I do understand your love of NA. engines. I myself think they are awesome. But as a previous owner of NA. inline 6 engines such as M54 both ranging from 195hp to 230 hp and plenty of time behind various N52 versions. I completely understand how smooth and free reving they can be for not overly powerful engines.
However, its not like they rev sky high to intoxicating red line in the way S54 did to well near 8000 rpms to make its power. The N52, and M54 versions merely rev to 6500 rpm before being all done. I am not so sure what version of 335i you are talking about. Because no way is the twin turbo N54 muted by anyones standards that has driven it specially without the exhaust inlet unpluged. In fact the N54 is best sounding BMW inline-6 I have driven with only the NA S54 inline-6 coming any where close in its sounds. Infact even S54 becomes a bit metallic raspy compared to N54. Also, the N54 revs to same 7K rpms that N52 revs to. Only difference is by 5900 rpm you have all of your 300 hp available. To me that is not much difference since the overall difference is mere 500 rpms between the peak power for N52 vs N54.
If you like inline-6 engines and how they sound go give a N54 powered inline-6 twin turbo 335is a try and you would swear that you were at American Le mans series race. The car sounds amazing and has the balls to back up its sound.
As for driving in Houston, Texas we stay in grid locks also during busy traffic hours. But I can assure you that just like N52 you can still rev N54 to its 7000 rpms with in the first 2 gears to get 45-50mph top speed limit of your commute. Only difference will be you better hang on because 50 mph will come a lot sooner and with a lot more drama if you have the traction control off.
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Originally Posted by SteVTEC
Also you live in Houston (TX), so you have plenty of room to flog the more powerful cars and engines. Not everybody is that fortunate. Here in the DC suburbs it's tough enough to break 45 mph, or have any sort of fun without running into traffic. You have to find things to enjoy in cars other than power, like good handling, or the sweet sounds an engine might make. That's one of the things I could enjoy in a BMW, the sweet sounding and great feeling free-revving yet not overly powerful NA Inline-6, and now they're taking that away by replacing it with this 4-banger turbo. I suppose I could get a 535i, but they're far more muted and it falls into the 'too much power to enjoy' responsibly category for me around here.
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