From the February 1983 issue of Car and Driver.
The man who said “It’s the thought that counts” obviously never drove a BMW, but he probably writes ad copy for one of those car companies that want everybody to think their cars are at least carbon copies of the Bavarian originals. But we’re not fooled, are we?
It is true, nevertheless, that the sharply chiseled and exquisitely shined image of the BMW as the supreme sports sedan or coupe has undergone a subtle but significant change over the past several of the 15 years since BMW began its rise to prominence in the United States. The cars lost some of their lean, intrinsic sportiness. Despite the general public’s apparently boundless affection for the marque, which has led to record sales during a period when most other manufacturers were falling on their corporate keisters, hardcore BMW loyalists began to wonder if some of the physical magic was fading in a move away from the sporting ethic that made the Bavarian Motor Works famous in the first place.
Then, last year, along came the 528e, a low-revving, high-torque, fuel-efficiency special that seemed to cement the trend, and those of us who agonize over such things put on our sackcloth and went off to cry in our beer. It was all over. Even BMW, mighty BMW, had lost its way. Oh, sigh.
Bull roar! We were fools. While we were busy carping at the introduction of the 528e, BMW was tearing its hair, unable to speak, but secretly building a bullet car, the new 533i, a veritable .357 magnum of a machine. Those of you who have trumpets in the attic, feel free to get them down and blow like hell. Wake the neighbors, throw out the cat, pull on your Jim Clark driving gloves, and get down to your BMW store. Then, just like Superman, ask them to stand aside, please, and blast off.
BMW has taken the biggest engine it brings into the States and stuffed its 3.2 liters of six-cylinder, electronically fuel-injected, single-overhead-cam smoothness and ferocity into the 5-series body shell, and this Wagnerian hot rod makes the late, lamented 528i—the storming, rev-for-the-stars Munich-mobile that preceded the 528e—feel like a Cro-Magnon creation. The 3.2’s current guise calls for the application of Bosch Digital Motor Electronics (a combination of L-Jetronic fuel injection and computer-controlled electronic ignition) along with a three-way catalyst with a lambda sensor, all of which contribute to the fussless production of 181 horsepower from 196 cubic inches.
The 533i’s free-revving, 6500-rpm-redlined desires are adroitly delivered to the rear wheels by a light-shifting Getrag five-speed gearbox (or a fine, optional ZF three-speed automatic). Acceleration from 0 to 60 mph mit five-speed requires a stirringly negligible 7.7 seconds, five-tenths of a second quicker than the last 528i we tested, and 1.8 seconds quicker than the 528e. And, indeed, if the 528e now seems to make sense as an economical companion model to the 533i, the 533i drives home its point with a quarter-mile of 15.8 seconds at 88 mph and a top speed of 127 mph.
What the numbers don’t imply is the ease with which the 533i knocks off its business. The gear spacing is ideally compromised for a rare mix of strong acceleration, effortless cruising, and surprisingly good fuel economy, which the EPA pegs at a decent 19 mpg city. We bettered this figure with a 20-mpg average despite our best efforts to the contrary. Like all of BMW’s high-steppers (and like so few of the attempted carbon-copyists), the 533i is at its very best on the open road, yet it is also particularly at ease in urban traffic by virtue of its outward visibility, handy size, and graceful agility.
The intro for the 533i began at BMW HQ in Montvale, New Jersey, and set off hare-and-hounds over the twisty-windies to Massachusetts. When it was over we snared the 533i you see here and penetrated deepest Vermont, then doubled back to Michigan via the rambling of Pennsylvania’s U.S. 6, a game-table gamut of challenges and enticements that dumped us into four hours of driving rain that straddled the Interstate all the way across Ohio and into Michigan. In that day of contrasts, the true picture of the 533i took shape. Much more than just a fast car, the 533i is one of Germany’s most completely satisfying packages. Its looks may not cause heads to turn (an advantage in the case of police surveillance), but its talents and heart are supreme. It loves bumpy roads, patchy pavement, and unexpected alterations of course.
The 533i shares BMW’s patented double-pivot front suspension, a MacPherson-strut design, with the big 733i sedan. This arrangement improves steering feel and straight-line stability, and also reduces brake dive. The typical semi-trailing-arm independent rear suspension (often the subject of criticism for its tendency toward trailing-throttle oversteer) has been altered in two light but important ways: the angle of the trailing arms’ pivot axis has been reduced from twenty to thirteen degrees, and BMW has incorporated what it calls Trac-Link to help the arms’ outboard pivots behave more favorably (see Technical Highlights below). Feathering the throttle during hard cornering now results in little more than a mild tightening of the line.
Technical Highlights
Twenty-six years ago, the BMW 600 was an obscure little car with 10-inch wheels, a front-opening door, and a rear-mounted twin-cylinder motorcycle engine. One of its most important features lives on, however, in all current BMWs and most other high-dollar German cars: the 600 saw the first production application of a semi-trailing-arm rear suspension.
As its name implies, this suspension is a cross between a swing arm and a pure trailing arm. It combines some of the former’s camber-change characteristics with the latter’s minimal jacking tendencies (suspension-induced raising of a car’s body while cornering, usually resulting in the wheels tucking under it). The major variable controlling this blend of characteristics is the angle formed by the trailing-arm pivot axis and the center line of the wheel. As tires have become stickier, suspensions softer, and engines more powerful, less camber (and inherently less toe) change with vertical wheel motion has become more critical to acceptable handling. Consequently, the BMW engineers changed the angle of the pivot axis from twenty to thirteen degrees as they overhauled their semi-trailing-arm design for the new 533i.
That change did produce less camber change and less jacking, but it also produced an undesirable (to BMW’s way of thinking) side effect. The smaller pivot-axis angle increased the effective radius of the semi-trailing arms, lowering the suspension’s roll center. To counteract this, the suspension engineers raised the pivot axis, shifting the roll center back up. This change in turn had two effects: the higher pivot improved cornering responsiveness and produced an anti-squat effect at the rear of the car.
To deal with the jacking tendencies of a high roll center, BMW invented a special compound bushing (called Trac-Link) for each semi-trailing arm’s outboard pivot. This dumbbell-shaped device uses normal suspension travel to produce a small lateral movement of the trailing arm along its pivot axis. The geometry is complex, but the net effect is a high static roll center that shifts downward to diminish jacking as the car rolls in a turn.
By carefully coordinating all of these interacting suspension characteristics, BMW engineers have retained the semi-trailing-arm suspension’s impeccable ride and rough-road characteristics, while taking the edge off of its excesses at the cornering limit. The design is not our favorite approach to attaching the rear wheels to a car, but with BMW persistently whittling away at the semi-trailing arm’s weaker aspects, this layout is bound to survive for another 26 years. —Csaba Csere
The power steering is light, accurate, poised, and quick, and its first turn-in is as refined and reassuring as any. The 533i also feeds out of corners exceptionally well, as long as you don’t send too much power out the back tires too soon without the optional limited-slip differential to control wheelspin. Our skidpad cornering results were mediocre at best, however, 0.73 g being a most modest figure. Likewise, we found lengthy stopping distances from 70 to zero in our braking tests. Stopping balance was skewed too far to the rear for our tastes, yet some of the blame must be placed at Michelin’s TRX doorstep, since TRXs have previously shown themselves to be less than top-flight grippers. They do contribute to the 533i’s transient responsiveness and its ride smoothness, however.
If the chassis does more than its part by sloughing off the bad news outside, the inside is the perfect place from which to watch it pass. The first thing you see is a sensational dash layout. The shaping is terrific, the instruments are highly legible (glowing red at night for best bomber visibility), and the ergonomics by and large are excellent. The ventilation system is utterly comprehensive (electronically controlled too), and the Alpine-made electronic AM/FM/cassette stereo works very well. The windshield-wiper stalk is hidden by one of the three spokes of the striking in-out-adjustable wheel, and the horn buttons are too cleverly crafted into the spokes, but all in all the usefulness of the BMW’s controls is right at the top. All controls are power-instigated with the exception of the seat adjustments, which include a height-and-tilt lever for the driver’s seat. The seats are very good, with plenty of shaping, receptive firmness, and flaring torso bolsters that hold you well during cornering but leave your torso unencumbered at other times. The rear seats are almost as aggressively formed (hurray!). Even though BMW concentrated more on sportiness than on the ultimate in roominess, the 533’s interior provides decent legroom for four and a high level of accommodation once in place. The beautifully finished trunk is very large, and a full-sized spare tire (hurray, again!) is tucked below.
BMW has developed a program for the onboard computer that monitors driving style and conditions, tallies up such notables as starter cycles, tachometer tracings, odometer totals, and coolant-temperature patterns, then thinks the whole thing over and lights up a series of green, yellow, and finally red LEDs when it’s time to get the thing serviced. (BMW, incidentally, reimburses dealers at the same labor rate for warranty work that the dealers would otherwise charge customers, so dealers no longer treat warranty repairs with something less than full attention, long a problem for most manufacturers. In addition, BMW’s basic warranty is for 36 months or 36,000 miles, and it offers one of the longest rust-perforation-protection plans in the business, a full six years’ worth.) The 533i also features a computer-calculated readout of instantaneous fuel economy, displayed in the lower third of the large tachometer, and a handsome, if complicated, 10-function keyboard computer just to its right (unfortunately, its LED display is hidden behind the steering-wheel rim for most drivers). In addition to the trip computer, an Active Check Control continuously monitors seven important vehicle functions and flashes when necessary.
As you have realized by now, BMW has not only moved back into its legendary Whispering Bomb market again with a vengeance, but has done so with a thorough application of advanced technology.
BMW of North America president John Cook, an aggressive, forward-thinking Canadian who left Porsche+Audi eight years ago to assume leadership at BMW, has, in order, changed the company’s stance, thrown us a temporary curve with the 528e, increased BMW’s American sales from 15,000 to over 50,000 per year, and resurrected performance in no uncertain terms with the 533i. BMW’s old days of low-profile, high-efficiency, high-performance motoring are back, proving once again that it’s more than the thought that counts.
Specifications
Specifications
1983 BMW 533i
Vehicle Type: front-engine, rear-wheel-drive, 5-passenger, 4-door sedan
PRICE
Base/As Tested: $28,985/$28,985
ENGINE
SOHC 12-valve inline-6, iron block and aluminum head, port fuel injection
Displacement: 196 in3, 3210 cm3
Power: 181 hp @ 6000 rpm
Torque: 195 lb-ft @ 4000 rpm
TRANSMISSION
5-speed manual
CHASSIS
Suspension, F/R: struts/semi-trailing arm
Brakes, F/R: 11.2-in vented disc/11.2-in disc
Tires: Michelin TRX
200/60VR-15
DIMENSIONS
Wheelbase: 103.3 in
Length: 189.0 in
Width: 66.0 in
Height: 55.7 in
Passenger Volume, F/R: 47/39 ft3
Trunk Volume: 13 ft3
Curb Weight: 3120 lb
C/D TEST RESULTS
60 mph: 7.7 sec
1/4-Mile: 15.8 sec @ 88 mph
100 mph: 23.8 sec
Top Gear, 30–50 mph: 11.5 sec
Top Gear, 50–70 mph: 12.3 sec
Top Speed: 127 mph
Braking, 70–0 mph: 228 ft
Roadholding, 300-ft Skidpad: 0.73 g
C/D FUEL ECONOMY
Observed: 20 mpg
EPA FUEL ECONOMY
Combined/City/Highway: 22/19/29 mpg
C/D TESTING EXPLAINED