This has a been a long time in the making. Mike Benvo and I have been working on developing BPM Sport’s first X5M tune for over two months now. We’ve spent over 9 hours in two separate sessions on Church Automotive’s AWD Dynapack fine tuning the file Mike spent over 30 hours putting together.
The car has been consistently improving with each iteration of the file. The gains down low and in the mid range were most pronounced. It took a lot of effort to extract gains above the stock file above 5,500rpm due to the flow limitations of the stock cats and exhaust system. What Mike was able to achieve was a pleasant surprise.
The first place I noticed the benefits of the tune was actually in the parking lot. Torque between 1,000 and 2,000RPM was so significantly improved that the slightest throttle input really got the car “rolling”.
After having enjoyed the “parking lot torque”, it was time for real world testing. My expectations of a good tune are not based on peak numbers, or full throttle acceleration, but real world day to day driving experiences. I started by driving the car in D, with everything on the ultimate comfort mode. The car was way easier to drive, as the low RPM range preferred in comfort mode/D was aided by the addition of massive amounts of torque. No longer did it feel like it was struggling slowly up the rev range. Drivability is significantly improved.
During hard driving and full acceleration the tune also shines immensely. Torque overwhelms your soul from 1,500RPM and up. Power then simultaneously kicks in to rape your mind as you’re thrown back in your seat in a way very few cars can do. The car is faster than almost anything on road. It’s amazing that a 5,300lb SAV can do what this does stock, let alone now fully tuned to its upmost potential. In an effort not to bruise the feelings of others, all I can say is my car was “neck and neck” with an E90 M3 w/ full Akra Evo (tuned by some crazy guy) from 20mph through 110mph (pulls in many different gears at varying RPMs).
The results speak for themselves. Peak torque is increased by 127lb/ft, horsepower is up 80-100hp from <3,000 all the way up 5,300rpm. HP gains at red line are (peak) 22hp, which is impressive considering the car just cant flow enough air up top.
All in all, I’d say this is the most bang for the buck for a mod that I’ve done on all my cars.
If anyone has any questions or comments, please feel free to ask. Dyno plot of stock file vs latest Mike Benvo/BPM Sport tune below for your reference.
Best regards,
Joe (Posted on 10/20/14)
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