Sdrive designation

P

palgeno

Member
Since the e89 Z4s were all rear wheel drive, and none were all wheel x drive, why cluttered badging? BMW continues to do this with the e92. As far as I am aware, only the z4s have the unnecessary badging. Anyone know why?
 
The logic was more aimed at what would normally be all wheel drive vehicles ie SUVs and the cheaper BMW SUVs had two wheel drive..so it was called S Drive ..the S being some form of technical German for two wheel drive as opposed to X drive..

It looks like BMW marketing guys then adopted it for the E89 to counter the push (pun) from Audi with front wheel drive sports cars..

Many people remove the s drive moniker from the flanks of their E89s..
 
Pbondar said:
..the S being some form of technical German for two wheel drive as opposed to X drive...
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I don't know any German expression for "s".

Have a look at Wkipedia, that might hit it better:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/BMW_sDrive
 
Pbondar said:
It looks like BMW marketing guys then adopted it for the E89 to counter the push (pun) from Audi with front wheel drive sports cars..
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No such thing as a FWD "sports car" :)
 
Starman said:
Pbondar said:
It looks like BMW marketing guys then adopted it for the E89 to counter the push (pun) from Audi with front wheel drive sports cars..
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No such thing as a FWD "sports car" :)
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Absolutely spot on, I think it was Enzo Ferrari who said something like 'theirs no point having a front wheel drive car over 100 bhp because you cant get the power down" or something similar.
 
Just a marketing thing that BMW tried out to show off the fact that the cars are rear wheel drive, although not a very successful endeavour considering that "sdrive" is completely meaningless to the majority of people. I agree it looks cluttered on the side, but they are easily removed.

I'm not convinced that the Enzo Ferarri quote is relevant in 2021 with current tyre, suspension and electronic assistance technology, but I'd still rather have RWD in a sports car.
 
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.
 
When I bought my e89 in 2010, I was told it stood for sports drive :tumbleweed:
 
Busterboo said:
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.
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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?!
 
tiglon said:
Busterboo said:
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.
Click to expand...

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?!
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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 :rofl:
 
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?
 
tiglon said:
The first BMW turbo car had Turbo stuck on the model number, so perhaps a 35i should be called a Z130i Turbo?
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You’re just wanting more bloody badges to play around with :poke: :rofl:
 
Argyll Andy said:
tiglon said:
The first BMW turbo car had Turbo stuck on the model number, so perhaps a 35i should be called a Z130i Turbo?
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You’re just wanting more bloody badges to play around with :poke: :rofl:
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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.... :thumbsup:

Ole gits rule said:
So does that make a 35iS a Z130 T2
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Z130i Turbo M, or MZ130i Turbo, since it's the same engine but tuned by M division :poke:
 
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