Driving at its most pleasurable

BMW’S EfficientDynamics technology is best exemplified in the newly launched BMW 1 Series.

BMW has long been renowned for its technical innovation, from engines that keep on getting more powerful but more fuel-efficient engines to driving aids that become much more sophisticated with each generation.

This writer has been mulling over all these things when the safety instructor told me to position the vehicle I’m driving—a 2011 BMW 740 Li—right between two vertical markers.

Told to imagine that I am about to enter a “blind” intersection and thus, do not have a good field of view of the traffic I am about to cross, the instructor, afterward, tapped the 740’s iDrive display.

Suddenly, the iDrive display provided me with images of what’s coming from both sides of the 740 (courtesy of the two cameras integrated in the right and left sides of the front bumper).

If the two markers were corners of buildings, these images would come in very handy as I pull into traffic from such sight-obstructed alley or driveway.

Already impressed, I was also shown with another image, this time, a 270-degree bird’s eye view of everything around the 740—courtesy of cameras installed on both side mirrors and rear bumpers. The iDrive Display merges all the surrounding views that proved helpful as I dodged small orange cones in the tight maneuvering exercise that followed.

These same camera views may also be helpful when parking in tight places. In fact, these cameras working in conjunction with ultrasound sensors enable this particular BMW sedan to scan parked cars for an available space and parallel park itself.

The BMW Innovations Xpo held at Keppel Island Plaza in Singapore highlights the German automaker’s mission to intelligently integrate the driver, the vehicle and the outside world aptly called the BMW ConnectedDrive technology.

Such innovations enabled BMW to win four prizes in the internationally renowned “Plus X Award” in the categories of Innovation, Design and Operating Comfort. It has also been honored as the “Best Technology of the Year 2011” with an additional “Plus X Award” seal of quality.

“We hope that the hands-on activities at this event will enable our participants with a better understanding of the true prowess of not only the BMW ConnectedDrive technology but also the BMW EfficientDynamics, and how they contribute to the sheer driving pleasure that the brand is known for,” said Glen Dasig, sales and marketing director of Asian Carmakers Corp., the exclusive distributor of BMW vehicles in the Philippines.

The BMW EfficientDynamics refers to the German automaker’s initiative to improve the efficiency of all its vehicles in order to make them more environmentally friendly.

Under this initiative, BMW is able to come up with intelligent energy management systems, construct lightweight as well as aerodynamic automobile bodies, which helped the automaker to receive numerous internationally recognized awards.

The BMW EfficientDynamics is exemplified best by the new 1 Series, which made their debut during the BMW Innovations Xpo (the 116i and the 118i variants were presented).

Despite the fact that the new 1 Series is longer by 85mm, has a wheelbase that is extended by 30mm, and boot capacity made more spacious by 30 liters, the five-door hatch is in fact 30kg lighter than its predecessor and has torsional rigidity improved by almost a third.

The engine is also a thing of beauty. Exclusively turbocharged, the BMW TwinPower Turbo employs twin scroll turbine technology that delivers improved turbine performance by delivering high pressure exhaust pulses directly to the turbine wheel.

This results in a much better low-speed performance, especially for four-cylinder engines.