This colorful BMW M140i has been modified in more ways than one as the body wrap is just only a part of the story. Making the hot hatch even hotter, YouTuber hampshirephoto subjected his rear-wheel-drive compact machine to a stage 3 kit, which involved fitting a Pure800 kit from Pure Turbos to extract a massive 730 horsepower from the inline-six engine.
It’s worth noting the full power is unlocked when the car is running on race fuel but the top speed run was done with the M140i using pump fuel. Rather than pushing out 730 hp, the B58 engine was producing “only” 620 hp. Despite the heavily modified engine, the 3.0-liter remains fairly economical as the car returns 25 mpg UK (20 mpg US or 11.3 liters / 100 km).
The 200-mph top speed attempt was conducted on a public road, so naturally, the M140i made a trip to Germany on an unrestricted section of the Autobahn. Even at high speeds, the range-topping version of the F20 1 Series remained perfectly stable without any drama. The engine’s pulling power is more than evident in the attached video as the little BMW effortlessly picks up speed when being pushed flat out.
Although the M140i’s owner failed to hit the magical 200-mph march, he was able to reach 188.9 mph (304 km/h), which is pretty remarkable for only a 1 Series. Granted, this isn’t just any 1er, but aerodynamics come into play at such high speeds and the hatchback isn’t the sleekest BMW out there. Nevertheless, surpassing 300 km/h is an impressive feat on its own, albeit we’re left wondering whether a longer stretch of the Autobahn with less traffic would enable the M140i to break the 200-mph barrier.
We’d be curious to know whether using race fuel to access the full 730 hp would help the pocket rocket in its quest to reach 200 mph. Maybe in a future video?
Source: hampshirephoto / YouTube
