Back in the good ol’ days, BMW went to great extents to fit its famous straight-six engine on most of its vehicles, and this applied to their smallest model, the 1-Series compact hatchback.
The range-topping version of the car, the M140i, came with a 3.0-liter six-pot, developing 340 PS (335 HP / 250 kW) and 500 Nm (339 lb-ft) of torque. It was based on a rear-wheel drive architecture, and was regarded by many as one of the best driver cars in the class.
Watch Also: New M135i Has Plenty Of Talent But Doesn’t Feel Like A Traditional BMW
Its successor, however, the M135i, switched to a front-wheel drive architecture shared with the X1 and X2 crossovers, assisted by the M-tuned xDrive all-wheel drive system. It also lost two cylinders, as it now packs a 2.0-liter turbo-four, with 306 PS (302 HP / 225 kW) and 450 Nm (332 lb-ft) of torque.
Now, in the car world, sometimes less is actually more, so does this apply to the new M140i when it goes head-to-head in a series of challenges with its predecessor? In these tests, the two hot hatches faced each other in two drag races, from a standing and a rolling start, with some surprising results.
We won’t reveal the outcome, as that’s for you to see in the video shared at the bottom of the page, but we will tell you that one of them prevailed both times. The same car also won the braking test, proving to be far more superior than its counterpart, so was it the new one, with all the modern technology and gear? Head on down to find out.