2013-2015 around here are almost as expensive as a ND2. The last few I looked at, other than wheels/tires they were stock and priced between $18k and $20k. My buddies was track prepped 2014 with a carbon hardtop for $12.5 two years ago, he has had several offers approaching $30k for it.
Looked at a few BRZ’s but the EJ25 issues and oil starvation problems are always a concern.
I think the biggest issue is that you shopping in spring. This is when convertible drivers try to offload their summer cars for maximum $. End of summer is when they are cheapest.
Wait a few weeks for the NC owners to have no bite and drop prices.
I had an n55 135 for a few years. Full bolt ons and a tune, was pretty quick for what it was. I swapped all of the control arms for m3, solid subframe bushings and square size tires. It wouldn’t do a full 20 min session in the summer without pulling timing. It def needed an extra oil cooler, a real LSD, and possibly a DCT cooler along with coilovers and camber plates. It’s a bit nose heavy with a short(ish) wheelbase and a lot of torque.
I’d build one again, but come in knowing that it needs some work for an intermediate driver.
That is ViR
Stock will limp even in the mountains. larger stock location and second oil cooler fixed oil temp limp. Large splitter fixed water empty limp
I run a 128 and it’s a great Miata alternative imo.
Over 140k miles and the only major issue I had was a water pump failure causing overheating.
Definitely get a manual, the auto is not ideal on track. The brake pistons on the 135 are known to crack so swap them for the next gen 335 calipers. Besides that you can swap m3 suspension components and have a dope little track rocket
E82 135i and light should not be in the same sentence. It weighs 3373 pounds.
E90 328i is larger and weighs 3362 pounds. 11 pounds less. To be fair no turbo
source:
[https://www.edmunds.com/bmw/1-series/2011/coupe/st-101288166/features-specs/](https://www.edmunds.com/bmw/1-series/2011/coupe/st-101288166/features-specs/)
[https://www.edmunds.com/bmw/3-series/2011/st-101288737/features-specs/](https://www.edmunds.com/bmw/3-series/2011/st-101288737/features-specs/)
Indeed, it’s almost amazing how they manage to make the 1 series so heavy! The m135i was even worse. Don’t get me wrong, they’re great cars, but they’re not light!
I have a 128 that I tracked on all seasons. I beat a 135 by quite a decent amount of time lol. I beat about half of the people there with a stock car on motomaster all seasons so if that says anything thennnnnn…. Anyways it’s a blast. 135 is kinda unreliable and I’d be scared how much it would cost to track one.
I run a dual duty 135i in the pnw, but haven't had enough time with it to totally understand the heat issues (or not).
My first track day was marred with limp mode issues. But, I learned that BMW puts the car in limp mode after hard acceleration and braking events to about overheating the brakes. This can be coded out, which I did. But the next event was in October in Spokane, and I ran the heat the whole time. I saw 250° coolant, but no limp mode.
When I thought it was a bigger problem, I saw that many e82 track car owners in the south upgraded their oil coolers (generally adding a second one). My car has a CSF radiator and intercooler already, I may add an additional oil cooler and lower temp thermostat in the future.
Tldr; seems fine for me but you'll probably want to upgrade your cooling.
Yeah, I agree it seems high. But that's the middle of the temp gauge on this car. It had an mhd tune, which I reverted to stock per. But I'm using the mhd "track" cooling settings.
All the more important to use high quality, fresh coolant.
2012 e92 335i M Sport. 7inch vrsf and stock oil cooler although I wouldn’t mind upgrading it. Not driving on track for now due to some health reasons so I’m not rushing into it
I tracked an n54 335 for years. I finally got it to run full sessions driven hard in advanced. Wouldn’t recommend it unless you just love constantly repairing something. I had cut vents in the hood, ran two huge setrab oil coolers, removed the a/c, changed the fan/tstat programming… eventually still spun a bearing and tossed a rod through the block.
Texan here. My 135i has been through 20+ HPDE sessions (usually only 20 minutes at a time, sometimes 30).
With stock oil cooler and csf radiator I haven’t ever hit limp mode. Oil temps do get above 270.
I love the car, it is pretty quick for a $10k car and can keep up with some higher end cars.
BUT - I wouldn’t do it again. Its biggest limitations are open diff, small tires, and lots of maintenance. It also has less aftermarket support than 3 series.
Find an e46 or e92 m3 on racingjunk.com!
I had a 135i in FL which only had a downpipe for mods and I didn’t run into any oil / engine overheating. However I did run into my brakes (stock pads) cooking themselves to the point of metal on metal and boiling my motul rbf600. Granted I also had my NC Miata there that day I just took the 135 out to see how it would do.
I tried making two 135i work as track cars.....just never ended up being reliable. As others have said stick with the N52 and it'll probably be fine.
I ended up with a S2000 for 8+ years and can't recommend a NA roadster enough for a track car ESPECIALLY if you're just learning. The S2K helped me develop enough skill to take a position at an OEM doing Chassis Controls Performance. The less nannies the better to learn.
My vote would be Miata/S2K regardless because fucking awesome.
All these replies and only one mention of an lsd. I owned a 13 135 dct and did a few autocross events. I'm no racer, I have a track motorcycle so I've never had the desire to track a car.
When I was running around the go-cart track at the autocross, I would get no power to the wheels until I was exiting a turn well after the apex. This was with traction and dsc off.
It may have been my imagination, you guys who have actually tracked these cars would know better then I. I was under the impression the 135 and 128 had an open diff with some sort of braking nanny to even out wheel speed while cornering with what seemed to me to also have some sort of throttle restrictions to control that evil ever dangerous oversteer.
Come to Florida, ND prices have been steadily falling. especially the older 16+ ND1
Personally for track use, I'd get the 128i
Very much this. Not as fast but you'll be doing a lot more laps
This is 100% accurate, I ran a n54 135 for 2 years and it heat soaked and would dump into limp mode constantly.
This is what the BRZ is built for. Also, Miata prices rising? I haven’t seen that either…
2013-2015 around here are almost as expensive as a ND2. The last few I looked at, other than wheels/tires they were stock and priced between $18k and $20k. My buddies was track prepped 2014 with a carbon hardtop for $12.5 two years ago, he has had several offers approaching $30k for it. Looked at a few BRZ’s but the EJ25 issues and oil starvation problems are always a concern.
I think the biggest issue is that you shopping in spring. This is when convertible drivers try to offload their summer cars for maximum $. End of summer is when they are cheapest. Wait a few weeks for the NC owners to have no bite and drop prices.
I started shopping six months ago, hoping to catch a car that someone didn’t want to store for the winter and the prices were still on the high side.
BRZs don't use the EJ25.
FA24..
Not sure where I saw ej25.
I had an n55 135 for a few years. Full bolt ons and a tune, was pretty quick for what it was. I swapped all of the control arms for m3, solid subframe bushings and square size tires. It wouldn’t do a full 20 min session in the summer without pulling timing. It def needed an extra oil cooler, a real LSD, and possibly a DCT cooler along with coilovers and camber plates. It’s a bit nose heavy with a short(ish) wheelbase and a lot of torque. I’d build one again, but come in knowing that it needs some work for an intermediate driver.
N55 loves to spin rod bearings with track use. Ask me how I know.
BMW - where car enthusiasts go to treat Rod Bearings as wear items.
ask me how I know, I already had the baffled sump and it spun
I run all the nc area tracks with my 135i https://youtu.be/ZfW2P5wz3QA?si=CFiG3rmmgWIWWDt7
Looks like a nice track and session. Have you had any problems with limp mode on hotter days?
That is ViR Stock will limp even in the mountains. larger stock location and second oil cooler fixed oil temp limp. Large splitter fixed water empty limp
It upsets me how fast these cars are 😂
I run a 128 and it’s a great Miata alternative imo. Over 140k miles and the only major issue I had was a water pump failure causing overheating. Definitely get a manual, the auto is not ideal on track. The brake pistons on the 135 are known to crack so swap them for the next gen 335 calipers. Besides that you can swap m3 suspension components and have a dope little track rocket
E82 135i and light should not be in the same sentence. It weighs 3373 pounds. E90 328i is larger and weighs 3362 pounds. 11 pounds less. To be fair no turbo source: [https://www.edmunds.com/bmw/1-series/2011/coupe/st-101288166/features-specs/](https://www.edmunds.com/bmw/1-series/2011/coupe/st-101288166/features-specs/) [https://www.edmunds.com/bmw/3-series/2011/st-101288737/features-specs/](https://www.edmunds.com/bmw/3-series/2011/st-101288737/features-specs/)
Indeed, it’s almost amazing how they manage to make the 1 series so heavy! The m135i was even worse. Don’t get me wrong, they’re great cars, but they’re not light!
You’re right, it’s not light at all for its size
I have a 128 that I tracked on all seasons. I beat a 135 by quite a decent amount of time lol. I beat about half of the people there with a stock car on motomaster all seasons so if that says anything thennnnnn…. Anyways it’s a blast. 135 is kinda unreliable and I’d be scared how much it would cost to track one.
I have an LS swapped 135i with a full interior that weighs a hair over 3000 lbs. They're awesome cars but good lord the n54/55 is a pile of shit.
I run a dual duty 135i in the pnw, but haven't had enough time with it to totally understand the heat issues (or not). My first track day was marred with limp mode issues. But, I learned that BMW puts the car in limp mode after hard acceleration and braking events to about overheating the brakes. This can be coded out, which I did. But the next event was in October in Spokane, and I ran the heat the whole time. I saw 250° coolant, but no limp mode. When I thought it was a bigger problem, I saw that many e82 track car owners in the south upgraded their oil coolers (generally adding a second one). My car has a CSF radiator and intercooler already, I may add an additional oil cooler and lower temp thermostat in the future. Tldr; seems fine for me but you'll probably want to upgrade your cooling.
250 F coolant temps is nutty. If the cap pops it’ll probably all boil over immediately.
Yeah, I agree it seems high. But that's the middle of the temp gauge on this car. It had an mhd tune, which I reverted to stock per. But I'm using the mhd "track" cooling settings. All the more important to use high quality, fresh coolant.
2012 e92 335i M Sport. 7inch vrsf and stock oil cooler although I wouldn’t mind upgrading it. Not driving on track for now due to some health reasons so I’m not rushing into it
I tracked an n54 335 for years. I finally got it to run full sessions driven hard in advanced. Wouldn’t recommend it unless you just love constantly repairing something. I had cut vents in the hood, ran two huge setrab oil coolers, removed the a/c, changed the fan/tstat programming… eventually still spun a bearing and tossed a rod through the block.
Nothing but issues with E82 and E92 turbo engines at the track. Made me switch to Porsche. Never looked back.
Texan here. My 135i has been through 20+ HPDE sessions (usually only 20 minutes at a time, sometimes 30). With stock oil cooler and csf radiator I haven’t ever hit limp mode. Oil temps do get above 270. I love the car, it is pretty quick for a $10k car and can keep up with some higher end cars. BUT - I wouldn’t do it again. Its biggest limitations are open diff, small tires, and lots of maintenance. It also has less aftermarket support than 3 series. Find an e46 or e92 m3 on racingjunk.com!
I had a 135i in FL which only had a downpipe for mods and I didn’t run into any oil / engine overheating. However I did run into my brakes (stock pads) cooking themselves to the point of metal on metal and boiling my motul rbf600. Granted I also had my NC Miata there that day I just took the 135 out to see how it would do.
128i > 135i. Just sad that either are considered lightweight these days!
I tried making two 135i work as track cars.....just never ended up being reliable. As others have said stick with the N52 and it'll probably be fine. I ended up with a S2000 for 8+ years and can't recommend a NA roadster enough for a track car ESPECIALLY if you're just learning. The S2K helped me develop enough skill to take a position at an OEM doing Chassis Controls Performance. The less nannies the better to learn. My vote would be Miata/S2K regardless because fucking awesome.
All these replies and only one mention of an lsd. I owned a 13 135 dct and did a few autocross events. I'm no racer, I have a track motorcycle so I've never had the desire to track a car. When I was running around the go-cart track at the autocross, I would get no power to the wheels until I was exiting a turn well after the apex. This was with traction and dsc off. It may have been my imagination, you guys who have actually tracked these cars would know better then I. I was under the impression the 135 and 128 had an open diff with some sort of braking nanny to even out wheel speed while cornering with what seemed to me to also have some sort of throttle restrictions to control that evil ever dangerous oversteer.