Tuning is to cars what coffee is to humans – it kicks it up a notch, and some carmakers have gone to great lengths to provide tuned versions of their stock vehicles. BMW is an example of a carmaker, with its M division renowned worldwide.
But then, situations like these in this story happen: someone gets their hands on a BMW M4 Competition xDrive and decides to tune it up further. Not much, just about 20% more engine power and about 16% more torque. All with one tiny tuning kit (spoiler: for BMW only!) that requires no installation effort, complicated mechanical engineering, and no permanent setup.
The YouTube Channel DragTimes is behind this little “tune the tune” experiment. They have a BMW M4, which is one good fast car already. Its three-liter inline-six twin-turbo powerplant is north of 503 bhp on the road (510 PS), with all wheels putting effort into the drive. The torque is 470 lb-ft (637 Nm), enough to dart the BMW from zero to 60 mph (97 kph) in 3.4 seconds.
(Author’s note – the video does show a dyno test of this particular M4, and the numbers vary slightly. However, we refer to the official BMW data when reporting a car’s specifications and performance).
So, our YouTubers took a piggyback tuning box and strapped it on the engine. According to dyno readings, the power gain is around 95 hp and 75 lb-ft of torque (just over 100 Nm). So, pretty good numbers, with a 19% power increase and about 16% more spin force, giving the BMW a final thrust of 610 bhp (612 PS) and 545 lb-ft (750 Nm).
Although the video shows the BMW M4 Competition xDrive running on a back road with loose gravel, the YouTubers claim their tuned run figures came from a clean, straightforward road test. Interestingly, the stock 0-60 time is about 0.2 seconds faster than the after-tuning one (3.39 seconds vs. 3.52).
Overall, the small plugin tune kit shaved off almost two-tenths of a second for the quarter-mile run (11.32 sec tuned vs. 11.50 stock). The best feature of the tuning kit is – in the YouTuber’s opinion – its versatility: it can be turned off altogether – in the case that the M4 drives like the stock car – or it can give three different modes of Race, Comfort, or Eco.
Counterintuitive as it may seem at first glance, this last mode is just one spec with which the tuner brags about their Engine Performance Module. The YouTubers want to squeeze even better performance from the M4 with a new set of tires on the car. Stick around and see what happens.
After nearly two decades in news television, Răzvan turned to a different medium. He’s been a field journalist, a TV producer, and a seafarer but found that he feels right at home among petrolheads. Full profile
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