Nick
The all-new F82 BMW M4 coupe promises to be a fantastic M-car- early reviews are in already quite good, early reports tell us that the new S55 Twin Turbo Six is one of the best engines to ever wear the ///M badge, a rip-snorting beast of a motor. Of course, as with any car, we enthusiasts can always find a little room for improvement. The Engineering Boffins over at aFe Power – which stands for Advanced Flow Engineering, for the uninitiated – have gotten their hands on the F82 BMW M4 and are already hard at work developing a high performance cold air intake for BMW M4 and High Performance BMW M4 Exhaust system.
The engineers get to work, scanning the engine bay with their 3D scanner, creating a virtual map of the contours of the space they’ve got available for the intake. This highly advanced system uses lasers to map the engine bay down to the finest detail. Since aFe not only makes metal-housing air boxes, but also manufactures roto-molded plastic airbox assemblies, this is especially useful and helps them engineer airboxes that are really well tailored for the spaces the airbox has to occupy. In design terms, we call these “packaging” concerns – and these 3D scanners make it possible to package the intake system and other components in such a way to get the most out of the available space.
Stock airbox out and out of the way – that OEM filter material doesn’t exactly look flow-friendly, either, which means for those of you intending to keep it “totally stock”, a drop in filter upgrade is an ideal way to go to get a little extra out of the car without messing with your warranty.
After they map the engine bay, the engineers can then use CAD software and a 3d printer to create prototype sealed airbox type intakes that deliver maximum airflow and tuned intake pathways to deliver maximum power and efficiency. These same tools that are used for the intake system also prove handy for engineering the exhaust system as well.
By optimizing the flow rate and airflow pathway, the S55 can breathe more freely – aFe Power intakes for N54 yielded a whalloping 24whp and 34wtq gain with no other modifications (E92 335i with Stage 2 Intake) and on the N55 engine, an aFe Power Intake for the N55 in the F10 535i yielded a massive 32hp gain and an even more ludicrous 60wtq increase in twist. If you’ve been around modifying engines long, realistically, the average performance car will yield maaaaybe 10-15hp – to get more than double the average is pretty impressive, but 30hp from JUST AN INTAKE is pretty darn impressive. Given that the S55 is a snarling, snorting, evil monster born of the N54/N55, you have to wonder what kind of insane numbers the S55 might churn out. Yes, it sounds like I may as well be describing the forging of the One Ring in the Fires of Mt Doom, but these are apt descriptions for this particularly angry motor.
Can’t wait to hear it for yourself? No need to wait any longer, scope out the YouTube link below to check it out for yourself, or click here to follow Intake Development directly.
All in all, we’re excited to see what kind of numbers that the aFe Power boffins can pull out of the F82 BMW M4, keep an eye out over on the aFe Power blog and you can be sure that you can get your aFe Power upgrades for the S55 F82 BMW M4 and F80 BMW M3 right here at ModBargains.
Interested in modifying your BMW Turbo vehicle? Talk to the Modification Experts at ModBargains – call us at 714-582-3330 to speak to an expert to find out how and with what performance parts you’ll need to take your turbo six to the next level.
Story By Nicholas Gregson in collaboration with aFe Power
Photos used with permission from aFe Power, select photos Nick Gregson