Sdrive designation

[Ole gits rule]

I don't know what the '35' means on my car, or the 'i', or the 'S', or whether the last should be a lower case or a capital. Come to think of it, I've little what most of the clutter makers put on other cars means. The 'E89' with all its silly model numbering that makes you want to put in a decimal point is a good series of cars, though.

The "35" means that turbochargers ruined the traditional engine size method of badging so now they add an arbitrary 5 to the NA badge number.

Ever since injection petrol engines became ubiquitous, the "i" stands for petrol, because BMW didn't want to do a 35p model in case customers thought that was the price.

The "s" or "S" - depending on where you look - means BMW hadn't come up with "M-light" branding yet and weren't up for calling it a 36i/37i/38i/39i. Given it has approx 11.5% more power than a 35i, I would have gone with 39.02.

To summarise, 30 for being 3 litre, add 5 for being turbocharged, add 4.02 for being the higher output engine, stick a P on the end so everyone knows it's not diesel or electric - it should be called a 39.02P. That would make more sense than Audi's latest badging logic, which seems to be engine displacement, remove the decimal point and multiply by 2 because bigger numbers sound better...

In case anyone is wondering what Z means, I've googled it for you and apparently it's "zukunft" (German for future) - which means that in 1989 BMW thought that a 2 seater convertible was futuristic?!

Think the futuristic was meant to be the design same as Merc with SLK which means sporty / light / short and not certain it met any of those

[tiglon]

Also odd that BMW made a 3 series, then a new 3 series, then a new 3 series etc etc, and same logic with X cars, whereas with Z's they did Z1, Z3 (what happened to Z2?), Z4, new Z4, new Z4.

Shouldn't the Z3 and all Z4's actually be Z1's?

The first BMW turbo car had Turbo stuck on the model number, so perhaps a 35i should be called a Z130i Turbo?

[Argyll Andy]

The first BMW turbo car had Turbo stuck on the model number, so perhaps a 35i should be called a Z130i Turbo?

You’re just wanting more bloody badges to play around with

[Ole gits rule]

The first BMW turbo car had Turbo stuck on the model number, so perhaps a 35i should be called a Z130i Turbo?

You’re just wanting more bloody badges to play around with

So does that make a 35iS a Z130 T2

[tiglon]

The first BMW turbo car had Turbo stuck on the model number, so perhaps a 35i should be called a Z130i Turbo?

You’re just wanting more bloody badges to play around with

I'd be lying if I said I hadn't already googled "Z1 badge" - turns out they are a bit thin on the ground, as are genuine BMW "turbo" badges! I like a challenge though....

So does that make a 35iS a Z130 T2

Z130i Turbo M, or MZ130i Turbo, since it's the same engine but tuned by M division

[RobbiZ4]

..the S being some form of technical German for two wheel drive as opposed to X drive...

I don't know any German expression for "s".

Have a look at Wkipedia, that might hit it:https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/BMW_sDrive

From my understanding, 's' means 'single axle drive', in opposite to "x" for 'all way drive'.