Earlier tonight I enjoyed the hospitality of Rolfe Classic BMW in Canberra at the launch of the new additions to BMW’s 1 Series range – the Coupé and Convertible. There has been plenty of hype about these cars on the net and I was keen to get a closer look for myself. The drinks were good, the music was good and the mingling was good. Most importantly, though, the cars were good. Rolfe had a 120i Convertible and a 135i Coupé on show and it was the 135i that I was most intent on seeing.
The 135i has the award winning twin turbo inline 6-cylinder that produces a very tidy 225kW (306hp in the old money) along with a nice round 400Nm of torque. That’s some serious mojo for a car weighing in at 1485kg. Sure, that’s no lightweight compared to BMW’s iconic 2002 Coupé of yesteryear. But, by today’s standards, and for its class, that’ll do very nicely thanks. Pricing for the 135i starts at $71,400 plus on-roads. For the average punter that may seem a lot, but compared to the 135i’s competition it is very well priced.
Motorsport Event Management (MEM), the agency contracted to run the Australian MINI CHALLENGE, has been put up for sale by current owner Iain Sherrin.
GoAuto
GoAuto is reporting that MINI Australia will introduce the MINI Cooper D within the next 12 months. Coupled with a 6 speed manual and a 1.6l 80kW/240Nm powerplant the Cooper D is said to be capable of consumption under 4l/100km. Add to that impressive emission figures of 104g/km and there’ll be a whole bunch of Hollywood actors realising they could have looked cool and still been green, instead of buying a Prius.