A lot of people have been saying that the new S55 engine is actually just a beefed up N55 unit from any car in BMW’s line-up that has the 35i lettering on the bonnet in any give combination. One simple look at the specs and the detailed data the Germans offered will prove that you’re wrong almost immediately however.
In case you’re still not convinced, the video below should remove any possible hint of doubt. That’s because we have two cars that should be close to identical according to some: a BMW 435i and a BMW M4.
The 435i is, admittedly a Convertible but it does have the N55 3-liter inline 6-cylinder engine under the bonnet making 306 HP and 400 Nm (295 lb-ft) of torque thanks to one dual-scroll turbocharger. That’s basically the foundation for the S55 unit that, however, has a plethora of different parts.
From the cylinder walls and the piston heads to the oil sumps and even the crankcase cover, a lot of things differ. The biggest change is the turbocharging that went from a single dual-scroll unit to two mono scroll ones from Mitsubishi.
Thanks to those little monsters, the M4 has 431 HP and 550 Nm (406 lb-ft) at its disposal, enough to send the car up to 100 km/h (62 mph) one full second faster than the 435i in Coupe guise and 1.4 seconds faster than the Convertible version.
That’s a big difference that will be noticeable to anyone who has a spine. You’ll feel the extra grunt of the M4 immediately, you don’t even have to wait until it reaches 7,000 RPM as maximum torque comes at 1,800 RPM. If you feel like getting into more detail about the difference between the two engines, check out the attached press release, where BMW explains how the S55 was inspired by the N55 and what's the same. In the meantime, the video below will show you how they work at different paces.
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