E34 535i sport performance figures ?

Thats a bit suprising as the person i bought the car off last year told me it had an M-tech power upgrade and was producing around 230bhp. The reason i have asked the question is because i have recently put my car up against some of my mates subarus all being impreza turbo 2000's apart from one RB5 and i can beat all of them to 100mph from a rolling start of approx 10-20mph. Obviously i couldnt compete from a standing start as the impreza is 4wd.  I really want to know what power im producing now as i must have more than standard to be playing with impreza's!!!!! Has anyone heard of an M-tech power upgrade ?

Cheers

I have looked into many upgrades for power and the only real useful one is the remapped ecu chip these are done by people like AC Schnitzer, Alpina, Dinan, EAT etc.

As far as i know there is no such thing as an M-Tech power upgrade because the guys at BMW Motorsport made the M5 for that very reason its running either a 3.6 or 3.8 litre engine which could be whats installed in your car but I wouldnt expect this to be the case as its more than just the suspension you would have to have changed to accomodate the engine/gearbox. All the linkage, front and back along with ECU and wiring as well as many other aspects and you would be able to tell this by the big M Power on the engine.

The best way to check what the bhp and torque are would be to go to a rolling road station and have it tested over an average of 3 runs, this will then tell you exactly what the power is.

One other thing to note is that its only the US models that are limited all other country models are the same spec be they 535i/535i SE/535i Sport. Another thing to note is that the driver of the car is a big factor, If you are half way decent you can beat most other cars that seem they should be better. The only way to test is to drive all the cars in question that gives an even idea based on same skill level of driving.

Here are the details from the owners handbook for the 535i

Displacement: 3430

Cylinders: 6

Max output: 155 kW/211 bhp @1/min 5700

Max torque: 305 Nm/225 lb.ft @ 1/min 4000

Compression ratio: 9.0:1

Weight unladen: 1525 kg/3362 lb Manual 1545 kg/3406 lb Auto

Top speed: 146 mph Manual 144 mph Auto

0-31 mph = 2.5s

0-50 mph = 5.3s

0-62 mph = 7.7s manual 8.8s Auto

0-75 mph = 10.9s

50-70 mph 8.9s

standing start kilometre 28.5 Manual 29.4 Auto

Theres loads of other figures but they dont seem relevant for what you wanted to know. As much as these are from BMW they are not definitive and as such different air filters (K&N or other), Tyres and conditions can change these up or down.

hope that helps

Russ

I was checking out figures for a manual 528i I was was toying with getting there last week. Autocar got one to 60 in 6.8 sec back in the day, which you'll all agree is pretty impressive. Now they got a standard 97 Scooby Turbo to 60 in 5.8 sec (they were around 204bhp back then), but the 0-100 time was 18.8 seconds. They 528i continued on to post a 0-100 of 18 sec dead, only 1/10th sec slower than what was obtained in an Escort Cosworth!

These are particularly good times, but even EVO got a 7.3 to 60 & 18.8 to 100 in a manual 528i around the same time, so you can see that whilst the 4wd confers a huge advantage off the line over the rwd(at what cost to transmissions?) once you get running at bigger speeds the gearing, power characteristics they are matched to, and aerodynamics of the car have a bigger and bigger contribution. The 528i managed to regain the 1.5sec lost to the Scooby in EVOs figures; in Autocars it not only regained the second lost to 60, but added another 0.8!

In my honest opinion, it goes to show the irrelevance of some of these figures. Alot of the figures are down purely to testers skill, or lack of mechanical sympathy. The 30-70 & 50-70 in 5th gives a good idea of speed without traction issues, & ease of driving respectively. That's why a buddies well driven 90bhp Golf TDI will require a nice bit of effort by me in my E34 24v 525i to keep with on give & take 2nd gear / top of 3rd gear roads.. I'll keep with him, but he won't be too far off my pace unless I use the last 750rpm and am heel / toeing at 5 grand into tight 2nd gear corners to get the bang out of em that he takes for granted with the diesel. Still, I'm having alot more craic!

To be honest TJ, you are right about performance figues being fairly irrelevant. When all is said and done so much of it is down to the skill of the driver.

I still think that a standard impreza will be quicker to 100 than a standard 535 sport. According to EVO magazine the impreza will do 0-60 in 5.4 s and 0-100 in 14.6 and top out at 144mph. BHP per ton is 177. The impreza will have a traction advantage due to 4wd but don't forget until the turbo spools up it is in effect a detuned 2 litre so generally speaking naturally aspirated cars are quicker of the mark than turbo cars.

I have just purchased a new ecu chip from germany (one of the msport companies out there) which although the changes it says is not great it does have the advantage of de-limiting the engine to get what the germans call Vmax or terminal velocity aka as fast as the engine will go not just what the manufacturers want the car to go (only about another 10-20 mph if that.

It adds about 16-20hp to the current 211 pushing it to 227-231 bhp it also adds about 20-25 Nm Torque which is what im after more than the extra bhp, it is also meant to smoothen up the range to make it more response lower down the revs (all though i dont really notice this issue) the figures above are based on 4000 rpm so taking it up to its new rev limit of 6500 would probably push more than the stated figures. Due to having an auto box im sceptical as to whether it would affect performance but i am looking out for a gearbox chip at present so ill try the engine one first if theres any issues ill take it out til i can get a matched gearbox chip to compliment the new power.

Im away for 3 weeks from tomorrow so i will book the car in to the local rolling road station when i get back and let you know the figures, if its not at least what the stated amounts are meant to be or unless i see a dramatic improvement i will probably remove the chip as theres not much point having it in there.

I will keep you all posted though (535i owners that is) and lets hope i can squeeze a little more juice out of it.

Russ

I owned a 1988 ALPINA b10 3.5, which was based on the e34 535is, the straight six.

The power was 262bhp, not sure on the torque but the 0-60mph was 6.3 secs and I had it off the clock at 265kmh (165mph) 5700rpm. This was uphill and the car was still pulling, my pants wew beggining to fill so i eased off!