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Oh yes, here we go the millionth time, the ever popular 335 versus M3 discussion. A user posted the video below of a bolt on DCT E92 M3 pulling a JB4 tuned 335i in the forums and the N54 fanboys went for the pitchforks and torches. For whatever reason 335 owners in particular seem to really want to attack the E92 M3 perhaps in justification of their own purchase. There is the typical "oh I didn't get an M3 because a tuned 335 is faster" nonsense that N54 fanboys tend to comfort themselves with in the never ending M3 versus 335 debate. Even though the 335 in this video may have more power and torque in tuned form which the fanboys love to point out the other side of the coin is that the M3's redline and transmission are a huge advantage. Gearing is an area the M3 simply has an advantage over the 335 in and the transmission makes a big difference as one can see the shift speed in lower gears is really what gives the M3 the gains it sees in the race early on. Up top, the tuned 335's horsepower advantage comes into play as the cars spend more time in gear negating the gear change advantage provided by the DCT allowing the 335 to inch up and close the gap. This video is a good real world example as without race gas or meth a 335 will struggle against a tuned M3 especially one with DCT. Of course 335 owners will point out they can upgrade their turbos. Then M3 owners will say they can supercharge. Then the debate escalates and escalate and there are dozens of pages to read of M3 and 335 owners essentially throwing feces at each other. BMW fans, just enjoy 335 versus M3 round 400,000 in the video below. M3 is the camera car.

Wow. That is exactly what came out of my mouth when I saw this supercharger kit at Bimmerfest. In all honesty, it was my main motivation for attending the event once I heard it would be there. Some people may be reading this and wondering what the big deal is as superchargers already exist for the M3. That is true, superchargers do exist, but they are all centrifugal style blowers. This is the world's first positive displacement supercharger for the S65 V8. Why is that a big deal? Because it's a completely different type of blower with completely different power delivery. This is the solution for those who complain about the M3's torque or for those who do not like the response down low of a centrifgual blower which needs rpm to make boost. This style of supercharger is always making boost, from anywhere in the rev range. That is what makes incorporating it on the S66 V8 difficult with its independent throttle bodies as positive displacement blowers usually are set to pull air through a throttle body not blow into it. The centrifugal blowers send air into a manifold. If a positive displacement were to use a similar setup it would be blowing air in while the throttle bodies attempted to close as it is always making boost. See the problem? The solution Harrop Engineering came up with was a manifold that fits in between the throttle bodies with a bypass valve fit that relieves pressure as needed and makes sure boost is not made as throttles are closing. Pretty trick setup eh? You can see the design in the photos and also how tight the packaging is. I do not even want to know how many hours were put in trying to get this all to fit. The blower employed is a TVS1740 unit from Eaton. This is a roots blower and likely will be set to 5.5 psi or so initially. Boost from this blower is different from a centrifugal and will be harder on the stock rods since it is at full boost right away. Expect horsepower in the low 500's to the wheels. Oh and see that little black box to the left of the manifold off a metal area at the inlet? There will be electronic boost control which is likely the first of its kind on a positive displacement setup although I am not able to confirm this. Different maps with different boost levels for different fuel? A possibility, yes. This is a big deal and an engineering feat for the S65. My complete and utter respect and that of this network to the guys at Harrop. There is still work to be done here. It is not quite ready although pricing is initially set at $12,990. There is still a lot of tuning to be done but this will be coming eventually. Pictures below, much respect Harrop and it was a pleasure meeting you guys at Bimmerfest. You were incredibly nice and answered all my (MANY) questions. Thank you:

Interesting claim here regarding the curb weight of the next generation F80 M3. Now the horsepower is expected to be in the 450 range. CAR Magazine claimed the car would have 444 horses so ~450 seems to be the right range. This not as big of a jump as the E46 M3 to the E92 M3 or the new F10 M5 to the previous generation E60 M5 but BMW only made about a 60 horsepower jump with the new M5 model at the crank although the horsepower numbers at the wheels point to far more. I would expect the same with the new M3 that for the wheel horsepower gains on the F80 to exceed the crank horsepower difference presented by BMW between the F80 and the E90 M3's. This power increase combined with a claimed weight loss by 220 pounds would make for an M3 that performs very well. The thing is, 220 pounds is a lot to shave off the F30. And if the F80 M3 undercuts the E90 M3 by 220 pounds that means it would weigh somewhere in the 33XX pound range. Owners have weighed their E92/E90 M3's in the 35XX pound range. Confusion arises that the E9X is heavy because BMW lists its European weight which includes a 75kg driver. BMW claims the current F30 335i weighs 3555 pounds. So, about what an E92 M3 weighs. That would mean if the rumor for 100 kg weight loss were correct the F80 M3 would undercut the F30 335i and E92 M3 by 220 pounds. That means weight less than an E46 M3 as well, not happening. What is more likely is that BMW will undercut the 3704 pound curb weight they provide for the E92 M3 putting the F80 M3 somewhere in the 35XX pound range or just about the exact same as the E90/E92. We will find out soon enough with the car expected at the Los Angeles Auto Show in November. Source

This is just flat out cool and heartwarming to see. In between the forum flame wars and endless bickering over car stuff the average woman thinks is insane there are some sweet things on the BMW forums. Ok, very few of those things but this is the kind of video that definitely shows enthusiasm for cars and what puts it over the top is that yes it involves a girl. A really damn cute one. And amazingly it proves BMW nerds on the forums actually can have an attractive girlfriend which might be the greatest lesson of all here. Basically this young ladies birthday is coming up and her boyfriend got her an Active Autowerke N52 exhaust for her birthday. She does not know it and the boyfriend films the surprise despite the "I look fat" objections. Her reaction is priceless and her "Vroom Vroom" quote would have me ready to propose. The video is below and warning there is some NWS (not work safe) language. And to the boyfriend, she did not just give you one. I think she just gave the entire forum a hard-on:

There are few pleasures equivalent to having a drivers car and a beautiful twisty road. That is exactly the type of thing the driver in the video below is enjoying. as he takes his E46 M3 down a beautiful twisty cliff side road with a great view of the ocean. The problem is when one pushes it too far and this video shows the consequences. Now the driver is not exactly going balls out but it goes to show you do not have to be to lose it on a road you may lack familiarity with. The driver simply takes a tight right hander poorly and understeers right off the road tumbling onto the cliffs below. The side impact airbag goes up immediately showing the level of sensitivity and safety the E46 M3 is built with. I'm not here to chastise this driver as I have done a very similar tumble also in an E46 M3 which gave its life to spare mine. This video is a reminder that things can get ugly very quickly behind the wheel. It's best to save it for the track and you do not have to be going 10/10's to lose it although this guy had quite a brisk pace using both sides of the public road. Know your road, know your car, know your surroundings, know your limits, and always dial it back more than dialing it forward. If you do not, this can happen and you may not be so fortunate.

This is the kind of thing BimmerBoost is all about. A balls to the wall BMW build that just screams badass. You take an E82 1-Series, swap in an S54 motor out of an E46 M3, build it, turbo it, and then stare in awe of a custom widebody 800+ wheel horsepower 1-Series. This build comes to us from Europe and the owners friend posted on his behalf. Keep in mind English is not his first language so excuse any of the grammar/spelling errors below. Check out the pictures, video, and details. Much respect to our Scandinavian friends for this build, epic. Hi guys :) I've been a die hard E30 (Turbo) enthusiast for the last 8-9 year (still is..), but as time has come and gone and rust has increased the E30s to very high TLC vehicles my mind has started to drift.. So then, over the last few years my thoughts has compiled over to the 1 series, more spesific the 1 series Coupe, E82 chassi. I've long dreamt up potensial setup's for an upcomming trackday car. I can just imagine the traction this thing has compared to a super sensetive tire ripping (witch isn't to bad of a deal) E30. But when a friend of mine decided to sell his Opel Omega trackcar (with M20 500hp turbo engine) in spring 2012 and go to Germany and collect a brand new stripped E82 shell straight from the factorys stock - my eyes went wide open! :) I've now followed his project closely and taken pictures and vids to document the build and he has asked me to post it as he isn't to keyboard happy. What he has build is a 2012 E82 Coupe with somewhat untraditional combo with E92 M3 suspension and S54B32 turbocharged setup to drive in the scandinavian "Gatebil Extreme" racing series witch starts in May this year. This is a "no limits" class for those who wants to go mental, and alot of them are basicly trashing around the track, not everyone is as concerned with low trap speed. 50/50 show / racing. This is a very rare and unique build at least up here in Scandinavia, I don't know about in the states but haven't seen to much of them in BMW magazines yet. The car was as mentioned collected brand new from the factory line at BMW as a clean stock shell in spring of 2012, then it was sendt over the border to Sweden to fit a WRC FIA heavy duty rollcage. After he got it back he prepped the chassis and fitted front and rear subframe from E92 M3 and fitted custom K-sport E92 M3 spec coilovers, K-sport 356mm and 330mm brakes front/rear, E30 carbon dash, dashlogger, Sparco bucket seats and 6 point harness. The bodykit is a special made glasfiber kit from rallycross. It needed at lot of TLC and love to fit correctly. The doors, rear and front fenders including front and rear bumper is GF and roof, hood, trunk and inner fenders are carbonfiber. He also made a fully removable front for quick servicing. I made a little teaser film of it last time I was around the shop. I will make another full pedal to the metal version once it hits the track. It was dynoed a week ago (runs on E85) and mapped successfully up to 1.3 bar/ 19 PSI. We also had a little 'incident' with a tire explosion straight at the end with a brand new low bugdet tire. It didn't like 300km/h on the dyno and suddenly regaining traction.. bang! Due to traction slip we didn't get any solid read on power, but the boost normally means aprox 800whp at 1.3 bar on E85. For now the cams are just in reassemble spec timing, so we have to fiddle a little more with them to lower the spoolup of the turbo witch at this point is a little slow as these are VANOS setting, and with the vanos blocked off this only becomes high reving settings, with noe help from the low and middle power band witch the VANOS usually takes care of with active cam rotation. Specs: Chassis: - 2012 make factory new bodyshell - Glassfiber bodykit and doors - Carbonfiber hood, roof, trunk, inner fenders and dash Suspension/subframe: -E92 front and rear subframe incl diff and electric steering -Custom K-sport E92 M3 spec coilovers -K-sport 356mm front and 330mm rear brakes -Custom exhaust with twin pipes -noname wheels Interior -Sparco bucket seats and 6 point harness -E30 carbondash -Dashllogger -Pedalbox -Hydraulic handbrake Engine: -S54B32 fully forged block internals , CP pistons, H rods, ARPs ++ -Stock cylinder head w/blocked and removed VANOS -PPF S38 turbo tubular manifold with S54 flange -Homemade aluminium 5mm plenum -Turboservice T4 SX1000 turbo -Megasquirt EMS -Tilton 3 disc clutch -6 speed E46 M3 transmission Here is the chassis from the doors of the factory Then to Sweden and Rallyprodukter roll cage build Completed: Fully stocked before season.. Teaser: