BMW 135i ///MR Edition
GTspirit’s first project vehicle is this powerful German sports car. Based upon a 2008 BMW 135i, this project includes a coupe 1-Series, which will showcase what manufacturers, tuners and our partners have to offer. Over the upcoming period the vehicle will receive a new identity. Each single update will be discussed below, so make sure you follow our updates regularly.
Do not forget to check out our previous updates about the BMW 135i ///MR Edition and visit the other pages.
Update 28: Visiting Monaco and showing the final result
Date: 23/04/12
After finishing the complete wrap we drove to Monaco to visit the Top Marques Monaco 2012 car show. You may have seen the coverage on our front page. The BMW 135i ///MR Edition was part of the test drive paddock next to the show, which gave people and fans the option to have a closer look at our project car. Our personal photographer made an exclusive photo shoot with the vehicle in the harbour of Monte Carlo. The final result of this photo shoot is visible below.
Photo shoot in Monte Carlo harbour
Spotted on the roads of Monaco
Update 27: Wrapping the project car at Dartz France
Date: 18/04/12
We have reached the Dartz workshop in Le Cannet near Cannes, France. The guys from Dartz FR wrapped the car in a new green color. The package is finished with several parts on the car wrapped in carbon fiber and black glossy logos from our partners on the sides of the car.
In the gallery below you can see the complete process from wrapping the car to a close-up inside the work shop and some of the other projects parked in- and outside in the south of France. We also cleaned our engine bay as you can see on the pictures.
Update 26: On our way to Cannes, final photo shoot in Luxembourg dressed in white
Date: 15/04/12
On our way to Cannes we stopped in Luxembourg for a luxury night at the Chateau Urspelt hotel in the north of the small country. Friend and professional photographer Wim Slagboom made a wonderful series of photos near the chateau in Urspelt.
Update 25: Choosing the wrap
Date: 10/04/12
We asked our friends and fans on the GTspirit Facebook page to choose the color of the wrap, which Dartz France will fit onto our project car in about a week. We have the choice out of these four vinyls. Check the galley below and choose your own favorite vinyl, which should be fitted to our white BMW 135i. (Up to down = 1, 2, 3, 4) (Left to right = 1, 2, 3, 4)
Update 24: First top speed runs hitting 283km/h
Date: 08/04/12
We finally had the chance to try our project car in Germany on the Autobahn to Stuttgart fitted with the new tuning parts and the new 18 inch tires. The improved performance managed us to achieve an astonishing 283km/h on the speedo in the first run and a 270km/h in the second run.
The speed potential of the 135i ///MR Edition has been increased drastically. The constant performance push is easily felt from the mid range rev range all the way up to 6,500rpm. From sixth gear the car easily pulls up to speeds in access of 260km/h and higher, where normally the stock turbos had problems pulling the car forward the new setup keeps on accelerating.
At 283km/h we hadn’t reached the end point, a lot more was still available inside the engine. Speeds in access of 300km/h are easily an option. Minor points found were the suspension and brakes which need a definite upgrade and are next on our list.
Update 23: Changing Breyton wheels, back to 18 inch
Date: 23/03/12
We swapped our black colored Breyton RACE GTS wheels for a smaller 18 inch wheel size. The 19 inch rims were sizing 8.5Ă—19 inch for all four wheels. During the use of the RACE GTS wheels we were unable to solve the problems with the wheels hitting the wheel arches and after the 400+ tuning kit was installed we needed more rear tyre surface to put down the power.
The new tyre and wheel combination are Breyton GTS-R rims sizing 7,5×18 and 8,5×18 fitted with Dunlop Sportmaxx GT tyres sizing 225/40R18 en 255/35R18. Our partners Breyton via KSC Import and Jan Steverink tyre service supplied the complete set.
Update 22: Upgrading ECU after initial test runs
Date: 12/03/12
Over the past few days we have returned to Beek Auto Racing to upgrade our ECU software. The specialists have changed some minor settings improving the driveability of the new tuning kit fitted to the six-in-line engine. After swapping for the 19 inch summer tyres we experienced problems with the torque calculation on idle cruising speed and increased load on the rear wheel drivetrain. These problems disappeared after introducing new changes to the ECU software.
Update 21: Tuning the twin-turbocharged six-in-line engine
Date: 27/02/12
Our intention with respect to the upgrades to the stock engine in the 135i were clear from the beginning. Figures beyond the stock levels of the E9x M3 were the goal and those were not reached just by changes the ECU software and keeping the stock turbos fitted inside the engine bay. A new setup had to be installed on both hardware as software level. The final choice was made to go with an existing tuning package fitted inside a similar 135i using the same N54 3.0 liter turbocharged six-in-line engine as our project car.
Together with our local technical partner Beek Auto Racing we investigated the visiblity of the conversion and decided to give it go. The start of the rebuild included both cars parked next to each other in the workshop of Beek Auto Racing. They exchanged the stock parts from our 135i for the parts inside the donor car. The parts swapped included:
- B1-3.5s 430hp Engine Conversion and Turbo kit for the BMW 135i N54 engine, bigger turbos offering more power to the engine
- Uprated I-forge Intercooler, which improves the cooling ability and reduces the pressure loss across when compared to stock.
- I-forge recirculation valves, which have an aluminum piston based design offering significantly improved reliability over the failure prone OEM valves with no change to valve response time
- AR Design oil catch can, ensures that excess oil and moisture in the crankcase vapors are collected, which is spared from the injection.
- AR Design Ceramic Coated Hi-Flo Downpipes with Race Cats
- AR Design downpipe fix for the engine dashboard light
- AR Design BMW Drop-in air filter
The ECU software was specifically made for our project car by the specialists at Beek Auto Racing. They installed the kit and tuned the vehicle on their dyno. The final results are visible in the graph inside the gallery, but those are not the final results. We have to finalize the complete kit on the dyno over the coming months. The current values are 414,80hp and 485,66Nm at 6,000rpm and 578,13 at 2,500rpm. Our final goal is up to 430hp and 600Nm!
Update 20: Snow drifting
Date: 06/02/12
With snow falling from the sky it was time to take our BMW 135i ///MR Edition for a ride on the snow and ice. Fitted with Continental TS 830 P winter tires sizing 225/40R18 92V at the front and 255/35R18 94V at the rear we switched off all the driver aids and went sideways.
The pictures in the gallery below give some idea of the fun we had in the snow. At the end of afternoon we also did a small photoshoot with the car parked in the local financial district.
Do not forget to check out our previous updates about the BMW 135i ///MR Edition.
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