Benjamin M. Monroe Blog: VIDEO: Bilstein B6 dampers transform BMW M140i dynamics

Friday, September 7, 2018

VIDEO: Bilstein B6 dampers transform BMW M140i dynamics

Joe Achilles is a bit of a Bimmerphile and has had a few really fun, small BMWs, including a BMW M2 for a time. Now, though, his daily driver is a BMW M140i Shadow Edition (which makes me personally very jealous because I can’t buy one in the U.S.). His M140i isn’t completely stock, as it features a limited-slip rear differential, Eibach lowering springs, a new strut brace and wheel spacers, along with a Remus exhaust.

However, his dampers were completely stock and it showed when he drove it on track. It was fine on the road but when he wanted to push it just a bit more, its stock suspension let him down a bit. So Achilles decided to upgrade his BMW M140i with a set of Bilstein B6 adjustable dampers.

The nice thing about the new Bilstein B6 dampers is that they aren’t manually-adjustable coil-overs, they work directly with his M140i’s adaptive damper settings. So he can control the damping with the Comfort, Sport and Sport+ drive modes already available in the car. So when he selects comfort, they’re nice an supple but they get increasingly more stiff if either Sport or Sport+ are selected.

BMW M140i Shadow Edition

While the Bilstein B6s won’t be the best option for serious track use, they’re perfect for fun daily driving with a bit of track time. Which makes them the perfect match for a car like the BMW M140i, one of the best daily driving BMW sports cars on sale.

After installing his new Bilstein’s, Achilles takes his BMW M140i to the track and tests it back to back with a bone-stock example. Not only is he a bit quicker in his car, it seems to be the much more fun car and he was quicker despite his car’s tendency to be a bit of a hooligan. Thanks to its aggressive LSD, his M140i steps its tail out quite easily, making it look like a complete hoon but a lot of fun. Despite being sideways a lot, he was faster in his car. It also stayed much flatter, making it easier to drive quickly, and seemed to be sharper as well.

So it just goes to show that a few simple mods, without doing anything too crazy, can really wake up a stock sports car and make it a lot of fun, without compromising its on-road livability.