The Unofficial BMW M5 Messageboard (m5board.com) - View Single Post

Roman · 25th March 2000, 00:10

Kevin,
Got your e-mail, sent you one too.

I'm not too thrilled with TAP, to be honest with you fore reasons I'd rather not go into. So far, I have "interviewed" 5 tuners EXTENSIVELY, spending over an hour with each on the phone. I have to tell you that I was impressed with only one of them, which I won't reveal here as I don't want any legal issues arising out of my opinions. This one in particular indicated to me that they can raise the S4's HP rating safely to 307, with torque up to 375 ftlbs and they indicated to me the weaknesses and strengths of the S4's drive train. Now I honestly and logically can't believe that the 0-60 times will improve much more than by about 0.7 seconds, to about 4.8-4.9 seconds Car & Driver's road test of the S4 in the December 1999 edition was 5.5 0-60, the same edition as was the M5 test where they got 0-60 of 4.7 seconds), before anything to 4.2 will require additional modifications and other conditions and I agree with you Kevin entirely, which was why I spent so much time talking to some of these guys. There is that initial point where you can get a significant improvement and then after that for any incremental improvement you have to do significant modifications. That's the case with the S4, who's stock boost pressure is a mere 7 psi. A basic increase goes to 14.5-7 psi which is 1 bar about, and is enough to launch the car at about 4.9-5.0 0-60, at best. Anything after that requires additional work, like a free flowing exhaust system in order to prevent the turbo's from "backing up" amongst a few other changes.

And as far as the warranty issue is concerned, Audi is more adamant for some strange reason to pursue the warranty issue in Europe than it is here in the U.S. And even then, the consumer is liable for any damage that the reprograming causes to the car, and most "chips" are encrypted to prevent false readings during routine maintenance at the dealer. Some will even offer you a means to exchange the ECU everytime you take it in for work.

I don't think I would ever go the route of exchanging the turbo's and changing the exhaust because then you have to deal with a totally different animal and give up certain comforts. Besides, the fuel mileage sucks big time with the car so anything that would enable me to provide heavier pedal pressure is not exactly what I am looking for.

25th March 2000, 00:10	#35 (permalink)
Roman Banned Join Date: Mar 2000 Location: New York, N.Y. USA Posts: 96 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	Kevin, Got your e-mail, sent you one too. I'm not too thrilled with TAP, to be honest with you fore reasons I'd rather not go into. So far, I have "interviewed" 5 tuners EXTENSIVELY, spending over an hour with each on the phone. I have to tell you that I was impressed with only one of them, which I won't reveal here as I don't want any legal issues arising out of my opinions. This one in particular indicated to me that they can raise the S4's HP rating safely to 307, with torque up to 375 ftlbs and they indicated to me the weaknesses and strengths of the S4's drive train. Now I honestly and logically can't believe that the 0-60 times will improve much more than by about 0.7 seconds, to about 4.8-4.9 seconds Car & Driver's road test of the S4 in the December 1999 edition was 5.5 0-60, the same edition as was the M5 test where they got 0-60 of 4.7 seconds), before anything to 4.2 will require additional modifications and other conditions and I agree with you Kevin entirely, which was why I spent so much time talking to some of these guys. There is that initial point where you can get a significant improvement and then after that for any incremental improvement you have to do significant modifications. That's the case with the S4, who's stock boost pressure is a mere 7 psi. A basic increase goes to 14.5-7 psi which is 1 bar about, and is enough to launch the car at about 4.9-5.0 0-60, at best. Anything after that requires additional work, like a free flowing exhaust system in order to prevent the turbo's from "backing up" amongst a few other changes. And as far as the warranty issue is concerned, Audi is more adamant for some strange reason to pursue the warranty issue in Europe than it is here in the U.S. And even then, the consumer is liable for any damage that the reprograming causes to the car, and most "chips" are encrypted to prevent false readings during routine maintenance at the dealer. Some will even offer you a means to exchange the ECU everytime you take it in for work. I don't think I would ever go the route of exchanging the turbo's and changing the exhaust because then you have to deal with a totally different animal and give up certain comforts. Besides, the fuel mileage sucks big time with the car so anything that would enable me to provide heavier pedal pressure is not exactly what I am looking for.