So just what is there to say about the new BMW 335i Coupe? It’s a 3-Series Beemer, isn’t it, with all the usual BMW traits, such as the fun-factor that makes it appealing to people who enjoy driving fast, the familiar evolutionary rather than revolutionary styling, and the rear-wheel-drive that’s so sadly missing in most modern offerings. The best news about the 335i is its engine — a gorgeous twin-turbo straight six that is quite unlike any petrol engine the Germans have ever used before.
While other manufacturers have resorted to turbochargers and superchargers to force-feed steroids to their horses, BMW has, with very few exceptions, stuck with naturally aspirated engines. For the 335i it wanted a little extra and forced induction was the route it chose to take. The question that remained was whether to use a turbo or a supercharger.
The struggle for supremacy between turbochargers and superchargers has always been intense. While both increase power by force-feeding air into the engine, each in its simplest format, has unique disadvantages.
A supercharger is simply a pump, driven by the engine itself, usually from a pulley on the crankshaft. Boost is generated right from idle, but the supercharger has a disadvantage in that it obviously drains a certain amount of power from the engine itself.
A turbocharged engine, on the other hand, uses waste exhaust gasses to drive the pump, meaning that no engine power is absorbed by the pumping process. The downside is that exhaust gases have to be flowing at a fair rate to spin the impeller fast enough to pump sufficient additional air into the intake system. At low revolutions the effect is negligible and the engine suffers from turbo lag, meaning that the power comes in with a sudden bang at high revs.
BMW elected to fit a pair of small turbochargers, each feeding three of the inline engine’s six cylinders. Special steel protects it from excessive temperatures and was used in the construction of the turbines, meaning that the high-precision fuel injection system had no need to feed the engine more fuel than it could burn, in an effort to keep temperatures down.
Maximum power, BMW says, is 225kW, which isn’t really that difficult to coax from a three-litre turbocharged unit. What is impressive, though, is the torque and where it lives. From just 1 300rpm up to 5 000rpm there’s an awesome 400Nm of sheer grunt available, and the engine pulls like a runaway locomotive right up to the 7 000rpm red line.
I drove the new BMW for more than 300km in and around George, before setting off on a circuitous route to Cape Town. Handling was world-class, with the electronic driver aids making sure I didn’t get into trouble tackling the superb mountain passes at speed. The car in itself is superb, but the engine is what really places it a cut above the rest. For R488 500 (R502 200 with auto transmission) you get a stylish coupe, that can accelerate to 100kph in just 5,5 seconds and reach 250kph without letting up, before the electronic speed limiter chips in. That’s very near supercar performance for considerably less than you’d expect to pay. The speeding fines, of course, would be the same as if you were driving a Ferrari.