more horsepower + cheapest mods

[gopack]

I live at high elevation, and I lose about 20% of my horsepower on a normally aspirated engine. So i have more like 190 HP instead of the rated 240. What mods are the most cost effective to boost HP for this situation? (i guess i could move to the coast!?). I was looking and the standard stuff is pretty pricy ( CAI, exhaust, chip). Any and all suggestions will be appreciated.

Also besides Dinan ($$$$) what else is there out there?

Thanks

[ettsn]

I'm going to respectfully disagree with some of Jammer's mod list. The factory intake system is pretty damn good out of the box. While a CAI might sound cool, many of them actually lose power on the dyno. I'd skip the drop-in K&N filter too. These help on cars with poorly designed intake systems. (I wouldn't include your M3 in that group!) You will see very little, if any performance increase and K&N filters allow a LOT more dirt to pass (you verify this for yourself with an oil analysis). Point is, the OEM filter is very good and causes no real restriction on your car. Exhausts also do almost nothing on an S52USB32-engined M3 (96-99).

I would also skip removing seemingly unneeded things off the motor. The engineer that designed that part certainly put it on there for a reason. (Otherwise, it simply added cost to the product!) I'm betting the engineer knows a helluva lot more about that motor than the guys working over at understeer.com, don't you think?

The Conforti software is, however, a worthwhile upgrade so long as you only run premium fuel. (I always did anyway.) This is a place where the engineers had to design a compromise knowing that many Americans will simply buy the cheapest fuels they can get. Jim C can tune out these compromises in exchange for you not buying cheap gas.

My personal opinion is that you should work on your driving skills first. When you can consistently drive an M3 at 10/10ths (on the track, please), then look at upgrades. (FWIW, I only know a very small handful of people who can drive them that well.) Otherwise, BMW built a pretty damn capable car out of the box that honestly needs nothing. On mine, the only performance things I did to it were adding the factory X-brace (great addition!) and a UUC short shifter (preference there).

But, as they say "you pays ya money, you makes ya choices".

-Paul

[Jared at Pelican Parts]

Well they used superchargers on aircraft to boost airflow at high altitudes. That would be an option. I'm not sure that it makes a huge difference in the way the car runs. The DME adjusts to compsensate for atmospheric conditions.


I agree with Ettsn here, a better use of money would be learning how to drive the car before you go out and put a whple bunch of money into it.