On Sunday I drove from Los Angeles to Santa Cruz with my 17 year-old son, returning yesterday. That's 700 miles in two days.
I knew this would be the first big test of my relationship with my six month-old 228i M Sport with THP and boy did it pass with flying colors. The first thing to note is what a GT it is on the freeway in Comfort mode. Even with a performance exhaust, its demeanor at 100 mph and 4000 rpm was thoroughly civilized; quiet, powerful and un-fussy. So much so that I promptly collected a speeding ticket on the I-5, having been clocked by the CHP at 95 but if you can't do the time…
The car has such poise at speed. It is firmly planted on those great PSS tires and there is no play or imprecision in the steering. These things were severely tested on both days by torrential rain, especially yesterday when it came down in sheets, one great monsoon all the way from Santa Cruz to the Grapevine. Visibility was appalling yet I could overtake with confidence and stability when I needed to and in anything but the very heaviest rain I could still cruise at 80mph when I would not have trusted any other car I've owned in the last fifteen years to maintain more than 70 mph in those horrendous conditions. The M-Sport brakes are wonderful, perfectly calibrated, no drama, no judder, no fade but powerful and authoritative in the wet when I needed them to be.
Performance-wise I had already known about this car's dual-personality according to driving mode selected but this drive was the ultimate test of that because I appreciated the less hectic driving experience on the open road at high cruising speed in Comfort mode yet there were times when I wanted the heightened throttle response, drivetrain performance and suspension behavior of Sport mode and to be higher up on the rev counter, such as for frequent overtaking or on the Grapevine climb when I did not want to be constantly punching the throttle to grab a lower gear. However, I also found that using the left paddle in Comfort mode enabled me to access the torque I needed more instantaneously than using kickdown and with a rev-matching smoothness I had never experienced before in an AT.
I have been suffering from a really bad back but at no point in this 700-mile drive did I feel any discomfort except for the inevitable stiff neck and shoulders caused by the stress of driving in these weather conditions. The sports seat with its electric lumbar support and bolsters is just superb, as are the cabin comfort levels and ergonomics. The nav is also of a very high quality and it spared me a great deal of anxiety. I trust its diversion routing AI implicitly.
I always admired the superb engineering of BMW but this is the first time I have really appreciated it under some pretty demanding conditions. I parked the car outside our motel in the cold and the teeming rain but that did not faze it one bit when I started it the next morning. I have never driven a four-cylinder car that behaves more like an ultra-refined grand tourer when I want it to, or a four-seater coupe that can be driven more like a sports car when that is what I want (although some fairly extensive tuning must take a lot of credit for my Two's exceptionally lively acceleration, suspension and enhanced boost settings).
This superb piece of machinery not only got me and my son there and back in safely, it also made what would otherwise have been a slightly scary and uncomfortable long-haul trip a lot of fun in the most challenging of circumstances. There was nothing that the weather could throw at it that it couldn't cope with in style and nothing in the driver ergonomics that did not enhance the experience.
The car was absolutely filthy on our return. I felt the least I could do to show my gratitude and appreciation was to get is washed and waxed today.
I knew this would be the first big test of my relationship with my six month-old 228i M Sport with THP and boy did it pass with flying colors. The first thing to note is what a GT it is on the freeway in Comfort mode. Even with a performance exhaust, its demeanor at 100 mph and 4000 rpm was thoroughly civilized; quiet, powerful and un-fussy. So much so that I promptly collected a speeding ticket on the I-5, having been clocked by the CHP at 95 but if you can't do the time…
The car has such poise at speed. It is firmly planted on those great PSS tires and there is no play or imprecision in the steering. These things were severely tested on both days by torrential rain, especially yesterday when it came down in sheets, one great monsoon all the way from Santa Cruz to the Grapevine. Visibility was appalling yet I could overtake with confidence and stability when I needed to and in anything but the very heaviest rain I could still cruise at 80mph when I would not have trusted any other car I've owned in the last fifteen years to maintain more than 70 mph in those horrendous conditions. The M-Sport brakes are wonderful, perfectly calibrated, no drama, no judder, no fade but powerful and authoritative in the wet when I needed them to be.
Performance-wise I had already known about this car's dual-personality according to driving mode selected but this drive was the ultimate test of that because I appreciated the less hectic driving experience on the open road at high cruising speed in Comfort mode yet there were times when I wanted the heightened throttle response, drivetrain performance and suspension behavior of Sport mode and to be higher up on the rev counter, such as for frequent overtaking or on the Grapevine climb when I did not want to be constantly punching the throttle to grab a lower gear. However, I also found that using the left paddle in Comfort mode enabled me to access the torque I needed more instantaneously than using kickdown and with a rev-matching smoothness I had never experienced before in an AT.
I have been suffering from a really bad back but at no point in this 700-mile drive did I feel any discomfort except for the inevitable stiff neck and shoulders caused by the stress of driving in these weather conditions. The sports seat with its electric lumbar support and bolsters is just superb, as are the cabin comfort levels and ergonomics. The nav is also of a very high quality and it spared me a great deal of anxiety. I trust its diversion routing AI implicitly.
I always admired the superb engineering of BMW but this is the first time I have really appreciated it under some pretty demanding conditions. I parked the car outside our motel in the cold and the teeming rain but that did not faze it one bit when I started it the next morning. I have never driven a four-cylinder car that behaves more like an ultra-refined grand tourer when I want it to, or a four-seater coupe that can be driven more like a sports car when that is what I want (although some fairly extensive tuning must take a lot of credit for my Two's exceptionally lively acceleration, suspension and enhanced boost settings).
This superb piece of machinery not only got me and my son there and back in safely, it also made what would otherwise have been a slightly scary and uncomfortable long-haul trip a lot of fun in the most challenging of circumstances. There was nothing that the weather could throw at it that it couldn't cope with in style and nothing in the driver ergonomics that did not enhance the experience.
The car was absolutely filthy on our return. I felt the least I could do to show my gratitude and appreciation was to get is washed and waxed today.
Reflections on a 700-mile road trip in the 228i
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