Modern car tuning is almost magic. The ability to just simply add a software tune to a modern turbocharged engine and get over 100 additional horsepower is absurd and yet entirely realistic. In this new video from Drag Times, you get to see a BMW M4 Competition xDrive, with just a simple tune, make 620 horsepower and take on a BMW M5 tuned to 750 horsepower.
At first, it might seem odd to even bother with this race. The BMW M5 Competition isn’t that much heavier than the M4 xDrive and yet the one in this test makes 130 more horsepower, plus far more torque lower in the rev range. So it doesn’t really seem very fair. However, that sort of thinking underestimates the M4’s S58 engine. The 3.0-liter twin-turbo inline-six is an astonishingly strong engine, capable of rocketing the M4 as if it were thrown from a trebuchet.
In its initial standalone runs, the tuned BMW M4 xDrive was capable of 0-60 mph in 3.03 seconds and that was after it spun its wheels. If it could launch cleaner, it would definitely break into the two-second range. A six-cylinder M4 breaking into the two-second 0-60 mph range is madness. It also ran a 10.8 second quarter-mile, which is about as fast as the BMW M5 CS I tested a year or so ago. I’ve said that the BMW M4 feels like a Bavarian Nissan GT-R since I first drove it and this video only further reinforces that idea.
After its solo runs, the BMW M4 lined up against the tuned BMW M5 to see which was faster. The first race, one of the drivers seemed to have jumped the start a bit, so it wasn’t the most accurate of results. However, the final two were more accurate and truly showed off the incredible performance of both cars. Check it out.