[CHSCHQS]

I remember a conversation I had at the dealership with a salesman prior to purchasing who was doing his spiel about the vehicle specs. When he got to the hp part, he said it produces 335hp and then put his hand up to his mouth and said something along the lines of, "It's registered as 335hp, but in reality it's a more like 350hp or 360hp."

I've tried looking this up and can't find any info. Pretty much all tech specs I could pull up from BMW or 3rd party engineering/tuner sites mention that the B58B30M1 motor can be tuned/modded for better performance, but makes no mention that BMW had understated the factory stock hp numbers.

Was the salesman just trying to put whipped cream on the sales process or does this bit of information actually hold some truth?

[ezaircon4jc]

Originally Posted by CHSCHQS

I remember a conversation I had at the dealership with a salesman prior to purchasing who was doing his spiel about the vehicle specs. When he got to the hp part, he said it produces 335hp and then put his hand up to his mouth and said something along the lines of, "It's registered as 335hp, but in reality it's a more like 350hp or 360hp."

I've tried looking this up and can't find any info. Pretty much all tech specs I could pull up from BMW or 3rd party engineering/tuner sites mention that the B58B30M1 motor can be tuned/modded for better performance, but makes no mention that BMW had understated the factory stock hp numbers.

Was the salesman just trying to put whipped cream on the sales process or does this bit of information actually hold some truth?

I saw dyno numbers somewhere (here?) that showed, IIRC, 340ish at the wheels. BMW notoriously underreports its HP numbers and that 340 at the wheels is about, with 20% drivetrain loss, 400 at the crank. Maybe BMW's have less drivetrain loss

[CHSCHQS]

Originally Posted by ezaircon4jc

I saw dyno numbers somewhere (here?) that showed, IIRC, 340ish at the wheels. BMW notoriously underreports its HP numbers and that 340 at the wheels is about, with 20% drivetrain loss, 400 at the crank. Maybe BMW's have less drivetrain loss

Real question: Why would a performance orientated company such as BMW want to underreport it's HP numbers? The only reason I can come up with is to puff up the MPG numbers and therefore appeal to the widest possible audience.

[ezaircon4jc]

Originally Posted by CHSCHQS

Real question: Why would a performance orientated company such as BMW want to underreport it's HP numbers? The only reason I can come up with is to puff up the MPG numbers and therefore appeal to the widest possible audience.

Insurance purposes. IIRC, insurance rates in some (all?) parts of Europe are predicated on HP numbers. It happened here in the early 70's also. Some Mustang's (and other "pony" cars) were also seriously underrated.

[Alscoob]

Reminds me of the 'Gentlemans agreement' that Jap cars had as UK imports in the '90's. Subaru Impreza & Mitsubishi Lancers among others were all rated as 260bhp most were well in excess of this.

[ppointer]

For several years BMW has been conservative in some of the objective measurements of its cars. The cars are typically faster than the factory claims, can get better MPGs than claimed, etc. By default, the speedometer shows faster than you are actually going, though this can be corrected via Carly or Bimmercode.

[Neusser]

Originally Posted by CHSCHQS

I remember a conversation I had at the dealership with a salesman prior to purchasing who was doing his spiel about the vehicle specs. When he got to the hp part, he said it produces 335hp and then put his hand up to his mouth and said something along the lines of, "It's registered as 335hp, but in reality it's a more like 350hp or 360hp."

I've tried looking this up and can't find any info. Pretty much all tech specs I could pull up from BMW or 3rd party engineering/tuner sites mention that the B58B30M1 motor can be tuned/modded for better performance, but makes no mention that BMW had understated the factory stock hp numbers.

Was the salesman just trying to put whipped cream on the sales process or does this bit of information actually hold some truth?

Most of the dyno numbers I have seen place it at about 365-370 hp at the crank.

Feels about right to me. I open it up on the Autobahn here between Düsseldorf and Frankfurt quite often and it is definitely a fast car when you start exploring the upper rev range.

A simple 5-min. flash using your phone can give you 420ish hp, with no need to upgrade anything else. Roughly 500 is just a downpipe and TU fuel pump away.