's probably a lovely steer.
I didn't fully get on with my car (manual on passive dampers) for the usual reasons with the original M135i's, the steering and the body control when pushing on didn't inspire confidence. I gather the 2 series setup goes a long way to solving this and is further improved in the latest '40i' version, so it's probably a lovely steer.
Thanks for the comments all!
I'm sure I'm going to end up putting an exhaust on it, just a pity you have to do that to a car of this nature.
Monthly's will be between 350 - 400 depending upon what you spec with a deposit of around 500 - 1000.
The wheels / tyres should be about break even if I can sell the originals for something close to what I've seen others go for on ebay recently
I'm sure I'm going to end up putting an exhaust on it, just a pity you have to do that to a car of this nature.
Monthly's will be between 350 - 400 depending upon what you spec with a deposit of around 500 - 1000.
The wheels / tyres should be about break even if I can sell the originals for something close to what I've seen others go for on ebay recently
MPS-Ben said:
Thanks for the comments all!
I'm sure I'm going to end up putting an exhaust on it, just a pity you have to do that to a car of this nature.
Monthly's will be between 350 - 400 depending upon what you spec with a deposit of around 500 - 1000.
The wheels / tyres should be about break even if I can sell the originals for something close to what I've seen others go for on ebay recently
Wow this is cheap , does he do the others like a 340i ?I'm sure I'm going to end up putting an exhaust on it, just a pity you have to do that to a car of this nature.
Monthly's will be between 350 - 400 depending upon what you spec with a deposit of around 500 - 1000.
The wheels / tyres should be about break even if I can sell the originals for something close to what I've seen others go for on ebay recently
I bet the balloon is incredible with such a low deposit.
Lovely looking car there, my manager has just got one similar!
Amazing to have it at such a young age, and good luck on your business, sounds impressive... have to admit the only let down for me though is "3M Carbon Wrap and Wrapped some of the Interior Panels" nooo, lol sorry is a bug bear of mine. Has to be a real replacement or I don't see the point
Amazing to have it at such a young age, and good luck on your business, sounds impressive... have to admit the only let down for me though is "3M Carbon Wrap and Wrapped some of the Interior Panels" nooo, lol sorry is a bug bear of mine. Has to be a real replacement or I don't see the point
Thanks all!
I chose grey because for me it was always between that and Estoril Blue and my dad already had an Estoril Blue 225D.
The stretch tyres were a necessity due to keeping it legal, with the wider wheels the rim sticks out from the arch so I needed to do something to keep the tread of the tyre within the extremity of the vehicle. If I lower it, it should actually help poke the tyres inside the arch slightly so maybe I'll be able to get a slightly wider tyre next time around.
I know the carbon wrap isn't to everyone's taste but I feel like I've replicated the look / quality of the genuine M Performance offering for a fraction of the price, if I hadn't of mentioned it was a wrap I think you would be hard pushed to tell!
I got my new alcantara clad wheel from Royal Steering Wheels fitted yesterday and it looks great, a bit more of my beloved carbon wrap on the Y spoke and it completes the interior nicely in my eyes - pictures to follow.
I'm using the 3M Scotchprint carbon black, seems to be the best match with the carbon on the M Performance gear knob and handbrake.
I chose grey because for me it was always between that and Estoril Blue and my dad already had an Estoril Blue 225D.
The stretch tyres were a necessity due to keeping it legal, with the wider wheels the rim sticks out from the arch so I needed to do something to keep the tread of the tyre within the extremity of the vehicle. If I lower it, it should actually help poke the tyres inside the arch slightly so maybe I'll be able to get a slightly wider tyre next time around.
I know the carbon wrap isn't to everyone's taste but I feel like I've replicated the look / quality of the genuine M Performance offering for a fraction of the price, if I hadn't of mentioned it was a wrap I think you would be hard pushed to tell!
I got my new alcantara clad wheel from Royal Steering Wheels fitted yesterday and it looks great, a bit more of my beloved carbon wrap on the Y spoke and it completes the interior nicely in my eyes - pictures to follow.
I'm using the 3M Scotchprint carbon black, seems to be the best match with the carbon on the M Performance gear knob and handbrake.
Great choice of car, I've been running an M235i (melborne red) for over 3 years now with 50,000 miles on the clock and is by far the best I have ever had.
Won't lie been tempted to modify mine will definetly follow your progress with great interest.
Just hard to justify the money sadly
Won't lie been tempted to modify mine will definetly follow your progress with great interest.
Just hard to justify the money sadly
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