TRACK TEST: BMW M140i vs. Audi S3 Sedan quattro

We had kalani on a really really hot day to have a look at the new bmw m1 for the i really this car fits exactly almost in price and performance with the audi s3 which we’ve also got here to look at a bit later what we have here are two cars that represent the parent company’s design philosophies the bmw and the audi are quite different in the way that they

Come to the same place that cost more less the same money the bmw is resolutely rebel drive and front engine and the audi four-wheel drive with the engine quite far out over the front wheels so these two cars are gonna do the same thing but in very different ways obviously this car needs to put people inside it and luggage and so on but the engine is moved

Back as far as possible to the firewall you’ll notice that the engine is about half way half of the engine is in front of the front struts and we compare that to the audi way of almost the whole engine is in front of the front struts the m1 fully comes with upgraded brakes kalani is very hard on break so i’m expecting some brake fighting today especially

In the heat it also has a smaller front tire than the back slightly narrower because of the ray will drive that it wants to need all the help it can get at the back with a slightly wider tire the in 140 also doesn’t have a less duff it’s a it’s an option and i think quite a bigger mission but we’ll be able to see now when we go on to the track whether this

Little package can put the power in a way exactly it fits in in my mind it’s going to struggle to beat the honda type r which is a really specialized track car so we’re looking at something obviously a bit slower than the m2 and a 45 somewhere on the on the top austin are you designed philosophy is to build a forward draft car and the h3 is no exception the

Engine is right over the front here most of it is in front of the front wheels that makes the call exception is stable and also frees up a lot of space inside the cabin you’ll notice that when you look at the tires that they’re all the same size because the adi doesn’t have a traction problem okay because of the full drive system this mexico exceptionalist

And useful in conditions where the surface is changing or it’s it’s wait so though the s3 is probably more road base then say the auris 3 we’re going to give it a whirl around kalani and see where it ends up in our performance table so we’re in the audi s3 about to leave the pits so we’ll see in spite of all this traction and really good turning and so on

It’s probably not gonna do it very fast laptop the forward drive system was so steps power from the car in its top speed but it helps in here is like breaking obviously stability in the corners in the rain a forward drive system would be really excellent see that dormant opponent understeer with a car didn’t want to rotate around spike each slow there we

Had 13 over there which is quite nice oh ii see there’s something with the driving style at one can do to help the car around the corners look at that nice turning oversteer which is great the diverting is is to driving on the brakes which creates understeer something i learned the case from racing all the remo drive cars so i would after that my technique

A little bit possibly to get the most out of this car right gear changes gearbox is already ready so this car would be able to defend exactly over the past on your favorite winding road as a truck i’m afraid it’s not a lot of fun it’s exceptionally composed very safe motorcar but 228 kilowatts is just not enough power for the chassis my opinion is that

Forward of course should have at this point probably more than 270 280 kilowatts to make up for the the power sapping of that forward drive drivetrain so this has really got the same powers a type r which is which is front-wheel drive which does a much better lap time on the road however it’s gonna be a marvelous motor car so as we’re leaving the pits yeah

And i put the bmw m 140 famous sport plus mode and bmw kindly switched off the dsc system so it’s got no interference at all remember we said this car doesn’t have it other stuff which i’m expecting will give a bit of a problem when we’re trying to put the power down because the inside rear wheel will start spinning the open turf puts the power to it will go

The easiest so that means the inside wheel will spin when alice stuff it’s called a limited-slip duff will actually make the two wheels spin at the same speed which helps the outside will put the power down as well and obviously without an alice duff or a locking diff of some kind you can’t really do donuts and and drifting so this car would be very good at

That i can already feel it’s quite a lot softer we’re gonna see what lap time it can do it’s extremely hot today although there well it doesn’t feel like it’s over and that’s the same thing as a cop are you if you give it a little bit of feel just before you really want to go the engine makes the more power than you expected in a weird way so it’s harder to

Drive smoothly than normally aspirated engine now i decided kind of feeling in the top said momentarily sort of right there when you get on the gas there’s a lovely cards revolving it’s fun i think with the addition of analysts if to be right i wish i had wanted a much tougher but thirty that you a despotic city think of the days of that time a little

Bit slower so in a weird way where the s3 could cope with a lot more power there in 140 count i think it set the limit of of the power that this chassis in this way can handle so the in one foot is a lot of fun very involving to drive limited by suspension if i could say that the engine is extremely powerful a lovely 6-cylinder engine but it really wants a

Suspension of the m2 and i mean that’s that’s what it is it’s it’s a road biased car so it’s slightly too narrow at the back and it doesn’t have a alistair i think if you expect one of the early snippet make a big difference but but on the track right now the the narrowness of the back a couple was a lack of the other stuff makes it a little bit twitchy from

The back but as a road car it’s absolutely marvelous it because nobody can reach the limit of this car on the road without being you know completely crazy so as a road car it’s really fantastic it’s a sweet sounding engine it’s a great package

Transcribed from video
TRACK TEST: BMW M140i vs. Audi S3 Sedan quattro By CAR magazine SA Archive