Comments on: BMW M cars moving towards turbo four and six cylinder engines

By: Horatiu B.

Horatiu B. — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 04:27:33 +0000

@Doug, I apologize, not sure why your comment went to SPAM, but I approved it now.

By: Gord

Gord — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 20:23:53 +0000

@Nick Iliff:

Opps my bad.

By: Doug

Doug — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 17:43:42 +0000

Not to go too far off topic, but what is the real benefit of a V6? It seems to be mainly to mount it transverse for a front-wheel drive car.

By: Gragop

Gragop — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 15:40:53 +0000

@Nick Iliff: I wondered if anyone else would catch the flat 6 thing too!

By: Christian Amon

Christian Amon — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 13:25:17 +0000

hjk

By: Nick Iliff

Nick Iliff — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 13:00:04 +0000

@Gord: Yikes! The Porsche is not an inline 6. It's a flat 6.

By: Nick Iliff

Nick Iliff — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 12:58:46 +0000

And I can’t believe BMW would even consider a V6. No way. They would have a serious PR issue among BMW fans if they did that.

By: Nick Iliff

Nick Iliff — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 12:58:11 +0000

Truly tragic that they are going to get rid of the V10 in the 5/6 series. I love their inline 6, so I think that’s fine for the M3. The V10 in my M5, though, is absolutely exquisite. It’s not like the next M5 could be that much better of a car. The only things they could really do are make it lighter and more powerful in my opinion, and it’s already got plenty of power and I don’t mind the weight. Sure, with a twin turbo V8 I bet it could be modified to 600-700hp pretty easily but unless it’s AWD that is just a waste of time.

By: Andrew Murphy

Andrew Murphy — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 01:36:03 +0000

@Doug: aside from the costs of a new engine line-up, I think BMW is too well known for the smoothness of a higher revving inline 6 compared to a more lumpy, higher displacement V6. Honestly, the smoothness in the revs is one characteristic of my car that I really appreciate the most coupled with the throaty exhaust – though not as loud as a V6 noise, I still love it.

It would be a pretty big fall if BMW moved to V6’s – please don’t do it Bavaria!

By: kcsnayud

kcsnayud — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 23:22:19 +0000

LISTEN BMW NO V6 IF U USE A V6 THEN I WILL SUE UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU

JUST KIDDIN BUT NO V6

By: Doug

Doug — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 22:24:46 +0000

I can’t picture a V6. They’re mechanically more complex with 2 head/cam assemblies and end up taking much more space because of the dual exhaust/intake (plus any turbocharging), and I’d suspect heavier too. Plus, you can’t wedge them as far back into center console as you could an inline.

BMW has already invested a huge amount of money in the current I6 which apparently has plenty of headroom. Would they buy engines from Merc, and can avoid R&D costs?

An article about Merc’s switch to V6:
http://www.autoweb.com.au/cms/A_50105/title_Mercedes-Debuts-New-V6-Engines-for-the-21st-Century/newsarticle.html

By: Doug

Doug — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 22:22:39 +0000

I can’t picture a V6. They’re mechanically more complex with 2 head/cam assemblies and end up taking much more space because of the dual exhaust/intake (plus any turbocharging). I’m not certain, but I’d seriously bet they’re heavier too. And, despite being longer, they’re narrower, so you can wedge them much further back toward the passenger compartment (which they do).

BMW has already invested a huge amount of money in the current I6 which apparently has plenty of headroom. Unless they are buying engines from Merc maybe, and can avoid R&D costs.

An article about Merc’s switch to V6:
http://www.autoweb.com.au/cms/A_50105/title_Mercedes-Debuts-New-V6-Engines-for-the-21st-Century/newsarticle.html

By: Cereb

Cereb — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 21:50:54 +0000

PLEASE NO V6! What comes next? Front wheel drive?

By: L1ndja

L1ndja — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 21:00:51 +0000

Ok there are expenses,fuel prices are getting worse,and yes the envirement isnt getting better as well so ok use smaller engines on family cars on the standards but not in the M-cars it is just heart breaking to se M-cars with turbo engines.There isnt any reason to make M-cars fuel efficient or better for the envirement they are cars that dont care about such things and the costumers who buy them aren either.Oh and the fact about a V6 engine just makes it worse.The inline 6 is a the symbol of BMW how can they even consider changing it.Bmw these days is starting to suck.All this automatization of theyre cars, it isnt what it used to bee.There are more cars with automatic transmision than with Manual.I just hate this…What is the next thing waiting for us BMW-fans?Frontwheeldrive ?omg…

By: Gord

Gord — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 20:32:17 +0000

I remember watching the X6/X5 M teaser videos, and remember then talking about a whole bunch of systems and stuff. Those systems and that fact that cars are getting bigger are why cars are getting heavy today.

I see it as hard to make cars lighter, unless they use exotic materials which are expensive.

The article doesn’t actually explicitly state that the M3 will be less powerful so I wonder just how much power there will be. A 3.6L I6 from Porsche is twin turboed and makes almost 500 hp. Nissan also have a V6 of similar configuration that makes around 500 hp too. The Bugatti EB110 from the 90’s had a 3.5L V12 with 4 turbos that made 600 hp.

Won’t there be turbo-lag too ?

By: Matski

Matski — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 19:58:26 +0000

@Matski: Exept of course the V6 thing, yeah, I'm not huge on that one

By: Matski

Matski — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 19:56:11 +0000

@Elio:

The Original M3, the E30, was a 4 cyl.
The 2002 Turbo (maybe the first ‘M’ car?) was a 4 with a Turbo
The F1 Drivers championship winning Brabham BT52 was a 4 with a Turbo
The BMW HQ in Munich is ‘the Four Cylinder building’

Although I don’t like the idea of smaller engines that much, there is nothing here that goes against BMW’s roots.

Bring ‘em on I say.

By: Elio

Elio — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 19:52:17 +0000

They have to stick to an inline 6. It’s a trademark.

By: Jordan

Jordan — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 18:30:10 +0000

@Gragop:

couldn’t agree more. and the weight reduction i think is huge. hp increases are not bad but weight reduction has benefits EVERYWHERE, performance, emissions, fuel economy, etc.

and ya… they should stick to the inline 6 if it is a 6 cyl engine.

By: Gragop

Gragop — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 18:23:11 +0000

The reduction in weight and lower cylinder for similar power engines sound great. The switch to a V6 from an inline6? heart breaking.