Under luxury car standards, it is considered to be quite sedate and even bland. However, this 135i overall still has a level of refinement that is unseen or remotely comparable by my previous Japanese cars. The ride quality is sporty and firm, but at the same time also plush. Being able to cruise around in the 135i and not have to worry about pot holes or block traffic from severe driveway-entry angles is truly a relief. The only mods I did to this car were basically wheels and exhaust. I got to make the car a little bit different and personalized, which is good enough. Doing anything more would be pointless, since I only use this car to commute, after all.

It’s funny how people are able to fool themselves into thinking their hip looking but functionally impaired car is what they really want. And the truth is, everyone who is driving a slammed, “hellaflush” car will eventually grow out of it. It is not a matter of if, but a matter of when.

This is reality. When you build a car “too much” to where it loses good street temperament, you will drive it less and less. There is no way any semi-sane man is going to “daily” a stripped out and caged drift car, no matter how JDM tyte it is. I am still tasting a lot of disdain from my car modding past, because it is overly easy to throw money away on parts and lose focus on building with a purpose. If you’re going to buy coilovers with spine-breaking 12kg/14kg spring rates, put it into a race car that’s going to need it and will be raced.

Mod sensibly and don’t overdo it, folks.

Great quality and detail in the construction:

I finished with the suspension and wheel stuff at 4PM, and then headed over to my main man Ken’s Mission Auto Garage to install the exhaust. Doing this job on the floor of my home’s garage with jackstands would have been beyond miserable. Back in my youth, this is what I would have done. Now, I just pay.

Actually, Ken was cool enough to let me give him a hand with the install. It was nice to wield quality tools (Snap-On) and realize the convenience of a lift. I wouldn’t even have been able to do this at home, because BMW used torx screws for the chassis brace, which I have no tools for.

Here’s the car waiting in a bay.

Up in the air:

A look at the stock exhaust:

A look at no exhaust:

Midpipes in:

Resonators:

Tips:

The Berk exhaust shed approximately 30lbs over the stock system. Surprisingly, you’d think an exhaust with no muffler would be loud… but it’s actually tame and reasonable.

Fear not, I am thoroughly cognizant of how overly-modded the Miata was… doing that much work is unnecessary and hellish. Which is why I’ve limited my modifications with this car primarily to 2 key components: Wheels & Exhaust. Wheels because they are single-handledly the most authoritative change you can do to a car’s aesthetics. Exhaust because I like my cars to be louder than stock, but not obnoxious. Plus, the 135i is so quiet inside that it feels like I’m driving a Maglev. Too awkward, gotta hear the engine.

Suspension definitely would have been on the short list, but fortunately, the previous owner already installed H&R Coilovers and Swaybars :-)

Once the deal with the car was (mostly) finalized, I pulled the trigger on on a set of 18″ OZ Ultraleggeras in Black. I bought them from Tirerack and a set of BFGoodrich g-Force T/A KDW 2 in 235/40/18 all-around. No more Rotas and no more “hellaflush” fitment and no more slamming for me… I’ve graduated into the league of function over form. Going off my Tire Fitment guide, I’d say these wheels are at a B stretch.

Interestingly enough, I chose to run a square set-up even though the car comes stock staggered and with 245 rears. 1series have a tendency to understeer stock, and running the same size tires all around will help balance it out. I’m sacrificing 10mm in width for the rears but am gaining 20mm in the fronts over stock. I chose the Ultraleggera’s primarily because of their low weight, with each wheel tipping the scales at around 18.4lbs. Compare this to the stockers, which are in the neighborhood of 25lbs…

Mounted with tires, each wheel weighs 44lbs:

After owning the car for a mere one day, I enlisted the help of a buddy to roll the rear fenders. The lips on the front fenders are like a “V”, but the rears are more of an “L”. We attempted to roll the rears, but ultimately pulled the plug on that idea. The lips are too thick, and I didn’t want to jeopardize the body at all. There was too much risk of the fender pulling out if a full roll was attempted. So instead, we set about removing the 10mm H&R spacers the car came with. The spacers were fused to the rear hubs due to rust… heatgun + a lot of hammering with a screwdriver did the trick.

Today, my agenda was to grind out and dial the car’s ride height with the new wheels. I’m not a big fan of playing with coilovers in this respect, because it’s rather tedious work.

Eventually I was able to sit the car at a satisfactory height: 1 finger gap. I originally had the fronts set at half a finger gap, but decided it was too low /oldman.

A picture of a coilover:

Check out the SIZE of the stock front caliper!

I also attacked the rust which made removing the spacer so problematic. Here’s a rear hub before:

And after a few minutes with a wirewheel:

Before mounting the wheels, I gave all the hubs a light coating of anti-seize grease.

Finally, I’m breaking the mold with this 2009 BMW 135i. It’s modern, it’s Euro, and it’s amazing. My Dad sold his car only a couple weeks prior to me selling the Miata… so our family only had the trusty Prius to drive. Made figuring out how to commute difficult, so needless to say, I was in a time crunch to find a car fast. I entertained the idea of other vehicles and even checked out an M5, but eventually decided on a 1 series. Craigslist didn’t yield any promising results when searching in California, so I searched further North and found the right match: Alpine white, 24,000 miles, still has warranty, sport package, and stick shift. Ended up buying and shipping this car, and it arrived from Oregon this Thursday.

I drove it to work the next day and a few interesting details stood out for me, firstly the Fit and Finish… you buy a BMW for a reason and it shows. The car just feels like quality. Also, I noticed the intricacies BMW has imparted: the windows roll down slightly when opening/closing the doors; the radio dims down the volume before switching to another station; when stopped on a hill, if you let off the brakes to accelerate, the car maintains braking for a second; once rolling, the car automatically locks the door, but when parked, pulling on the door handle 2 times will unlock & open.

Although I’ve only had the 135i for a brief period, the difference between this and all my previous cars is readily apparent. This car is like a complete 180° from the Miata, it has creature comforts and feels refined. I’m loving it, I wish I didn’t have to go through 5 other cars to get to this level, but hopefully now I can also break the mold of constantly buying & selling.