THE BMW ALPINA B6 BITURBO – CABRIO INDULGENCE AND COUPE CULTURE

DRIVE – FIRST CLASS PERFORMANCE AND ECONOMY

For ALPINA, a technology driven company, standstill is a foreign word. Since the introduction of the B7 Bi-Turbo, the engineers from Buchloe, Germany, have been continuously working on the details of the turbo charging and intercooler system.

Consequently, the all-aluminium V8 power plant now produces 540hp (397kW) at a moderate 5200 to 6250rpm, with a maximum torque of 730Nm from 2800 to 5000rpm. Two turbo-chargers configured in parallel, each feeding one of the two cylinder banks, with specially developed large diameter exhaust-turbines allow this engine configura- tion to provide both exceptional power output and an abundance of torque over an especially broad rpm range while maintaining excellent throttle response at low … CONTINUED

The M Performance Parts party continues. Just minutes after our Live Gallery of the F20 125i equipped with M Performance Parts, BMW has published the full M Performance parts catalog to coincide with its official release/announcement at the 2012 Geneva Motorshow.

M Performance Parts carry the M name because they have been developed together with M engineers for both performance and aesthetics enhancement. This collaboration with M engineers began just last year. This is what sets M Performance Parts apart from what used to be called simply “BMW Performance Parts” (which will be no more going forward).

As of now, M Performance Parts are or will be available for these models:

F10 5-series
F20 1-series
F30 3-serie… CONTINUED

Aftermarket tuners and fabricators are wasting no time in customizing and modifying the F30 3 series sedan. LTBMW has certainly wasted little time in customizing the look of their barely two week old Melbourne Red F30 335i. What you see inside features the following mods:

Front license plate bracket delete
Front bumper reflector delete
Painted roof
Painted rear diffuser
Painted grilles
Custom lowering springs
5mm spacers all around

The terrific photos are by site member jzhang.

We continue our coverage of this past weekend’s Airstrip Attack. BIMMERPOST sponsored this past weekend’s Airstrip Attack, a runway shootout race event held at the Trona Airport near Death Valley, California. The event saw some of the most powerful European, Domestic, and Japanese cars from California go head-to-head on a half mile stretch of tarmac. The classes ranged from 400hp+ all the way to 1000hp+.

The following race featured two 335i going head to head - a JB4 powered 335i vs a Procede 2 powered 335i. Modification details for each car are listed in the video.

We’ll be posting many more shootout videos from the event, so stay tuned to our homepage for updates.

With the 3 series traditionally having the largest aftermarket support of any BMW model, it usually doesn’t take long for the first aftermarket parts to become available. And one of the first parts are usually suspension components.

H&R has now released its F30 springs application for the 2012 328i and 335i sedan. The lowering springs come in two varieties — Sport Spring and Super Sport Spring, with the latter being a more aggressive lowering.

The H&R Sport Springs (Part #28878-2) lower the F30 by 1.2″ front and 1.2″ rear.
The H&R Super Sport Springs (Part #28877-2) lower the F30 by 1.75″ front and 1.6″ rear.

Retail MSRP is $389.00 for both sets.

H&R also makes a whole catalog of wheel spacers for the F30 and BMWs, in many sizes - … CONTINUED

We bring you the first dyno results from a 2012 335i (F30) sedan, performed by Challenge Mfg. USA (GTM_Challenge) on their recently delivered 335i. The F30 335i is powered by the N55 6-cylinder TwinPower twinscroll turbo engine and its factory quoted power figures are 300hp / 300lb-ft.

The 335i N55 dyno run resulted in 270whp and 273lb-ft torque. Note that the dyno was performed on a AWD Dynojet with linked AWD rollers. On a normal rear-roller-only system the numbers would be slightly higher (probably 5-10hp) given the less roller weight that would need to be moved.

What does this translate to in terms of crank HP (for comparison to the factory quoted figures)? Taking 275whp and 278lb-ft as the starting point and assuming a 15% drivetrain loss, it … CONTINUED

Vishnu Performance Systems has pushed the tuning of the N54 platform to unprecedented levels with its N54 335i single turbo build, the first one successfully dyno’d.

The latest dyno has already achieved 627whp / 477 lb-ft. torque @ 22.5 PSI. The final power goal is an incredible 700whp!

See the dyno and highway run inside, along with full system technical details and ongoing progress of the build.

Insideline recently strapped the 2012 328i with its turbo 4 cylinder N20 engine on the dyno and achieved even higher at-the-wheel power than the EAS Dyno we reported on recently.

On 91 octane and a dynojet, this F30 328i achieved 240hp / 257 lb-ft torque at the wheels

Assuming a 16% drivetrain loss for the sake of argument, this would equal approximately 286hp / 306 lb-ft torque at the crank. Compare this to the F30 328i’s factory rating of 240hp / 255lb-ft torque at the crank. The 328i could be underrated by as much as 46 hp and 51 lb-ft torque. Impressive indeed!

Compare this to the EAS dyno which achieved 226hp / 230lb-ft torque at the wheels.

As you may already have seen, a member recently took delivery of his 2012 328i (F30) sedan and wasted no time in getting it strapped to the dyno. The 2012 328i sedan is powered by the twinpower twin-scroll turbo 4-cylinder inline “N20″ engine, factory rated at 240hp / 255lb-ft torque.

This F30 328i was tested on EAS (European Auto Source)’s Dynojet 224xLC and put down an impressive 226hp / 230lb-ft torque (at the wheels), with just 91 octane gasoline.

What does this equal to at the crank (for comparison to BMW’s factory quoted power figures for the 2012 328i)? Assuming a 15-17% drivetrain loss, this dyno result translates to approximately 265-272hp / 270-277lb-ft torque at the crank, or +25-32hp and +15-22lb-ft torque more than the factory figures!

Is … CONTINUED