Having recently sold our Project 135I and picked up a E60 M5, we did not want to miss out on the great car that is the new N55 Turbo BMW 135I. The new single turbo twin scroll design has alot of capabilities that can further surpass the N54 twin turbo design. This customer brought to us this car to begin the stages and do some R&D on it. With only 200 miles on the clock, the 7speed DSG tranny was put on the Mustang Dyno here at Vivid Racing and given a run.
The car made 254rwhp and 271ft/lbs of torque with an ambient temperature of around 100F. This was done in sport mode and we did have to roll into the gas as the car wanted to constantly downshift. Comparatively, our 2008 135I did 261rwhp and 270ft/lbs of torque with an ambient temperature of 70F. Needless to say the 30F did rob quite a bit of power.
As we begin the project, here is what we have instore.
– Baseline Dyno (see below)
– Agency Power Muffler Fitting
– Re Dyno
– Agency Power Midpipe Fitting
– Re Dyno
Once this is complete, the customer will take the car and drive it to give feedback. The car will then be brought back to us where we will continue to R&D some new parts. Stay tuned to the 2011 135I Gallery Here and our Project Not Ours section here.
Thats going to be a fun little car
So we tested fitted up our Agency Power axle back exhaust with titanium tips and did a redyno. The car actually made some good low end torque but went back to stock up top. We then added our midpipe with resonators. The car grew even further with the torque which was quite impressive on the low end. Overall the downpipe back system added about 15ft/lbs of torque at the peak of 3000rpm. The car made consistantly 10HP gain till 5700rpm where it tapered back to stock. A downpipe would probably help it breathe a bit better but more importantly, the ECU tuning. Here are some pics of the fitting and a dyno sheet.
[tube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FU5k9pepi3Q[/tube]
Not bad. Seems like you are taking small, reliable steps…something different for vivid (not talking about the reliability), and, because of that, this is going to turn into a great little project that maintains all of BMW’s reliability.
We have adjusted the exhaust to be center. We are thinking of making the midpipe a straight mandrel bent 3in pipe as well. Not sure.
Anyways here is a look inside our Agency Power exhaust. It is straight through with a couple of resonators. Gives it that clean sound without blarring your ears!
I test drove the 135I and the new DSG 7spd gearbox is INSANE! So responsive and there is literally no lag. My M5 SMG is now sad 🙁 The full downpipe back exhaust sounds great with the system opened up. Really gets going under throttle now. The downside is that in automatic mode, the car will shift to D5 or D6 at only 35mph and then you have drone. So for Auto guys, gonna have to adjust.
He lowered the car with H&R. Their drop is 1.8in front and 1.2in rear. The front was to hammered on the ground so we are actually pulling the front springs to see how it will sit with the H&R in the rear and stock up front. Ride quality is important too.
We will begin some prototype work on the intake system next week. We are also adding these awesome ISS Forged wheels in 18inch to use stock tires. They will have a flat black center, gloss black lip, feature a red pinstripe and red rivets. Kinda a throw back to our old 135I project 🙂
Our 2008 135I with 19" HRE C90 Wheels –
Little update to the car. We did the H&R sport springs on it which lowers the rear 1.2" and the front 1.8". The front was way to aggressive so we put the stock springs back on the front. Since the H&R is a very soft spring, I took it for a test drive to make sure there were no handling flaws. Since the customer wanted this stance without losing his sport suspension feature, this was the best option. The other option was to remove the springs all together and switch to Eibach which lowers it 1.2" front and rear. But the Eibach typicall is harsher and this is 100% a street car.
I also did a short video showing the responsiveness of the 7speed DSG transmission with our Agency Power exhaust. Check it out!
[tube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPYPYjwDLrQ[/tube]
Sounds good, man! I love the interiors on the bimmers.
Been working on 2 new styling components for the 135I recently. Ever since we picked up our 2008, we really wanted a nice carbon fiber front splitter and rear diffuser. So through Agency Power and our carbon fiber design team, we have built these new Carbon Front Splitters as pictured below. These are the first article fitting images. Also these are MADE IN THE USA!
The separate splitters fit on the standard 135I bumper from 2008 and up. They fit the contour of the bumper line and are secured in place with double sided tape or silicone and supplied hardware. The carbon weave has a glossy clear coat.
Carbon rear diffuser pics coming soon.
Not bad. Is this the final product?
Just got our first article of the diffuser. This full carbon fiber diffuser is a replacement for the OEM unit. Will have pics fitted to the car soon. Questions about price email [email protected].
Just did the test fit on the rear diffuser. Fit like a glove. The rear strakes are much more aggressive then anything I have seen. These will come with black mesh, not installed in picture though. We should have pricing on these and the front lip shortly. Enjoy!
Got the new ISS Forged 3pc wheel coming at the end of the week. Red lip, red rivets, matte black center, gloss black lip. 18 inch fitment to retain the stock wheels with a more flush stance. Can’t wait to add these babies with the carbon interior trim 🙂 Stay tuned!
We are back!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
So the car came and we did the fitment on the front splitters, rear diffuser, and wheels.
First, the Agency Power carbon fiber diffuser and front splitters came out awesome. They will go on sale today. The fit is perfect and I like how pronounced the strakes are on the diffuser. The front lip is about a 5 min install on each side. We took a video too 🙂
The wheels from ISSForged are plain sick. The fronts are 18×8 and the rears are 18×9. The front is about a 1.5inch lip and the rear about a 2.5inch lip. Just enough to have it look more aggressive. The offsets are pushed out to give it a flusher look and we used the original Bridgestone run flat tires. The centers are matte black and the outside lips are gloss black with a red pinstripe. We even did the rivets in red too!
Beauty shots coming soon as these were with the IPhone. You can view all the images on our gallery here – Joe’s 2011 BMW 135I Project – Vivid Racing Gallery
[tube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vt_ObccZE2o[/tube]
Rear Diffuser
Front Splitter Install
Here are some of the beauty shots so you can better see the parts 🙂
Fancy