Last weekend, the San Diego Chapter held its annual high-performance driving school at Chuckwalla Valley Raceway. Since it was one of the first BMW CCA schools of the year, I thought it would be a great idea to head out into the desert and promote what the Club has to offer—and wouldn’t this be a great opportunity to review a car? Maybe the BMW 228i with the Track Handling package?

    So Satch checked with BMW NA, and sure enough, they had such a vehicle in the LA press fleet. Then he sent me an e-mail: “You CAN drive a stick, can’t you?” Of course! He finished with the admonition that every teenage boy receives from his father just before being handed the keys to the family car: “Don’t wreck it!”

    The BMW 228i that BMW NA was nice enough to loan us was a beautiful Alpine White car with a six-speed manual—and the Track Handling package. That $2,200 option includes adaptive M suspension—which lowers the car ten millimeters from the stock 228i—M Sport brakes that feature four-piston calipers and 13.4" discs up front and two-piston 13.6" discs in the rear, variable sport steering, and sticky 225/40-18 Michelin Pilot Super Sports on the front with 245/35-18s in the rear.

    The 240-horsepower turbocharged four-cylinder provided plenty of fun on the drive to Chuckwalla, and even though I was a little spirited in my driving, I was able to get a decent 32 mpg. My initial judgment, however, was that it was going to be a little lacking for speed on the track, so the next day I decided to go out with the B run group, as I thought I might be a moving chicane in the faster A Group.

    Little did I know how wrong I was!

    I lined up at the front of the grid for the B Group, toggled the driving mode to Sport Plus, and put my foot down when the green flag waved. I took the first couple of laps easy to get the tires up to temperature, and to get a better feel for the car. By then I had thought that I would be pointing by a faster car or two, but when I looked in my rear-view mirror going down the front straight, there was no one in sight. Aha—with no one in front or behind, I was happy that I had some open track to test this car out.

    One of the hardest braking zones at Chuckwalla is a little bit of track between Turns One and Two. I approached this area with some decent speed, and firmly pressed the brake pedal. The brakes clamped down, providing a very confident decrease in speed, and set the car up perfectly to get through Turn Two. As I turned in, the car gripped and railed around, shooting me out toward Turn Three. Wow, I thought, the grip of this car is incredible!

    As I went through the next couple of sweepers, I noticed that all I had to do was brake a little bit in order to get the weight transferred; from then on, it was almost full throttle—there was just so much traction! In Sport Plus mode, there was a slight bit of understeer on the tighter and increasing-radius turns; I found out later that when traction control is turned completely off, the understeer is mostly neutralized.

    I was amazed that just a few laps into my session, I started to lap some of the B Group backmarkers. This car obviously didn’t have the power to rocket down the straights, but the grip in the corners was just crazy! It allowed me to close the gap on a lead car countless times, and it put a smile on my face every time I passed a car—which was happening with some frequency.

    Pulling into the pits after the checker, I noticed that I had gone through a quarter-tank of gas in the twenty-minute session. I toggled through the trip computer to read that I had achieved only 7.4 mpg. The side effect of all that traction allowing you to go full throttle is that the little 2 Series thinks it’s an M car, and guzzles the fuel!

    I ran four sessions during the weekend, and the car performed perfectly the entire time. And as good as it was on the track, it really shined on the drive home. I took the mountain route, and although the suspension may have been a little soft for the track, it was perfect for carving the back roads. It absorbed all the bumps and imperfections, yet still provided the stiffness to confidently navigate the tight, twisty road. Several times I found myself looking down at the speedometer, only to realize that I was going way too fast, and had to reel it back. It was just effortless to carry speed through the corners!

    So here is what I like about the 228i:

    • The amount of traction is amazing! There really is no need to modulate the throttle. If you aren’t braking, just put your right foot to the floor; the Michelin Pilot Super Sports never really reach their limits.

    • The brakes performed fantastic on the track. They provided plenty of bite, and never faded in our 20–25-minute sessions. Pedal travel got a bit longer as the session progressed, but with OEM fluid and pads, I was really impressed with their consistency.

    • The six-speed manual is very easy to heel-and-toe due to the quick spool-up of the turbocharged engine.

    • Even for a guy who measures almost 6'3", there is plenty of headroom with a helmet on.

    What I didn’t care for about the 228i:

    • There is a too much body sway for the track. On the mountain roads, if felt great—but if I were going to track or autocross this car, first upgrade would be the sway bars.

    • The throw on the shifts for the manual transmission were a bit too long.

    • The exhaust is really quiet, almost non-existent. I found myself looking down at the dash too often in situations where I would normally rely on exhaust and engine sounds. It would be nice if there was a BMW M Performance exhaust for this car, but right now, one is not available.

    How I would configure the car:

    • M Sport Package: I like the more aggressive styling. The sport seats and M Sport steering wheel would be nice too.

    • Lighting package: After finding my speed slowly creep up in the mountains, I decided that the xenon lights would be a good improvement for safety.

    • Technology package: Not a must, but the navigation and upgraded screen would be nice. And this gives you access to BMW Apps. I really wanted to test out the BMW M Laptimer and GoPro apps, as I really think they could enhance the track-day experience. Unfortunately, I will have to do that at another time.

    • Eight-speed sport automatic transmission with paddle-shifters: This was a tough call, and I would want to ride in one with a few suspension upgrades before I made a final decision. But as it is, there is too much traction to have fun with a manual. I found that the car would have been much quicker with the tighter gear ratios because it could keep the revs up.

    So let’s settle one issue right now. Lately, some very vocal BMW enthusiasts have been claiming that The End Is Nigh, that the fun is gone. They point at the bigger cars and niche markets that didn’t exist a few years ago, and claim that BMW’s managers have lost their way. But I think that those enthusiasts just haven’t been looking at the right cars. The BMW 228i equipped with the Track Handling Package is a fantastic little car—one that drives just the way you’d image the BMW of old would make a car today.—Nate Risch

    [Photos courtesy of Ben Carufel Photography]