JG Pasterjak
JG Pasterjak Production/Art Director
5/21/24 8:00 a.m.
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Nothing is worse than putting the car on a trailer early. Well, maybe finding a trailer for the ride home–or trying to exact repairs to get yourself home in a dirty paddock or oily parking lot.

So that’s why one of the first mods BimmerWorld suggested for our 70,000-plus-mile BMW 435i was a fresh set of charge pipes. “Honestly I’m …

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turboshadow
turboshadow New Reader
5/21/24 1:23 p.m.

Seems a bit on the fuzzy side for using "Safety" as the reason for upgrading a part that is specifically called out as an upgrade for the tuner class.

JG Pasterjak
JG Pasterjak Production/Art Director
5/21/24 3:20 p.m.
turboshadow said:

Seems a bit on the fuzzy side for using "Safety" as the reason for upgrading a part that is specifically called out as an upgrade for the tuner class.

We've actually talked about this in the Time Trials rules meetings and there should be a clarification coming at some point. The basic intent of the rule was to keep the mods limited to stuff prior to the throttle body, but a lot of turbo plumbing gets swept up in there because it's pressurized and not every turbo intake layout is identical. 

On the N55, anyway, the main restriction is the tiny turbocharger. You could run sewer pipe from the turbo to the intake and unless you change the pressure or temperature of the air via a tune or a different intercooler the power isn't going to change in a measurable fashion.

theruleslawyer
theruleslawyer Reader
5/21/24 10:32 p.m.

While I don't disagree it seems appropriate for sport at least in this case-

"F. Items which do not require the modification or replacement of existing parts and do not increase the peak performance of the vehicle are permitted. (E.g., a turbo or alternator blanket.)"

Replacing a charge pipe doesn't seem allowable under reliability upgrades currently. I'd wait for the fasttrack update if it's coming.

 

turboshadow
turboshadow New Reader
5/22/24 8:18 a.m.

In reply to JG Pasterjak :

Does the car have a tune?  I know that is allowed under the Sport class rules.  Does the car gain more power on the aftermarket charge pipes vs the oem if it is tuned? 

JG Pasterjak
JG Pasterjak Production/Art Director
5/22/24 9:25 a.m.
turboshadow said:

In reply to JG Pasterjak :

Does the car have a tune?  I know that is allowed under the Sport class rules.  Does the car gain more power on the aftermarket charge pipes vs the oem if it is tuned? 

BimmerWorld hasn't measured any power differences between stock and aftermarket charge pipes whether tuned or untuned. They do notice a charge pipe difference with turbo swaps, however, but that's not an option for us unless we want to go to Max. I'll follow up on this dilligently since it's relevant to my interests.

And yeah I finally did get an MHD tuning package, although I haven't done any track or dyno testing with it yet. Just fooling around with settings, it looks like the most basic off the shelf tune increases boost from around 9psi to around 11.5psi.

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