It was just earlier today when we reported about BMW’s plans to develop a new generation of combustion engines, including new diesel mills for its SUV models on the European market. Diesels may not be popular in the United States, especially outside the truck segment, but on the Old Continent, even some of the company’s sports coupes are sold with compression ignition units.
This is the case with the 4 Series range. Both the current model and its predecessor were sold with a 3.0-liter inline-six turbocharged diesel and it’s a very frugal and elastic engine. What’s even more important, those twin-turbo units have great tuning potential even without serious hardware modifications. In the case of the car in this new Carwow video, there are new components under the hood, though – a larger turbo, a special camshaft, new intercoolers, a modded exhaust system, and new software.
The result of all these changes is 462 horsepower, which is significantly up from the stock 260 hp. The peak torque is enormous – 750 pound-feet (1,017 Newton-meters), almost twice the factory number. Against it, the M4 is with no engine tweaks, which means it has a 3.0-liter straight-six gasoline turbo with 510 hp and 479 lb-ft (650 Nm) of twist.
The M4 has an eight-speed automatic gearbox with launch control, whereas the older model doesn’t have that feature. Both cars are rear-wheel drive. And last but not least, the 4 Series is lighter and way cheaper than the high-performance coupe from Munich. But this isn’t really a surprise.
With so much torque channeled only to the rear wheel – and a wet track – it is a little difficult for the 4 Series to find enough traction in the first race. For the second one, however, the electronic stability system settings are changed giving the car a better grip throughout the whole race. Is that enough to beat the stock M4? Let’s find out in the video at the top of this article.
