BMW Group Asia Test Fest 2023: 11 Cars, 1 afternoon with Infinite Driving Pleasure

Being one of the more junior staffers in the OneShift team, it finally seemed advantageous to be on “this side” of youth given the explicit request from BMW Group Asia to have the youngest member of the team take part in Test Fest 2023.

Just like the other editions held globally, Test Fest is an opportunity to sample the latest offerings from the BMW Group line up. In this case, it was a chance to road test the latest BMW and Mini models.

The little tour of Singapore could not be more fitting for the month of August, given our nation’s birthday was just around the corner. We started the morning with a short preview of the BMW i Vision Dee, BMW’s vision of the future of digital mobility. The main event continued into the afternoon, which was a Singapore-style road trip traversing the circumference of the island. With a range of 11 cars to choose from, it looked to be a jammed packed and exciting day ahead.

Our route began from the city centre, and brought us round the island in an anti-clockwise fashion, stopping at scenic spots such as West Coast Park, Bukit Batok Nature Park and the Woodlands Waterfront.

Topped off with a nice highway cruise along the Seletar Expressway towards the airport and back into the city centre along the East Coast Parkway, our day ended just as the sun set on our diverse range of offerings from the BMW Group.

Coated in the very outstanding Zandvoort Blue paint scheme, the M2 Coupé probably received the most amount of attention from the group of journos, given it was one of the car’s first outings on our local roads.

But personally, I was more eager to have a go in some of the more family-friendly options such as the X1, 216i Active Tourer and 318i Sedan. With a great amount of presence garnered from its illuminated kidney grilles, a lot of attention was naturally being diverted to the BMW XM. But in the SUV segment, the LCI X5 was left quietly smirking in the corner of the lot. Even though this facelift seems to only come with minor exterior and interior upgrades, sitting in it, the sum of these made a significant difference in the way it felt on the road.

Worthy of mention were the Mini Electric Collection and Mini Cooper Convertible; despite being on the market for some time now, their fun-to-drive characteristics were no less refreshing. Again, having these 2 Minis in the range also emphasised that the offerings from the BMW Group spread across a diverse range of vehicle types – from sporty coupés and SUVs to more family-friendly options and even go-kart-like runabouts – there is something for every kind of driving style there is.

It was a rare opportunity to helm such a diverse range of models in a single sitting, and it certainly helped to provide contrast between different body styles, ride heights and power outputs between the range of BMW Group models. But ultimately, the single quality that unites them all, has to be sheer driving pleasure.

Photos by BMW Group Asia