Innehållsförteckning för April 2024 från TOTAL BMW

Writing this month's E46 cover feature and our E46 buying guide got me thinking about my own E46 330i and how it was – for a very long time – the best all-round car I had ever owned. Everything about it was just right. In terms of power, is 231hp a lot? No, not at all – but it was enough. It was enough to make the 330i fun to drive, and it never felt slow. Then there was the fuel economy – I put 30,000 miles on mine over three years, and at the end of all that, it had averaged around 30mpg, which seemed very impressive at the time, especially for a three-litre straight-six and even by modern standards it's not bad at all. It was comfortable, practical,…

SUPERCHARGED E46 330i The E46 is, without a doubt, one of BMW's finest moments. Where the E36 received a lukewarm reception after the E30, the E46 really stepped up the 3 Series game and delivered a car whose appeal has barely diminished after all these years. The styling was on point, the build quality was superb, the range of engines offered something for everyone, including the muscular 330d and supremely smooth 330i, and, of course, it also gave us one of the most popular M3s of all time. Today, the E46 remains a superb car to drive – its size means it fits on any road perfectly, the chassis is the perfect blend of comfort and sporty, and the steering offers the sort of feel and feedback that modern electric…

TECH GUIDE Centrifugal supercharger basics Centrifugal superchargers look like the compressor side of a turbo and are driven mechanically via a belt connected to the engine. The centrifugal design has both advantages and disadvantages of the traditional positive displacement supercharger and the more familiar turbosupercharger (turbo). With advances in materials technology in recent years, it has been possible to build a centrifugal supercharger with either gears, an internal belt drive, or a sun and planet arrangement fluid drive, capable of driving a small compressor rotor up to around 200,000rpm. The drive for the transmission is taken from the engine, usually via a belt driven by the crankshaft pulley. Then an internal transmission arrangement, either gear or fluid drive, increases the speed of the compressor to its effective speed range. The…

F13 M6 Coupé A supercar for saloon car money, the F13 M6 Coupé packs power and panache aplenty, but the finest examples are fast disappearing. So bag one now before all the decent cars have gone and prices start to rise. Unveiled at the Geneva Motor Show in 2012, BMW's rear-wheel drive F13 M6 Coupé is powered by a twin-turbocharged 4.4-litre S63 V8 engine delivering a massive 560hp as standard and equipped with a seven-speed M DCT transmission. But despite being a 2+2 supercar packing serious pace and technology, the F13 M6 has none of the compromises that can limit other rivals, possessing instead a jump-in-and-go simplicity that makes it an almost effortless everyday drive, too. Sumptuously equipped and strikingly styled, the F13 M6 certainly looks the part, and although…

(@buffycarjourno) It's been quite a while since I've written anything about the M3, and while arguably the major mods have been done, there are still plenty of other upgrades and enhancements that I've been adding along the way, so I will be filling you all in on those over the coming months. But first, let's talk tyres. They're very, very important, regardless of what you drive and how much power you might have to play with. The total contact patch offered by all four tyres combined is around the size of an A4 piece of paper, that's all you've got to keep your car sticking to the road. Knowing that, it never fails to surprise me how many people out there scrimp on tyres, looking to save a little money…

E36 CONVERTIBLE Fun fact – for a long time, the UK was the convertible capital of Europe, and, as a nation, we were one of the most prolific purchasers of soft-tops in the whole world. Our passion for open-top motoring peaked in the early 2000s, with almost 100,000 new convertibles registered in 2004. Last year, that number dropped closer to 10k new cabs hitting the road, but we still love a convertible – despite being the fourth-wettest country in Europe. And regardless of your stance on soft-tops, you can't argue with the fact that BMW makes a damn good-looking convertible. Every generation of 3 Series looks seriously sleek with the roof removed, and Ryan Evans’ (@vlnt_36) looks exceptionally good, because this is one exceptional E36. Ryan runs his own valeting…

1602 It's easy to forget that BMW wasn't always the super soaraway success that it is today, and back in the late 1950s, it was in a parlous state. You can make a case for several different BMWs as being the one that saved the company, and while you could argue that the Isetta and the 700 kept BMW afloat during the bad times, it was the debut of the Neue Klasse Saloon that really turned the tide. It was, quite simply, a superb four-door sporting saloon and deservedly sold like hotcakes. However, if you're looking for the first BMW to really set the showrooms alight, it was the two-door version of the Neue Klasse, the iconic ‘02. Before its debut, BMW had sold in the region of 870,000 cars…

M88 E28 M535i Engine swaps have come a long way over the years, and these days, you see a wonderfully eclectic range of transplants being routinely attempted. We've all toyed with the idea of what our perfect swap would be – usually involving a large sum of money, an unlimited supply of pristine parts, and a spotless, fully equipped garage fully kitted out with all the tools you could dream of. Given we've got very little mechanical aptitude, our garage would also be staffed with some seriously smart technicians, too. Current musings on our ideal engine swap involve an E3 complete with the S62 V8 from an E39 M5, while we'd also love to recreate an Alpina B8 with an E36 3 Series Touring and the 4.8-litre V8 engine from…

Hisory The BMW M30 straight-six was introduced in the late 1960s, loosely based on the fourcylinder M10, and gained the “Big Six” moniker when BMW introduced the smaller M20 ‘six in the late ‘70s. The M30 enjoyed a 27-year lifespan, making it onto Ward's list of Top Engines of the 20th Century. The first versions of the M30 were the 2.5- and 2.8-litre incarnations, and both arrived in 1968. The 2.5 was the smallest M30 engine produced and appeared in the E3 2500 running a carburettor before finding its way into no fewer than five other models: the E9 2.5 CS, the E12 525 in 146hp form, E23 725 and E12 525 and E28 525i with 146hp and fuel injection. The larger 2.8 also started out running carbs in the…

Kicking things off in this month's update for the E38 735i was another OCD tick-box exercise. While I had the battery replaced in the car several months ago, I never got around to purchasing a missing positive terminal battery cover. Fitting missing things like that makes me very happy, so I ordered one from a BMW dealer, and it arrived within a couple of days. Thankfully, there are still things I can fit myself without having to go to my specialist, and so I popped it into place with a very satisfying click. While it may only be a cover, I think it looks good and helps with the factory finish restoration look. It's the little things and all that. Sticking with the trim side of things, and to celebrate…

BMW has announced details of the facelifted M4 Competition Coupé and Convertible models, which will begin production in March, with the first customer deliveries taking place in April, and the cars are priced from £84,250 and £88,255, respectively. The new models bring with them a whole host of revisions, making them even better and more exciting than before. The most notable change for the 2024 model year is the power increase from 510hp to 530hp via new software. Torque has risen to 479lb ft of torque, available between 27505730rpm, and these increased outputs mean a 0-62mph time of 3.5 seconds for the M4 Coupé and 3.7 seconds for the Convertible. The top speed, normally limited to 155mph, can be increased to 180mph in the Coupé and 174mph for the Convertible…

FIRST DRIVE BMW's M cars rightly have a special place in the hearts of enthusiasts everywhere, but in recent years, the German company expanded M's horizons. Where once we saw a simple range of common-or-garden ‘cooking’ models and a high-performance M car in each range, we're now treated to M Performance cars, M models and the M Competition versions. It can be a bit confusing, and some undoubtedly see it as the dilution of a sub-brand that has given he faithful so much to worship. But BMW knows its business, and we find ourselves behind the wheel of the latest line-blurring model – the X6 M60i xDrive. Essentially a detuned, softer version of the X6 M Competition, it's a halfway house between the ‘proper’ M cars (now wearing the M…

F80 M3 The colour of your car is such a personal choice. It reflects who are, and how much you value personality and individuality over resale value. How extroverted (or introverted) you might be. Whether you like to stand out or are happy to blend in. Back in the ‘60s and ‘70s, car colour palettes seemed so much richer and brighter. BMW offered some stunning, bold, vibrant hues across its models during those decades, as did many other car manufacturers. But, over the years, the colours available have thinned out and dulled, and, nowadays, so many manufacturers offer a selection of depressing shades that barely differ from one another. Silvers, greys, silvery grey blues and greens all blend into one another like a watercolour painting left out in the rain.…

E82 RALLY CAR Right now, you're probably unsure of just what you're looking at here, so let's go through the checklist. 1M replica – check. S54 swap… – check. BMW rally car…? Check… Clearly, owner David Davies has a lot of explaining to do here, and we are all ears because this build is clearly not your average E82. “BMWs are the last affordable RWD car left really, which makes modifying them to stage rally spec relatively easy and cost-effective when you're doing it out of your own pocket,” David explains, and it's clear that this diesel mechanic is about as much of a petrolhead as you could hope to meet. And building rally cars and putting them through their paces is something he's rather well-versed in. “Rally car-wise, I've…

It's probably because I clearly remember going on the press launches for both the E61 5 Series and the F25 X3 that I still see them as relatively new cars. Yes, that is me foolishly thinking that if something happened during my working lifetime, it can't have been that long ago… The reality is that the E61 was launched back in 2004, while the F25 came to market in 2010, and while the examples we own in the Harper household aren't quite that old, they will be 18 and 10 years old, respectively, this year. Because, in my mind, they're still pretty young cars, I don't get overly worried when it comes to MOT time, but I inevitably have a moment of panic days before their annual check. This usually…