After
a great lunch in Flensburg (where I had a Schnitzel Wiener Art)
we headed towards Dinslaken where Kelleners is located. But we were
going to stop by BMW Niederlassung Hamburg first to try a Alpina
B12 6,0, a 430 bhp 7-series. As you can see the weather wasn´t
the greatest and there was some traffic so we had to drive pretty slowly,
not exceeding 250km/h ;) Even though these cars are very frugal (right?)
we had to stop to get some gas. But there, something happened that made
our time-schedule fly away:
Checking
the chassis number...
The
German Police pulled Johan over at a gas-station. Now you must be
thinking that he drove there like a maniac, but actually he didn´t.
The Polizei drove an unmarked Audi 100 from the eighties in excellent
condition. You can see it behind the beast in the upper picture. So
there we stood for over an hour while the officers checked if Johan's
M5 was stolen. They even called Sweden to check that everything
was alright. The strange thing was that the car was registred in BOTH
Sweden and Germany at the same time because Johan bought his car new
in Germany but German authorities forgot to de-register it after it
was exported to Sweden. The fact that a car could be registred in two countries
at the same time was new to me... and to the officers! So instead
of driving the Alpina B12 6,0 we spent an hour with the Police and
thus we had to head straight for the Hotel, Landhotel Voshövel,
where we would meet up with Gunnar, who drives a Royal-red M5.
Sorry
for ad below. If you like the story, give it a click and forget it
;)
Memorable
incidents include a race with a Mercedes S55 AMG in quite heavy
traffic. Johan hunted him down :) The race was on between say 140
km/h and 220 km/h because of traffic. Anyhow, easy kill :) I wonder
what they thought when driving in the dark on Autobahn a flash from
a camera inside a BMW M3 lights them up. Anyway, the pictures didn't
turn out so well so I won't post them.
On Saturday Morning we arrived at
Kelleners Sport in
Dinslaken at 8 o'clock as agreed. Tremendous service was received
and the whole crew at Kelleners began working on my car, Johan's
Carbonblack M5, Gunnar's Royalred M5 and we also dynoed the
B8 4,6 Touring to see if it got all the horses. The power
loss was measured by letting the wheels spin from highest
speed in sixth gear and down to 0. All power figures mentioned in
this article are including the drivetrain power loss.
 
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| Above
we have the Kelleners Supersound Exhaust installed on the M5.
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So
we dynoed my M3 3,2 Euro first. This should have 321 HP stock.
It turned out on the Dyno (that was a Bosch Dyno) that it had 308 HP.
So it almost falls within car manufacturers +/- 3% error margin when
stating power. It should have 311 HP if it was 3% less than 321 HP.
But I was delighted to find out that the torque was 365 Nm instead
of the standard 350 Nm. So this was as much as the E46 M3's torque.
Anyhow, after that we chipped my car.
An
explanation of the advantages as I see it with chip tuning is that
you customize every individual aspect of the electronics software to your
unique engine. As every engine is unique every software component must also
be programmed according to your individual engine. But BMW cannot
do this because this would take too much time. So they probably have
a program that is based on statistical data of the engines produced
and the general software is a average or median of the engines produced.
Anyhow,
after chipping we dynoed it again and it had an amazing 338 HP and
388 Nm of torque which is alot for a small displacement of 3,2 liter.
8 Nm more than a Ferrari F355 that is :)
So
now it's time to dyno the second BMW E36 3 series... the
B8 4,6 Touring. The B8 4,6 liter engine is based on the non
VANOS old 540i engine that Alpina has modified to produce
333 HP. The engine is the same that is mounted in the E34 5 series
B10 4,6 and the -'99 E39 5-series B10 V8 with no VANOS.
The reason the B8 has 333 HP instead of 340 is because the exhaust manifold
of the B8 is different from the E34 B10 4,6 5-series.
This is the very same reason why the current 2001 M Coupé
and M Roadster have 325 HP instead of 343 HP as in the E46
M3.
After
'99 the 540i got single VANOS which consequently raised the
power to 347 HP in the B10 V8.
The
power of the Alpina was 331 HP. That was off 2 HP from Alpinas specifications
and that is less than 1% error so that was nothing to get annoyed
over. But the funny surprise was that the B8 4,6 had a torque of 508
Nm. That is 8 Nm more than the stock M5 E39 should have.
After
that we chipped Johan's and Gunnar's cars. Johan's car before
chipping had 395 HP and 501 Nm and was increasaed to 418 HP and 534
Nm after being chipped. But this was before they changed the exhaust.
Notice
above the shiny new Kelleners exhausts on the M5s.
The
cars were cleaned, vacuumed and tuned :) when we returned at their
place later on.
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During
the time Kelleners worked on our cars we went to the Mercedes-Benz
tuner Brabus that was close by in the Ruhr-district
in Bottrop.
On
our way we used the Kelleners version of the BMW 330 Ci
that has been motortuned to 265 HP. It felt really fast up to around
220 km/h but after that it of course didn't pull as fast as
the M cars, but impressive none the less for a 3-series. For that kind of
performance it has alot of HP/$.
Here
we're following behind in the B8 4,6 Touring, because we
didn't do any work such as chiptuning on that car at Kelleners.
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Going
240 km/h towards a Mercedes tuner. Will it be something to
see? We had some problems finding the place because we lacked
navigation and maps (!) in both cars.
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First
I must say that we really got a first-class reception at Brabus.
Especially when we arrived in a couple of arch-rival cars.
First we got a look at the new complete Brabus cars on display
in the showroom.
There
were alot of nice cars Brabus cars such as the S V-12,
CLK 5,8 and the brutal SL 7.3 S with 582 HP. After
that we were shown where they build the cars and the engines.
Also, we got to see the worlds fastest estate, the Brabus
T-V12 which is based on the E-class that has a restricted
top speed of 320 km/h.
Michael
was interested in the Brabus SLK V8 with a 6,5 liter
V8 producing 450 HP in the tiny SLK. It delivers 662 Nm and
has a top speed between 282 km/h and 302 km/h depending on
gearing. Listprice was 298 737 DM and 39 Pfenning without
tax. This demo car was equipped with among other options Full
Leather for 29 900 DM without tax. So with tax the total price was 394 754 DM and 96 Pfenning
for that particular model according to the fact sheet next to the car. A new BMW M5 2001
costs 144 000 DM incl. tax in Germany. We secheduled a
test drive of that SLK V8.
Here
is the golden plaque on the plastic cover on the engine of
the SLK V8. It states the engine number and has the
signature of the actual person who built that particular engine.
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Here
we have the Brabus S-V12 based on the Mercedes
S600. Increasing displacement from 5,8 liters to 6,7 liters,
power output is raised to 450 HP from 367 HP and 635 Nm from 530
Nm torque. It will do 0-100 km/h in 5,7 s and has a top speed of
307 km/h according to Brabus. The Brabus brochure states it has
"performance sufficient to keep even a throughbred sportscar
easily in check". Well, not all :)
Here
is a quote from our Messageboard, but from a poster who appeared to have broken
his caps lock key... Interesting because Brabus just opened
up their US distibutor:
"Topic:
What Is Brabus S V12? - We Raced
I HAD AN AGGRESSIVE BRABUS S V12 ENCOUNTER
ON THE 134 EASTBOUND NEAR GRIFFITH PARK IN LOS ANGELES.
WHAT ARE THE SPECS. ON THIS CAR? HOW FAST IS IT?
THIS
LARGE THIS LARGE LATE MODEL MERCEDES WITH A BRABUS PLACARD
ON THE LEFT REAR AND A V12 PLACARD OF SOME SORT ON
THE RIGHT REAR WANTED TO RACE. HE APPROACHED FROM
THE REAR AT ABOUT 90-100 M.P.H. AND CONTINUED PAST ME.
I ACCELERATED TO MATCH HIS SPEED AND NOTED THE BRABUS
STUFF AT THAT TIME. I PAST HIM FROM THE NUMBER ONE LANE.
HE TRIED TO RE-TAKE THE LEAD AND ACCELERATED DOWN IN THE NUMBER
FOUR LANE, BUT I WAS WATCHING IN MY REARVIEW FOR ANY SUCH
ATTEMPTS AND IMMEDIATELY WENT W.O.T. IN THIRD, I BELIEVE.
FOR ONCE IT SEEMS MY GEAR SELECTIONS WERE RIGHT ON TARGET,
AND I WAS ABLE TO COMFORTABLY THWART HIS RUN. IT WAS CLEAR
THAT THIS DRIVER WASN'T AS COMFORTABLE AS I WAS AT SPEEDS
IN EXCESS OF 120 M.P.H. BECAUSE OF HIS PREOCCUPATION WITH
THE TAPPING OF HIS BRAKE WHEN CONDITIONS BECAME DICEY.
WHAT
FOLLOWED NEXT WAS A FULL HIGH SPEED PURSUIT THROUGH FREEWAY
TRAFFIC. THIS IS REALLY STUPID AND I TRY TO AVOID THIS AT
ALL COSTS, EXCEPT THAT THIS SITUATION WAS QUITE IRRESISTABLE.
TO MAKE A LONG STORY SHORT, AT ONE
POINT WE ACCELERATED SIDE BY SIDE FROM ABOUT 65 TO
130 AND THE M5 CLEARLY PULLED GROUND ON HIM. IN FACT,
I HAD ENOUGH DISTANCE IN A SHORT PERIOD OF TIME TO PASS
IN FRONT OF HIM WITH DISTANCE TO SPARE. I PASSED IN FRONT
OF HIM FROM THE PASSENGER SIDE TO THE DRIVER'S SIDE AS I
TRANSITIONED TO THE 134 EASTBOUND RAMP HEADING TOWARDS
GLENDALE. IN THAT LAST SITUATION, MY CAR WAS RUNNING UNCHARACTERISTICALLY
WELL. THE TEMPS. WERE COOLER, AROUND 75 DEGREES AT 8:20 P.M.
I PROMISE, THIS STORY IS COMPLETELY ACCURATE. I WILL ALWAYS
ADMIT WHEN I HAVE BEEN TAKEN OUT. IT WAS CLEAR IN THIS PARTICULAR
SITUATION THAT MY M5 WAS ABLE TO PULL QUITE WELL ON THIS BRABUS
FROM 65 OR SO UNTIL ABOUT 120 TO 130."UNTIL
ABOUT 120 TO
Notice
the full leather interiour of the S V-12. The dashboard
is covered in leather with fine white stitching.
Here
is the interiour of the S V-12. Who said a super-luxury
limousine can't be sporty? Here we have colour coordinated
carpets, floormats and a cordless keyboard to the computer
for the rear passengers. Electrically operated tables and
curtains shield the rear passengers from view. Notice the
fax machine on the back of the drivers seat and the Palm IIIc
in the middle.
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The
Brabus E V-12 and T V-12
This
was a T V12 that was in for regular service. This is
not your ordinary E class. This E-class has an incredible torque
of 772 Nm. With the largest transmission and rear axle ratio
the E V-12 will do over 330 km/h (206 mph) while maintaining
a quite tolerable long-term engine speed of 6250 rpm. The
engine -7,3 S- is based on the V-12 usually fitted
in the S / CL /SL 600 but has had its displacement increased,
and has a special crankshaft and forged pistons. The cylinder
heads have been reworked, along with sports camshafts and a high performance exhaust system with metal catalysts. It's not without reason
that Brabus leaves a leaflet on the passenger seat upon delivery
that states "The E V-12 should never be entrusted
to inexperienced persons".
It
took Brabus two years to develop this V12 E-class. 56% of
the weight is on the front axle. The V-12 weights 100 kg more
than the V8 in the E55 AMG. Brabus use Michelin SX
MXX 3 Z-rated tyres in the dimensions of 245/40 ZR18 in the
front and 285/30 ZR 18 in the rear. The Z-rated tyres were
introduced along with the 340 km/h Bugatti EB 110. But the
E V-12 is restricted to 330 km/h because no tyre manufacturer
could provide tyres for this two-ton limousine reaching speeds
exceeding 330 km/h.
A
rear spoiler was dispensable provided the underfloor is paneled
properly. At speeds of 300 km/h the Brabus front spoiler carbon
lip provides a downforce effect corresponging to 100 kg on
the front axle.
Is
it a surprise that one of the first T V-12's produced
was sold to F1 driver Michael Schumacher? The E V-12 and T V-12
are built to order by hand for the price of 457 700 DM.
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Nice
brakes and coffee!
A
total of 15 E V-12 and T V12 units have been produced. Notice that
the foglights have been replaced by air intakes. The speedometer
is graded to 330 km/h just enought for the top speed of 320
km/h for the estate. Brabus use Alcon 6-piston brakes
for maximum brake perfromance. Notice that even the sunblinds are
covered in leather, and that goes for the roof and trunk too.
Behind
the Geländewagen (G-wagen) is a ML V-12.
Yup, you guessed right a ML-Class with a 582 HP V-12 engine
in it. "The electronic traction system of the ML-Class
distributes the enormous driving torque produced at the touch
of the gaspedal by the powerfully trumpeting twelvecylinder
evenly all over the four tyres which really grabs the asphalt
when starting up, allowing the 2,1 ton automatic gearbox
SUV to go off road with the driving dynamics of a manually shifted
Porsche Carrera" wrote Thomas Fisher head of tester
at Auto, Motor und Sport German car magazine.
5,4
s to 100 km/h and a top speed limited to 260 km/h. Only Yokohama
off road performance tyres AVS V801 in size 285/50 R 18 all
round are approved.
The
testdrive of the Brabus SLK V8
The
eight-cylinder, four valve engine of the SL500 will
fit after a few modifications and the know-how of Brabus.
Prior to installation the displacement is increased from 4996
cm^3 to 6409 cm^3 with the help of a new cylinderblock, a
new crankshaft and special pistons. The powertrain had
to be completely redesigned. With a weight of 1522 kg the
SLK V8 will deliver impressive performance. 4,7 s to 100 km/h
and 15,8 s to 200 km/h, which is faster than the Brabus
E V-12 time of 16,5 s to 200 km/h because of the E V-12
traction control problems. Top speed is 285 km/h, limited
by the final drive ratio.
Here
we overtake a slightly slower Mercedes -a 190
E- on the way to the Autobahn.ere
The
fun is over. Very impressive. Torque, torque and torque. Michael
will give his impressions here later on.
Quote
from Michael:
"This
SLK is not your ordinary SLK. It has a 6.5 liter V8 engine
putting out 450hp and 662Nm... That is A LOT for this small
car!! The rear axle and gearbox are S-Class components fitted
to the SLK. At idle the engine sounds like an American big
block hot rod V8. The sound is massive and very intimidating...
We rolled out from the Brabus showroom and at these low speeds
there are two noticeable differences from a standard SLK:
the gas guzzling big block V8 sound and the way the engine
makes the entire car vibrate... yummy! (especially noticeable
at idle!). Zipping through city traffic in Bottrop was easy;
the car is very civilised (if you forget about the sound...).
Then we entered the Autobahn and opened the throttle. The
acceleration is incredible. Tire dimensions are standard AMG
and in combination with enough torque to move a small mountain
it is no problem to ativate the traction control at 200 km/h.
This car is fun as hell - tons of power in a small package.
And that badge on the trunk says it all: 6.5....
This is a car on my short list of truly remarkable cars that
I would like to own! "
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Brabus Contact info:
49 is country code for Germany
and 1 is for USA.
Please mention you read about
the cars on bmwm5.com
BRABUS
Brabus-Allee
D - 46240 Bottrop
Phone 00 49 2041 777 0
BRABUS North America Inc.
4040 Campus Drive
92660 CA Newport Beach / USA
Phone: 00 1 949 7970177
e-mail: info@brabus.com
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