Howdy all,

Finally got a chance to sit down and get this info out to everyone. Friday, myself and four other M3s went the most accurate dyno we could find in Fla (it was accurate, within 1 hp to 600 hp - indeed, this is the one used by NASCAR for the Homestead race). Homestead BMWCCA was on the agenda for Saturday. So off we went, four hours south to Ft. Lauderdale for a long (12 hours on the dyno) day of testing with 5 M3s on hand.

Manfred (Manny) Kruger (won his class at O'fest this year - helluva driver) was the last to sign on and had never heard of JimC. Same for Al Zilinski who is quickly becoming a regular at club racing events in the southeast. Now, Al had a bit more of an open mind: JimC, eh? Never heard of him, but hell, the dyno talks, BS walks. I smiled. Manny, on the other hand, had Autothority's Platinum chip, one that had been specially burned for his setup (nevermind that his car had not been on a dyno with A/F ratios to tune the thing). No way, says Manny, paid too much for this one-off chip from APE and I've been around, never heard of JimC, not even sure I want you putting that thing in my car. I smiled.

Also on hand were the Carbon Fiber man himself, Milos Klacko, well, I say 5 M3s, Milos really has (as Jim describes it) a rabid 325 that could pass for an M3 in looks and (now we know) in power (normally aspirated, too, anyone interested in his setup, let me know). Next was Carlos Diaz Estrada in his lightweight, he was there for only a base line (and a terrific baseline it was - you fellas better get your hands on lightweights before they're all gone, I can't afford it right now, but if I could . . . ). Lastly was Hobbes (my M3) who would undergo the most rigourous testing, 16 (count em) runs on the dyno to test chips and injectors.

First on the dyno was Manny. Baseline first. Not bad, his car has all of the goodies as Tony Topping's car with the exception of the resonator. Use whatever conversion factors you want, I'll talk here in terms of rear wheel HP b/c there is no fudge factor to it, but to compare apples to apples, conversion factors range generally from 15-22%, depending on the tuner. Unfortunately, Kieth Robertson got tied up so we could not get a stok M3 baseline for rear wheel HP. Manny's rear wheel baseline showed 230 HP and 219 torque with APE's platinum chip.

OK, we jump up on the dyno, swap chips for a JC chip and run it. Overlay the baseline, I smiled. Manny sort of sat there looking at it, cigarette hanging down on his opened bottom lip. The dyno owner, Brett, says, "Manny, want me to file that APE chip in the circular file?" We all laugh. Manny was not so amused b/c he apparently spent some $$ on that chip. Here are the numbers, 235 HP and 221 torque. Now, that may not sound like much, but you have to see the dyno curves, the JC curve was better THROUGHOUT the entire range. To bring the point home, Brett crunched some numbers, the JC chip, at the end of a 1/4 mile would place the car 20 feet further. Now, Homestead is a sreies of four 1/4 mile sprints connected by some tricky turns. That's 80 FEET after ONE LAP!! Manny crunched his own numbers, at Sebring, we're talking about 1-2 seconds per lap! Calculate that after a thirty lap race and you begin to see why Manny was speechless. I smiled.

Manny said "I'm done do what you want with the APE chip, I want the JC chip . . . damn(!) . . . " Manny was overcome with elation and frustration at the same time.

OK, next was Al Zilinski in his Korman balanced and blueprinted M3 with motorsport group N cams, 3.6mm t-body and all of the goodies of Tony's car minus the resonator. Al had Dinan's one-off custom chip, but after seeing Manny's car, Al was kinda quiet. Baseline was pretty good, 236 hp, 227 torque. But these numbers don't really show the picture, the dyno was all over the place, more peaks and vallies than I've seen on a dyno run, up down, up down, up up down. Not a smooth curve. We crunched numbers, Manny's car would have a four or five car-length lead at a 1/4 mile, peak HP and Torque is only a partial picture, as I learned here today. Well, we didn't have a JC chip for Al, but I had two test chips from JC for my car . . . hmmm . . quick call to JC . . . yup, thow 'em in there for a tuned chip. Here's the fun part, JC's TUNING chips don't dial in the VANOS. With the advanced and retarded chips, Al's curve smoothed out, no more peaks and valllies, just one steep mountain. Peak HP was 232 and torque was 228. A loss of 4 PEAK hp but gained 1 ft/lb of torque WITHOUT THE VANOS!!! Not only that, now there was only a 4-5 foot difference b/w Manny's car and Al's car at the end of a quarter mile. "Jim knows what he is doing" says Brett . . . I smiled . . .

Al, like Manny, was having an emotional crisis of faith. Here he had spent $$$$$$ and his car was not better than Manny's with bolt-ons (the same ones) . . . yet. We're now waiting on the final chip from JC for Al's car and then back to the dyno, I have a feeling the car will crush other M3's now. More on that when the results are in, but bear in mind that Al's car did so well without the Vanos . . . hmmm . . .

Next were Milos, Carlos, and myself. Milos' car rear wheel'd close to the flywheel no's for stock 325s. Once his chips are finished, back to the dyno and a report from him.

OK, to the point, I will leave the conclusions on the injectors to you, here is the data. Al Zilinski's and Manny's cars did not run out of injector, they were plenty stong and actually rich in some places. My car went on. Baseline, OK, . . . swap injectors (much easier than I thought - took 20 minutes). OK, fire it up and run it . . . overlay the dynoes . . . uh, Brett, I think there's a problem, I only see one curve here . . . check the machine . . no, they are both there. On six runs, three with and three without, the injectors niether added nor detracted from hp or torque ALONG THE ENTIRE RANGE FROM 2000 TO 7000 RPM. If anything, this is a testament to JC's tuning abilities, two chips, two sets of injectors, goal is to keep A/F ratios the same: bingo. (how does he do that?)

Now, bear in mind that we did not have the opportunity to test the duty cycle of the stock injectors. One of the ideas behind the larger injectors was in the event that the smaller injectors were adequate, but too stressed. We do not know the answer to this question but are working on it. I will be returning my injectors b/c I was promised that they made the biggest difference in power - they made no difference on this dyno, I have the graphs.

To put it mildly, everyone at Homestead knew about JC the following day, b/w Manny and Al, every other person there would ask me, "how can I find this wizard in the mountains?" I smiled . . .JC will be busy. ;)

Next project is head work, we need help on this one. More to follow from JC on that later . ..

Thanks to Jim for your help in getting all of those chips down here (there were a bunch - nine in all - that's a lot of work as each one was tuned specifically for different tests). Thanks, too, Jim, for sending a product that let me smile every time the graph went up. In the eyes of some drivers down here, I gained instant credibility vicariously through YOUR chips - helluva job - thanks.

Dyno's are not cheap, we spent a lot of money but knowledge is king.

I was hoping to run into some of you guys at Road Atlanta, but can't make it. :(

Still need to run duty cycle tests on the injectors . . .more on that to come.

Best to all,

Dan Martinez
95 M3 (Hobbes)