Ever since the new latest version of the N63 4.4-liter twin-turbo V8 engine came out, the BMW community has been rather torn in terms of buying options. For the most part, as capable and as fast as cars fitted with the S63 engine may be, the new M550i or M850i models are really attractive thanks to this improved powerplant. The choice is really difficult because the M Performance models bring so much performance, you’d have to really want that extra 10 percent a full-on M model brings to the table, to pay the difference.
Therefore, now that the 5 Series model is getting a refresh, the M550i comes into focus once again. The M5 is a brilliant car but for majority of the people out there, the M550i might be just right in terms of bang for buck ratio. We’ve seen many such arguments recently and I tend to agree: the N63-equipped models are a better proposition in certain cases. Chip in the fact that you can tune them to make close to what an M car has under its belt and things get even more interesting.
The guys from Race Chip created a tune for the car and wanted to see exactly how different the numbers are on the dyno and in real-life usage. Therefore, they measured the car stock and after it was tuned. The stock figures are the ones most people will care about. As you can see in the video below, the M550i put out 533 PS and 770 Nm of torque. Those are right on the money, confirming BMW’s claims regarding the output of the N63 engine.
After the tune, the car delivered 593 PS on the dyno and 874 Nm of torque. While those figures do look nice on paper, how much of an improvement are they bringing in real life? The biggest improvements are to be expected in the 100-200 km/h runs and according to their measurements, the tuned car is faster by 1.28 seconds, doing the run in 7.6 seconds.
Is that enough of a difference? Well, considering this tune is on the cheaper side of things, it may very well be. If you want a bit more, there are always options on the table from tuners like AC Schnitzer, G-Power or Manhart.
