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If you’ve seen any of my previous articles involving MKC, you’ve seen me provide some info on some of the cool cars they’ve got being worked on. On the even luckier days, I’ll catch MKC’s Mike Cho grilling something. Today was one of those grill days, and “thank you, Mike—that marinated chicken was good!” (I was just glad that dumpster was full of old car parts and not rotting chicken).
With the Epic software and BW exhaust in place, we had consistent runs in the 367 WHP range, with 277 lb-ft of torque. I mean it doesn’t get more consistent than this. And hey, look at that midrange—can that line get any straighter? Let’s see what that translated to in total gains, shall we? The real story is told when you compare it to our baseline.
Compared to our best baseline from before, the difference in torque is really good for a normally-aspirated car that’s already highly tuned from the factory. We had a peak gain of almost 30 lb-ft of torque at 5000 RPM, which translated to 27 WHP there as well–now that is something that will be felt at the track! The gain from 4000-6000 RPM is tremendous. The peak power rose 28 WHP, which should net the car an additional 3 MPH at the quarter as well. BW felt we would have had a stronger top end had we had something more like a Macht Schnell inake in there, which is what they’ve optimized the Epic software with.
I apologize, I mistakenly used one of the earlier, pre-adapted BW/Epic runs to make this comparo, but just for fun I pulled up the more recent Project E46 M3 dyno curves we had. At this 315 WHP power level (black line), Project E46 M3 was very similar to this E90 M3 in straight-line performance. We even ran them side-by-side for fun. They were neck-and-neck almost every time, with the E46 sometimes pulling away more more quickly on the initial hit if started mid-gear. Today, however, that fun is gone for my little E46 M3 (which I just sold to my father last month—it’s back in CA now). I’ve run the red M3 since its newfound power, and it is no competition—the V8-powered M3 simply pulls away with its 50-plus WHP advantage. The new owner, Brian, is very happy. Keep in mind I’m talking against a modified E46 M3 making about 35 WHP and 12 lb-ft over stock, too.
It’s always fun to see what MKC has up its sleeves through some of its customers. Sometimes they can have a 460 WHP Ford/Roush F150, other times they’ll have an 800 WHP Camaro like you see there, or a 1000 WHP Dodge like the green one there, or other 1000 WHP Supras, Vettes, and high powered BMWs. That M3 back there is getting turbocharged, and Mike’s white Civic racecar there has reportedly laid down somewhere around 1200WHP. In any case, special thanks to MKC for its diligent help with nearly all of my articles for MotoIQ.com, whether it’s with an install, tune, or just getting on its Dynojet like today. Thanks!
2 comments
I’m investigating issues where the E92 M3 with Bimmerworld resonated X-Pipe has a torque dip/hesitation/bog under light-moderate acceleration around 2500 RPM. Did you encounter this with your vehicle either before or after the tune?
i apologize itself been so long I cannot remember if we encountered anything this. Sorry not much help