It isn’t much of a secret anymore that BMW’s B58 engine is among the best six-cylinder engines in our solar system. It’s powerful, smooth, and it makes a great noise. Here in the U.S., our B58-powered cars sound excellent. Even pretty boring family haulers, like the BMW X5 xDrive40i sounds really good because of their straight-sixes. However, in Europe, they don’t sound as good out of the box, thanks to sound-sapping particulate emissions filters. Which is what forces owners to use aftermarket solutions to bring its sound back and even unlock more of its potential. In this video from AutoTopNL, not only does its new mid-pipe make the B58-powered BMW M340i Touring sound better, it actually sounds better than an M3.
The new BMW M3 sounds good but it also sounds a bit artificial, as if BMW M tried to make it sound overly angry, and it lacks the sonorous, metallic top end of classic I6-powered M cars. We’ve seen that aftermarket solutions can fix the M3’s S58 engine, too. But this mid-piped M340i Touring, with its mostly stock B58 engine, sounds fantastic.
It’s pretty remarkable what just a mid-pipe can do, simply by replacing the pesky emissions filters and giving it some more airflow. It sounds angry and growly and it has that signature metallic sound that all good BMWs should have as their revs climb. Best of all, though, no unnecessary pops and burbles. The sheer amount of automotive flatulence that’s engineered into modern sports car exhausts is aggravating, so it’s refreshing to hear a tuned car that lacks them.
Admittedly, that’s not all this M340i Touring has. It also has a 200-cell downpipe and an Eventuri intake, so it sounded better than the standard M340i already. However, the mid-pipe certainly made a difference and the combination of everything makes the M340i Touring sound like a proper sports car, despite it being a comfortable wagon that can fit a family.
This helps prove that the B58 engine is among the best BMW’s ever made. Not only is it fantastic to use and one of the most tunable engine in the world, it can also be made to sound like something genuinely exotic without any crazy sort of mods. Simple bolt-on parts can take your seemingly everyday BMW and turn it into something that fills your neighbors with envy. Or hatred, depending on how loud you are in the morning.
