The 1 to watch

After a more modest sporting BMW? Meet the new 128ti hot hatch

BMW ISN’T A NATURAL OPERATOR IN THE hot hatch market. It’s dabbled a few times, with its E36 3-series Compact back in the 1990s and early noughties, but even with zippy four-pots or brawny six-cylinder engines and rear-wheel drive they struggled to fire the imagination, not helped by arriving at a time when coupes were in fashion and hot hatches an unexpected display piece in the window of Dixons.

In recent times BMW has left the hot hatch brief to Mini, with the Cooper badge working overtime for the last 15 years. But now Munich has decided it would like a slice of the hot hatch market for itself and so is introducing the 128ti.

It’s based loosely on the M135i xdrive, in that it shares the same B48 1998cc four-cylinder turbocharged engine and eight-speed automatic gearbox, and is only available with a five-door body. But rather than the ‘ti’ being merely a trim level, the car’s engineering team, many of whom have worked on those prolific Mini Cooper models, have developed something a little more bespoke than a just a junior quick 1-series.

There’s a good reason why many of those engineers would normally be found wearing Mini-branded overalls: the current Mini and this latest generation 1-series sit on the same front-wheel-drive platform. It’s why the 128ti is closer to a Mini Cooper S in execution than any BMW has ever been.

The 128ti came to be because BMW wondered what an M135i xdrive would be like if the rear driveshafts were removed. The answer was a bit of an understeering hound by all accounts, but rather than moving on to another project, work continued to resolve the issues. The stiffness of the 135i’s shell was reduced by removing the underbody bracing from the front of the car, and the engine’s power and torque were knocked back (from 302bhp and 332lb ft to 261bhp with 295lb ft). The front and rear suspension geometry was also adjusted, specifically focusing on toe angles, while stiffer springs were fitted, the damper compression rates increased, and the ride height dropped by 10mm. And according to BMW, all this had the desired effect, although it was felt that the car was a little too pointy on the front end, so the steering was slowed down to compensate and work better with a weight distribution that is far from BMW’S typical ideal 50:50 split. Further mechanical changes include a modified Torsen limitedslip differential, with the locking ratio dropped from 38 per cent to 31.

Many will consider the 128ti not a genuine hot hatch because of the decision to only offer an automatic gearbox. However, with less than a third of 135i customers ordering a manual, coupled with the six-speed gearbox’s longer ratios hampering its ability to meet emission requirements, the auto got the nod, albeit with shorter ratios to make the most of the car’s 80kg weight reduction and 184bhp per ton.

With VW’S latest Golf GTI (see page 14) once again setting a benchmark as the premium player of hot hatches and Hyundai’s exemplary i30 N (engineered by EX-BMW M man Albert Biermann don’t forget) having undergone a mild update (see page 41), a new contender in the hot hatch sector is only a good thing. It may not be a blue-blooded M-car like the new M3 and M4, but its onpaper potential is just as tantalising.