Not so often we have to meet on city streets the car “coupe” or “convertible”. However, at the dawn of its existence, almost all cars were just that — open, with soft rising tent. In the future, the Foundation of the world fleet amounted to more prestigious and therefore more expensive cars with closed bodies. Well, coupe and cabriolets became the exception and, to the surprise of okaloacoochee the public, again significantly more expensive.
Interestingly, the first car company Bayerische Motorenwerke was an open four-seater convertible with soft awning BMW DIXI edition of 1928, which was a licensed copy of the English car, the Austin Seven. A lot of convertibles the BMW produced in the future, but they all had a soft retractable awning. And only in 2007 the company decided to issue convertible with metal folding hard top — this car was the BMW-335i Convertable.
Advantages of a metal roof are many — here and improved insulation, and almost panoramic visibility, and a more “civilized” appearance, virtually indistinguishable from classic sedans and coupes, and improved aerodynamics. In particular, the BMW-335i Convertable drag coefficient CX of 0,28 — actually the same as the car-twin, two-door BMW 335i Coupe with the ordinary closed body. Of course, if you removed the roof CX a few more, but the flow of the body is such that the presence of the air flow, the crew begins to feel only at speeds above 100 km/h when inside the cockpit start to penetrate the parasitic swirls to get Rid of them helps large transparent aerodynamic screen installed behind the backrests of the front seats — the driver with the help of special clips can clip it even alone. Not-so-scary crew, and cold by reducing the temperature of a comfortable thermal mode in the cockpit supports dual-zone climate control.
The retractable roof BMW 335i Convertable — metal, three-piece, click — and special electro-hydraulic mechanism 22 seconds manages to turn the upper body in three-layer “sandwich” and send it in the trunk removing the roof from the trunk takes a little more time — 23 seconds. On the complexity of the device transforming the roof said that when the mass is 140 kg, it consists of 700 parts.
Predecessors BMW Convertable — car company Bayerische Motorenwerke 3-series:
1 — BMW 1600 Cabriolet 1967,
2 — BMW 3-series E21 Baur Topcabriolet issue, 1978,
3 — BMW 3-series E30 Cabriolet release 1986
4 — BMW 3-series E46 Cabriolet release 2000
The safety of our vehicles Bayerische Motorenwerke firm has traditionally paid very close attention As you know, one of the main devices of passive safety of the car are seatbelts. Interestingly, BMW 335i Convertable in contrast, the BMW 335i Coupe, the straps are fixed not on the legs (they have a car missing), and front seat Side air curtains are not provided, and the function of the side airbags with an increased height and a retractable arc security — in the event of dangerous situations last literally fired from behind the rear headrests.
What else you’ll be Convertable from a Coupe? Of course, primarily for its weight — heavier than the first second to 210 kg, since only one folding roof together with the drive, as mentioned, weighs 140 kg And 70 kg advanced high strength steel has gone on strengthening of the body. However, torsional stiffness, the BMW 335i Coupe is still noticeably superior to the BMW 335i Convertable — 25 000 Nm/deg, compared to 14 000 Nm/deg. However, if we compare not Convertable with all-metal machine, as, for example, precursor — open BMW 3-series (he torsional stiffness was only 10 000 Nm/deg ), the priority will be for the Convertable.
And if we are talking about weight, we should mention the distribution of the axes of the car From BMW-335i Convertable she is perfect — 50 50. Combined with a low center of gravity, this weight distribution allows the vehicle to accurately place bends with such centrifugal accelerations, which until now was unthinkable for cars in the same class.
Car type BMW Convertable can be equipped with one of five engines — four of them are petrol and one diesel. With a powerful 306-horsepower, diesel, with direct fuel injection and turbocharging — installed on BMW-335i Convertable. This is the newest engine created for Bayerische Motorenwerke, applied to two parallel low-inertia turbochargers, each of which supplies air to three cylinders — this scheme eliminates well known to all owners of cars with turbo engines the effect of turbo pint. In addition, the motor is equipped with a system neposredstvennogo high-precision fuel injection. As a result, the rotational speed of the crankshaft of the engine can reach 7000 rpm, acceleration time to 100 km/h in 5.8 seconds, and fuel consumption is 7 liters per 100 km in extra-urban cycle of motion!
Geometric diagram BMW 335i Convertable
Convertible roof coupe-convertible is fully retracted into the trunk
To get, the backseat of the car only when folding the backrest of the front
Electro-hydraulic system requires only 22 seconds to clean three-piece metal roof of the car in the trunk
The front part of the cockpit of the BMW 335i Convertable
Transparent aerodynamic screen allows you to minimize parasitic air turbulence in the cockpit of the car
A few words about the turbodiesel, which is equipped with a modification of 330d. Its working volume is 2993 cm3, power — 231 HP Despite the lower compared to the previous engine power, acceleration to 100 km/h in a turbocharged motor provides for 7.1 — it is a merit of its good torque characteristics the maximum torque of the turbo diesel engine is 500 Nm at a frequency of brasenia crankshaft from 1750 to 3000 rpm.
Vehicles of all five variants are equipped with 6-speed transmissions — both manual and boxes machines.
In Russia BMW Convertable only comes in two variants-the 335i and 325i. The latter is equipped with a new 3-liter engine with direct fuel injection which meets the Euro 4, 2.5-liter “six” of the previous generation, to meet the standards Euro 3.
Torque engine performance modifications 335i. A curious feature of the graph is completely straight characteristics, which is achieved by using two turbochargers
The engine of BMW 320i Convertable (170 HP, displacement 1,995 l)
The engine of BMW 335i Convertable (power 306 HP, displacement 2,979 liters)
One of the most economical versions is a Convertable BMW 220i with a 4-cylinder engine working volume of 2 liters and output of 170 HP — this car consumes only 6.7 liters of fuel per 100 km And this is when the vehicle weight 1670 kg! The fuel consumption of cars with this engine is 15 percent less than a car with 2-liter engine of the previous generation! Such a high rate of efficiency was achieved through the use of the design system motor direct injection of the third generation, which allows the engine to operate on lean fuel mixture. To improve the efficiency of the motor also contributes primenenie water pump with electric drive — it is activated only when raising the coolant temperature above normal. Also interesting is the regular recovery system of the generator — it is activated only when engine braking. Helps to save fuel and system “start-stop” which turns off the engine when you stop the car at traffic lights and starts it when you press on the clutch pedal. Unfortunately, the car with this engine is currently sold only in Europe.
But in Russia the car is sold… I Must say, it is sold for a lot of money — buying a BMW 335i Convertable will ease the wallet of the buyer is not less than 60 € 300, well, a BMW 325i Convertable will cost him a few cheaper — 50 300 euros.
I. EVSTRATOV
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