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E61 520d SE Touring So just how many miles per gallon can you extract from a 520d? This was a question I asked myself earlier this month when I found myself on the motorway with a miniscule range showing on the OBC. I’d been to a meeting in north London and was happily trudging around the North Circular on my way back to the office when the dot matrix signs started flashing about an accident and a road blockage up ahead. Bugger. Fortunately I was literally about 100 yards from the M11 turn off and I dived off the A406 and on to the motorway with the intention of popping up the M11 and round the M25, over the QE2 bridge and on to Sevenoaks. Nanoseconds after making my decision I realised that I had been planning to stop for fuel about two miles further round the North Circular and that a range showing 14 miles was unlikely to get me up the M11 and round the M25 to the Thurrock Services. Enter economy mode. I reset the OBC and diced with the juggernauts in the slow lane for the next 25 miles while resolutely refusing to look at either the MPG or range readouts and it was with a huge sigh of relief when I wafted into Thurrock services to replenish the tanks. Unbelievably the economy readout was a staggering 64.2mpg and the range had swelled to 26 miles – I could have made it all the way to the office! While the excellent economy was a bit of an eye-opener I think if I had to
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drive that way the whole time I’d rather take the bus. The 520d doesn’t generally achieve much more than half that economy, especially as I usually have my foot welded to the bulkhead in the hope that I might find some more horses or torques hidden away at the end of the pedal’s travel. After extensive testing I’ve come to the realisation that there aren’t any. Or should I say weren’t? Yes, I’ve taken the plunge and had the Touring remapped by ECU remapping wizards, Evolve (www.evolveautomotive.com). We’ve been hugely impressed with the various features cars we’ve driven that have been ‘breathed on’ by Evolve – 320d, 123d, 335d, 335i to mention just a few – so it seemed like a natural choice to have the 520d tuned by them. To say I’m delighted with the results would be putting it mildly – it’s fan-blinking-tastic! Driving away from Evolve’s Luton HQ was like falling in love again and I think I can safely say that the nagging doubts that I’ve been having that the 520d really was just too slow have all but evaporated. Evolve offers two different ways of extracting more performance from your BMW, one where you travel to them to have a new map uploaded via the diagnostic port, and the other where you buy an Evolve Switch unit which allows you to carry out the upgrade yourself. I went for the latter option, although as I was up at the company’s Luton HQ photographing
one of its mouth-watering creations that you’ll be able to read about next month I actually had the remap carried out there. To see how exactly how healthy (or not) the 520d was we strapped it to Evolve’s state of the art Dyno Dynamics rolling road and a power readout of 157.8hp and a torque figure of 255lb ft were more or less in line with the factory’s claimed figures of 163hp and 251lb ft. Interestingly though the peak torque was a good 500rpm further up the rev range than BMW’s figures would suggest. The actual remapping process is pretty straightforward. Once you’ve purchased the Evolve Switch, the company sends the unit to you along with cables to attach it to your car’s OBD port and your PC, and some software to install on your PC. You then plug the Switch unit into the car and follow the simple on-screen instructions to load the car’s standard ECU map to the Switch unit. This is then transferred to your PC and you email the map to back Evolve. Once Evolve has received the map its boffins carry out some clever jiggery-pokery with your car’s map and then email it back to you. You then upload this map from your PC into the Switch unit, plug it into the car and upload the new map on to the car’s ECU. Once this had been done we ran the Touring on the rolling road again and the gains were certainly impressive with power and torque peaks up by 42hp and
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LONGTERMERS The 520d finds some much needed grunt thanks to an Evolve remap, the 328i is treated to some long-awaited body repairs and Seb finally gets his 840Ci back
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63lb ft respectively. However, impressive as these figures are they don’t tell the whole story as at various points through the rev range the Evolve map gives even greater gains, and, by comparing the before and after graphs, power is up by 50hp at the top end and torque by 72lb ft at 3250rpm. The advantage of the Switch unit is that it literally takes five minutes to swap from the standard to modified map, so should you wish to detune the car when you’re about to teach your offspring to drive, it’s easily done. You can also reflash your ECU with the standard map when the car goes in for servicing, should you so desire. As well as offering impressive power and torque gains Evolve has spent a lot of time ensuring that its software gives improved throttle response but also a progressive power delivery. And now I’ve lived with the 520d for a few days I have to say that it looks like
they’ve come up trumps on all parameters. It feels significantly quicker throughout the rev range, but it’s the mid-range torque that’s so impressive. It offers a thoroughly rewarding shove right where you need it, especially when overtaking or climbing hills. It also seems much more eager to rev – pre-remap there really wasn’t any point in holding on to each gear as the further you travelled up the rev range it felt more and more asthmatic. Now it’s happy to keep going above 3500rpm. Evolve’s remap is also claimed to improve economy, but I have to say that it’s early days yet and as I can’t help but put my foot down to revel in the impressive grunt I’ve not yet noticed a significant improvement. Having said that, given I’m travelling faster and economy definitely hasn’t suffered it looks like I will be able to have my cake and eat it! I’ll report back next month when I’ve lived with the
car for a month in its remapped state. I’m also planning to put our timing gear on the car next time I’m up at Bruntingthorpe as I think the gains over the standard acceleration will be pretty impressive, especially the in-gear times. And as it’s child play to swap from one map to the other I should be able to get some meaningful comparisons. Overall I’m hugely impressed with the Evolve remap and have to say that on a pound for pound basis it’s probably the best modification I’ve ever carried out on a car. On the thorny subject of money, the Evolve remap costs £499 and the Switch unit itself is another £199 (both prices inclusive of VAT), and should you decide you want the upgrade Evolve is offering a 15 per cent discount to BMW Car readers. The vast majority of diesel BMWs can be remapped with an Evolve Switch unit, even the latest generation machines. To find out more
give Evolve a call or have a look at it’s website for more information, you honestly won’t regret it! Bob Harper
Contact: Evolve Tel: 0871 231 1001 Web: www.evolveautomotive.com Email: sales@evo-s.co.uk
E61 520d SE Touring YEAR: 2005 MILEAGE THIS MONTH: 623 TOTAL MILEAGE: 67,742 MPG THIS MONTH: 38.2 COST THIS MONTH: £698
E34 M5 3.8 I was searching around for places to stash the M5 recently, in advance of the winter months, and I stumbled across a place located only five minutes drive from chez Wood. It’s not your usual kind of lock-up either, rather more a classic car emporium that also happens to look after other peoples’ pride and joy. I got very excited at this discovery for a couple of reasons; first, because I have nowhere to park at home other than in a lane, which is relatively quiet but open
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to the elements. Last winter I left the M5 parked up outside and not only did the bad weather and lack of use knacker the battery but it didn’t do the AP Racing brakes much good either, so I’m keen to make sure it’s tucked away this year to avoid the stress of thawing it out in March. Second, the idea of the M5 being stored professionally rather appeals. The company in question will keep the car indoors and under cover, will clean it for you and will perform
regular checks on fluids and battery to ensure that when you want to come and collect it, everything works properly. You have to give them a couple of days notice but that’s just fine. “Ah yes, hello, it’s Mr Wood here. Would you mind awfully getting the M5 ready for me? I’ll be coming down on Saturday morning. Thanks ever so much.” The best thing is that after a weekend’s driving pleasure you can just hand it back to them, they clean it
for you, and you don’t have to worry about doing anything else until you fancy going for a quick spin again. In fact I got so excited about this, that I decided to fire up the old bus and booked it in for the service and repairs that I’ve been promising it for the last couple of months. I’ve also pencilled in a session at a wheel refurbisher to have the front Throwing Stars spruced up as they’ve started to look a bit shabby again since I last had them done.