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Add on horses... Can you feel em????

1123 Views 8 Replies 9 Participants Last post by  jjc1843
With all the after market things you can do to increase horse power (powerchip,
exhaust,cold air intake, ect.) how much do you have to add before you can feel it. I mean can you feel a 20 horse gain on a 400 horse car??? Is it diffenent with a lower horse power car?? Thanks in advance.:confused:
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I'll be following this thread myself - I'm on the verge of having 24 horses added locally (talked to them, just got to schedule the visit) but am still researching. They have fairly grand claims of Tq increase (+16%) as well as reduction in average fuel consumption (13.9 > 13.5 Ltr's/100) both of which seem higher than I've seen elsewhere on this board and the associated sponsors...

Regards,

Gary.

m5tackulous said:
With all the after market things you can do to increase horse power (powerchip,
exhaust,cold air intake, ect.) how much do you have to add before you can feel it. I mean can you feel a 20 horse gain on a 400 horse car??? Is it diffenent with a lower horse power car?? Thanks in advance.:confused:
I have an exhaust and x-pipe and AA CAI, and I think when I installed them, I felt a change, but now after having them for several months I dont notice any more power, I suppose on just gets used to it after a while, and plus we are talking about relatively small increase. I still love the exhaust, the sound is pure happiness to my hears, and I like the look of the AA cai grill, but in 20/20 hindsight I might have just done the Home depot sink drain or ordered just the grill from AA and saved some money, but then again just my two cents, Josh
m5tackulous said:
With all the after market things you can do to increase horse power (powerchip,
exhaust,cold air intake, ect.) how much do you have to add before you can feel it. I mean can you feel a 20 horse gain on a 400 horse car??? Is it diffenent with a lower horse power car?? Thanks in advance.:confused:
When I did the PC upgrade, I noticed a lot more smoothness and better drivability, but I can't say I felt a horsepower increase. However, the headers DEFINITELY make a difference. Car feels completely different. The PC upgrade (for headers the second time) was more to protect the motor from running lean and again not sure I can feel any horsepower difference. I did the UD pullies at the same time, so they may get some credit, but I think everyone with headers (Dinan, SS or RDS) are pretty happy with the results.
Regards,
Jerry
You'll feel 3.45 gears more than the bolt-ons like exhaust and Cold Air induction. Headers and software excluded.
FWIW my engine tech drove my car (headers, SS exhaust, PC 94 octane) vs. their "house" bone-stock M5 and told me he readily noticed the increase in pulling power from the mid rev-range on.
At the moment, hell yeah from the bottom of my lungs kinggf

But honestly, you feel the hp starting from the k&n fliters ! I still remember when i ordered my first mod (the only mod available at the time for the M5 back in march 2000) and i flet the slight tiny winy gain.. hey at least it was there... Next up was the short shifter which was good, the supersprint added alittle bit more. hp gain with the X pipe was good and everything together put a smile on my face :)

Obviously, the feeling will go away after some time as your body gets adapted to the new power... Same thing can be said about any other car, at first its all wow then it gets normal... believe it or nor but that happens to me in the lambo too ! when driving at first after keeping her parked for some time is like Wow nice! then its gets normal other than hearing the passenger next to you scream while holding on to the oh **** handle which is located near their seat ;)
Usually your body will notice a 10% increase in power, but then it will quickly get used to it. You might notice driveability differences (engine smoothness, quicker revving etc), but for the kick in the butt acceleration feel 10% or better usually does it. Headers, 3.45 diff, and a powerchip will do it for you for awhile.
:cheers:
Hey:

The mods I have done, all at the same time, transformed the cars power band quite noticeably. Note that all my power mods were just to open up the complete breathing of the system. The beast screams from 3800 RPM to redline, like never before. And I still recognize the effect from stock over 6 months later.

The powerchip adds a nice response to the normal mode, animalistic in sport mode. But I am now used to normal mode, so I do not remember the difference between the original non-powerchip normal and this new normal mode.
The 3.45 diff changes up things quite a bit. Proabably not needed, and my fuel economy has decreased substantially since the mods. But is that the headers & powerchip remapping or my right foot weight increase since the mods? Or it is probably due to the Tubi's. I hear the exhaust note and it is natural for me to hit that gas a little harder.

Note that all of this is useless if the clutch slips....
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