The 2012 BMW 1 Series hatchback gets yet another review, this time from the British people from Fifth Gear. They traveled all the way up to Germany in order to test the new generation 1 Series but unfortunately they faced some problems. To be more precise, the Fifth Gear team claimed that their video camera broke, the final decision being to shoot the review using the latest generation iPhone 4.

Well, we can’t tell you exactly if the British team had no backup camera or this is only an advertising trick for the giant American company.

Back to the model in question, the new BMW 1 Series is said to benefit from up to six different body styles including coupe, Gran Turismo and three-door hatchback versions.

“The brand new version of BMW’s smallest car is not only bigger and faster than before, it can also connect to Twitter and Facebook using BMW’s ConnectedDrive iPhone App. We flew to Germany to be some of the first people in the world to test it – and, thanks to torrential rain breaking our camera, we filmed the whole review on an iPhone,” says the Fifth Gear team.

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Marcus M.

http://www.bmwcoop.com

The post VIDEO: Fifth Gear reviews the new BMW 1 Series appeared first on BMWCoop | BMW Blog, BMW News, BMW Reviews.

The British people from AutoCar decided to review two hot German models at the moment, the BMW 1 Series M Coupe and its rival from Porsche, namely Cayman R. If you don’t have to concern about Cayman R’s availability, the situation of the Bavarian model it is quite different and difficult.

Just few days ago, BMW announced that the 1 Series M Coupe will be pulled out of production in December this year, a pretty unpleasant news considering the allure of the smallest M and of course, the price tag, which makes it the most affordable M model ever created by BMW.

We already knew that the BMW 1 Series M Coupe is headed to a limited production of around 1,000 units but the premature production end makes us worry about the German model. However, regardless the uniqueness of the model, the German hatchback has to prove its capabilities in front of another model full of tradition.

For the beginning, we can relate to the performance figures of the two German models in order to see if there are major differences able to influent ate the final result. Therefore, BMW 1 Series M Coupe packs a 3.0-liter twin-turbocharged engine able to develop 335 horsepower and 450 Nm of torque.

With these resources, the Bavarian model is able to sprint from 0 to 100 km/h in 4,7 seconds thanks to a six-speed manual transmission while the top speed is limited at 250 km/h. On the other hand, the 2011 Porsche Cayman R benefits from a 3.4-liter engine that produces 330 horsepower and 370 Nm of torque. Until now, there are not any big differences between the two models, therefore, we talk about a very tight battle.

When mated to a six-speed manual transmission, the Cayman R achieves an acceleration from 0 to 100 km/h in 5 seconds while the optional seven-speed PDK transmission cuts down 0,1 seconds. The top speed of Porsche Cayman R is 280 km/h but this will not affect the duel. In terms of price, Cayman R is slightly more expensive with a starting price of $66,300 while the 1 Series M starts at $47,010. With this been said, let’s hear the opinion of Steve Sutcliffe, the British journalists who had the opportunity to test the German models somewhere in the Scottish Islands.

Source: AutoCar

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Marcus M.

http://www.bmwcoop.com

The post VIDEO: BMW 1 Series M Coupe vs. Porsche Cayman R – a pure German battle appeared first on BMWCoop | BMW Blog, BMW News, BMW Reviews.