Above and Beyond: Evolve Supercharged E92 M3

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ABOVE

For anyone that thought the E92 M3 was a little lacking in the power department Evolve has built a bolt-on supercharger kit which pushes out over 600hp‌ Words: Simon Holmes Photography: Matt Richardson

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SUPERCHARGED E92 M3

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n standard form, an E92 M3 is hardly a car you’d ever describe as short on power.

Fitted with the glorious S65 4.0-litre V8 engine breathing through eight individual throttle bodies, peak power is a whopping 420hp, up nearly 80hp from the previous six-cylinder M3. It was an engine that loved to rev and peak power was made at a screaming 8300rpm, just 100rpm shy of its rev limiter. It was accompanied by a grunty 295lb ft of torque that was made much further down the rev range, at 3900rpm giving solid all-round performance. 62mph from rest came in just 4.8 seconds and then the brilliant seven-speed, paddle-shift DCT gearbox improved that time further, bringing it down to a truly blistering 4.6 seconds.

That’s fast by anyone’s standards although it hasn’t stopped owners wanting more from their M3, and Luton-based BMW tuning specialist Evolve has answered the call with its own supercharger kit, which is fitted to the demo car you see here. “We had customers come to us asking for a big power supercharger kit so we agreed to develop one but we wanted to start again and design one to our own specification,” explains Imran Arshad from Evolve.

Each part was developed individually over a 12-month period and the choice of supercharger unit itself was carefully selected to ensure the car still performed well without sacrificing its drivability. “The Rotrex C38 supercharger was chosen because it was better suited to the engine and what we wanted from it, which was lots of low down torque,” Imran continues. “That was important to us as we wanted to retain all of the practical usability of the car so it could still be driven regularly without issue.”

The result turns what is undoubtedly a powerful and well performing car into an obscenely fast one. Power jumps to a dyno proven 601hp and it’s backed up with a solid 400lb ft of torque. Our sister publication Performance BMW timed this very car on an empty airfield just a few months ago and although the initial off-the-line figures were only marginally better than standard, primarily due to traction issues, the figures it recorded once on the move were truly astounding. Whilst 60mph came in 4.5 seconds, the 0-100mph time really showed how capable it was, recording just 8.7 seconds which is near enough identical to the current £93,795 F13 M6. That’s fast but even more impressive is the 60-100mph time of just 4.2 seconds, which is quicker than an M6 and better reflects the car’s in gear acceleration. It continues to pull in a series of impressive figures the faster it goes, as it begins to get into its stride. 0-150mph in 18.2 seconds is again quicker than an M6 and quicker than a 6.2-litre V12 Lamborghini Murcielago for that matter.

The complete kit costs £12,500 fitted, including VAT, and when you consider an E92 M3 can be had for less than £20,000 that actually makes it pretty good value considering you’re getting a certified supercar beater.

What’s best about this example is that from the outside it looks completely standard.

There’s nothing to even hint at what‘s tucked away inside the engine bay and it’s a similar story inside, too. There is no roll-cage to clamber over, bucket seats to squeeze into or a bank of extra gauges to keep an eye on – this is very much a pure road car in every sense of the word and, as such, it retains all of the standard luxuries. Even with the bonnet open there’s little to give the game away to the untrained eye and unless you know your M3s you could be forgiven for mistaking it as virtually standard.

The Rotrex supercharger sits on the right-hand side of the engine bay where the original air box once was and it’s a compact unit that’s mounted on billet brackets that are anodised in a suitably non-garish black finish. The boost it produces is sent towards the front of the car through a simple black silicone hose and into the front mounted intercooler that’s situated centrally, just behind the kidney grilles. It’s a well-made item that features oval shaped outlets so it can pass above the radiator through the old air

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The car looks totally standard both inside and out and there’s nothing to give the game away as to what’s lurking under the bonnet

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SUPERCHARGED E92 M3 Evolve E92 M3 ENGINE: Standard S65B40 4.0-litre V8, Evolve supercharger kit with Rotrex C38 unit running 6.7psi, front mount intercooler, CNC-machined plenum, twin recirculating dump valves, Evolve remap, Evolve E-Tronic exhaust with primary car delete and wireless remote valve control CHASSIS: Eibach springs BRAKES: Performance Friction pads WHEELS & TYRES: 8.5x19-inch and 9.5x19-inch BMW Style 220 wheels with ContiSuperSportContact 3 245/35/19 and 265/35/19 tyres CONTACT: Evolve Automotive TEL: 01582 573801 WEB: www.evolveautomotive.com

There’s not much to give the game away other than a slightly deeper burble from the exhaust

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SUPERCHARGED E92 M3

It has a wide and very linear spread of torque that continues to increase at a relentless pace as the revs increase

Supercharger kit is kept looking subtle thanks to the use of the original intakes and black hoses

intakes. Imran tells us this was done on purpose so nothing has to be permanently cut away to fit the kit, allowing it to be reversed in the future if required.

The intercooler then passes back into the engine bay and feeds the new CNCmachined replacement inlet plenum that sits on top of the engine to evenly distribute the boost down into the original throttle bodies. Again, the plenum is wellmade and finished in matching black to provide a factory feel whilst subtle twin dump valves are mounted either side to release pressure and recirculate it back into the intake. It’s clearly a very well-thought-out bit of kit that’s been designed to integrate into the engine bay with the minimal amount of fuss. Nothing is done internally to the engine as testing has proved it to be reliable even at this power thanks to German over-engineering.

The ECU is then given an Evolve remap to allow it to make the most of its newfound forced induction safely whilst ensuring that low down drivability isn’t affected.

This car has also been fitted with an Evolve E-Tronic exhaust system, which deletes the primary cats and features a clever wireless remote valve control to allow a change in exhaust note.

Despite all of the changes, on tickover there’s very little additional noise and even out on the road at low revs there’s not much to give the game away other than a slightly deeper burble from the exhaust and a series of light, pleasing whistles from the supercharger.

In fact, driving the car through the busy, traffic congested roads of Luton in an effort to find somewhere suitable to photograph it everything seems quite normal. At low speeds and low revs the car is perfectly happy and low down drivability is just as linear as usual. This mean it doesn’t do much unless you want it to. It’s not like you’re having to constantly wrestle or restrain the engine from releasing all that firepower from under the bonnet accidentally. Gentle cruising is easy going and it’s so docile in these conditions that I’m almost beginning to wonder if the car is as capable as I’m led to believe, although admittedly speed hasn’t reached much over 30mph yet.

But then a long, clear section of dual carriageway opens up and finally I have the opportunity to bury the throttle and something extraordinary happens. At first, the revs start to climb as you would expect, only it takes a split second to realise they are climbing a lot quicker than usual and by the time they are above 5000rpm and into the M3’s happy zone they are rising at a phenomenal, yet steady, rate. It’s not like the engine is hunting for its torque spike like a big power turbocharged car does, it simply seems to have a wide and very linear spread of torque that continues to increase at a relentless pace as the revs increase. The delivery doesn’t tail off and it doesn’t dip or hesitate at any point, it simply remains on the same constant incline throughout the whole rev range. It feels and reacts very much how you would expect a big, naturally aspirated engine to work – which is, of course, the intention of a supercharger – and it shows no signs of letting up all the way until it’s singing at over 8000rpm. At that point, a dab of the DCT’s paddle change instantly has it starting the process again in the next gear, only now at a higher speed yet the acceleration is just as forceful as it was at lower speeds.

The DCT gearbox itself is exceptionally well-suited to the engine’s newfound characteristics allowing ferocious bursts of acceleration to be virtually uninterrupted thanks to the super-slick, instant gear changes.

In each gear it does the same trick again, pinning you back in your seat as both the revs and speed climb at a frankly alarming pace. Finding enough road and enough guts to string a couple of flat shifted gear changes together shows the car is

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just getting started and you can feel how much it wants to keep going. As the figures on paper suggest, it really comes into its own at higher speeds when traction is less of an issue and the gear ratios are working in the linear power band’s favour.

This really is something pretty spectacular and easily one of the fastest cars I’ve driven but what’s really impressive is that its power delivery is smooth yet relentless and not in any way peaky or unsettling.

Although saying that, by now I have noticed the road is slightly damp from rainfall the night before and the car’s traction control, which has been left on, is picking up on this a lot. Acceleration sprints now have the traction light illuminating several times through each gear, subtly regulating the power rather than cutting it dead like older BMW systems. Even at 70mph it’s flashing like mad as the car scrabbles for grip and a flat shift into fourth gear has the rear end unsettled sideways for a brief second.

It’s clearly got more power than you could ever want or probably ever need and it doesn’t help that this is still a fairly light car in comparison to other cars I’ve driven with huge power, such as the heavyweight F13 M6. Imran tells me this M3 is producing 6.7psi and there is a bigger boost kit using 8psi that makes around 640hp, but in fact, the lower powered car is more a lot more manageable and better on the road. It certainly makes for a very fun drive and it’s ability to return back to a docile, everyday M3 in town makes it an extremely impressive overall package. This car is actually having its supercharger conversion removed shortly as it’s served its time as a demo car for Evolve, so the plan now is to return it to standard and use it for development of the company’s naturally aspirated tuning programme. A new air intake is first on the cards and the team has already seen good results, although from having driven this car we would expect nothing less… l

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Clever Evolve E-Tronic exhaust has a remote valve control to regulate the noise on the move