The Other Benefits Of a Powerful Engine - 2015 BMW M235i Convertible Long-Term Road Test

Edmunds.com

The Other Benefits Of a Powerful Engine - 2015 BMW M235i Convertible Long-Term Road Test

Edmunds.com finds other reasons to like powerful engines like the one in its long-term 2015 BMW M235i.

Read the full story here

wheelmccoy

The engine is pretty too.

csubowtie

Careful with that! If the average driver found out they can accelerate into a hole instead of just forcing everybody else to come to a crawl to let them over the world might just explode!

desmolicious

"This is the same reason why I've never understood the desire to ride a scooter. Scooters provide all the danger of a motorcycle with none of the handling or power that can help you escape a dangerous situation"

Fall off a scooter at 35mph.
Fall off a sportbike at 150mph.

(rider of both)

The fun thing about scoots is that they are perfect for their design brief - to be ridden around the city. You feel that you are using it's capabilities to the fullest.
The fun thing about sport bikes is that they are perfect for their design brief. Which makes them wasted on public roads.

thepuff

:This is the same reason why I've never understood the desire to ride a scooter. Scooters provide all the danger of a motorcycle with none of the handling or power that can help you escape a dangerous situation"

Hence, my argument on the Miata pages...sissy engine makes the Miata the scooter or sport cars.

desmolicious

thepuff said:

:This is the same reason why I've never understood the desire to ride a scooter. Scooters provide all the danger of a motorcycle with none of the handling or power that can help you escape a dangerous situation"

Hence, my argument on the Miata pages...sissy engine makes the Miata the scooter or sport cars.

Which is why I also have a Miata!

roadburner

My tweaked Mazdaspeed 3 isn't really all that fast; it really struggles to break into the high thirteens in the quarter mile- but I suppose some might call it "powerful." That MS3 and my 150 hp Club Sport are the two cars that I drive on a daily basis and I can't really say that the Club Sport's lack of brute power is an issue. In fact, I've found that high horsepower cars can make a driver lazy and imprecise, because horsepower can cover up a multitude of driving mistakes. This is particularly true at a HPDE. The Club Sport forced me to be a much better driver because I had to pay attention to my braking, gear selection, and cornering technique. Don't get me wrong, I like power just as much as the next enthusiast-the Mazda is being replaced with something that truly IS fast-but there is a lot to be said for "slow" cars that require the driver to concentrate on driving.

allthingshonda

Also worth noting is the reliability and durability of modern turbochargers. This is the main reason even small engines are now quite powerful. BMW introduced the N54 turbo 6 back in 2006 and I haven't heard of any widespread turbocharger problems. There are some failures of early models that is related to owner mistakes. Driving the car hard before the engine reached normal operating temperatures and shutting down the engine after high speed driving without waiting for the turbos to spool down are the main causes of N54 turbo failures.

nedmundo

This gets to one of my core views on cars: that high performance cars are generally safer. Acceleration, passing power, agility, grip, and braking ALL contribute to safety. But related to roadburner's point, an engine doesn't need massive power if it revs hard and provides good control and access to its power. For example, my 2010 TSX is no powerhouse with 201 hp and 172 tq, but it loves to rev to its 7,000 rpm redline, and with the 6MT all its power is easily accessible and manageable. It has better drivability than our Ford Fusion with a more powerful V6 and auto trans. Not even close, really. I suspect this is part of why the other editor wrote that he prefers the TLX four cylinder to the V6 -- it's a high-revving Honda four, and with that 8DCT you can easily exploit it to the fullest, so it punches above its hp rating.