Vivid Racing Uses VF Engineering to Boost the E90 BMW M3 V8

When you finally get that new car, you immediately start modifying it, spending thousands upon thousands on cool aftermarket parts. Before you know it, $10,000 is gone and though you think adding the intake + exhaust + headers + tune is cumulative in horsepower, it’s not. That’s why if you want big power on your naturally aspirated engine, there is no replacement for…. BOOST!!!
Supercharging cars for over 15 years, VF Engineering delivers the ultimate in bolt-on, high quality forced induction kits for cars such as the BMW M3, Lamborghini Gallardo, Porsche 911 Carrera, and more. Based in Southern California in the heart of performance and tuning culture, VF has made their main mark with the BMW E46 M3 and Porsche 996 997 supercharger kits. Cars such as the BMW M3 are high compression and really don’t want boost. In fact, they don’t even like aftermarket intakes! So any type of kit that you install on a normally aspirated engine has to have proper fueling components, highly engineered parts to create the power, perfect tuning, and just enough boost to give you the safe head slam in your seat.
When the opportunity to own a E90 BMW M3 V8 came into Vivid Racing’s hands as a daily driver, they had to jump on it. It’s a great sedan with 414hp and 295ft/lbs of torque. The high revving V8 was missing something much like the V10 did. That something was the feeling of boost. Having begun a strong relationship with VF Engineering years ago as well as selling their Porsche 996 997 Superchargers, Vivid Racing was aware of the quality and engineering that went into these new BMW M3 V8 kits. But if you want to play, you got to pay. Justification of this cost to some can be quite difficult. With a price tag of $13,900, is it worth it? However you decide to justify the cost, it’s worth it, because it really did everything that VF Engineering set out to prove.
First is the quality. The intake manifold’s design to incorporate all 8 ports while fitting neatly under the hood is a true work of art. Without a doubt, it is heavier then the stock BMW plastic manifold and airbox, but if you consider the fact that BMW already took off 15lbs from the outgoing E46 6cyl, you are still ahead. Included in the kit are upgraded injectors, which are a drop in replacement from the factory ones. The Vortech V3 Supercharger has a self-contained oil unit. Overall, it is heaps better then a roots style blower found on a Jaguar, Mustang, or other supercharger systems. Comparing to the obnoxious whine from the other style supercharger used in the past, the Vortech blower fits neat and tidy in the engine bay. VF’s complete CNC machined bracket for the supercharger and pulleys is all CNC machined billet aluminum, which, though you would expect some fail at it, is straight as an arrow. With its front end intercooler sitting in front of the AC condenser, it definitely makes a head turn and say, “is that boosted?” The final part of the kit, being the air intake, flows nicely off the blower and down into the driver’s side front bumper duct. Having the Vorsteiner front bumper may make the fitment a bit different, but the air filter is pretty much just right out there. Considering the space, this is really the only place it can go. At the end of the day if your BMW M3 had stock bumpers, stock wheels, stock ride height, and you lifted the hood to show off the VF Engineering VF620 kit, you would think it was factory.
Vivid Racing considered that a bit boring, so they geared up the supercharger kit with custom carbon fiber accents. The intake manifold had been stripped down and painted Lamborghini Green to match the monster Brembo brakes and side mirrors. Carbon fiber trim covered the center of the manifold and the front inlet. They then took the intake pipe that comes off the supercharger and goes to the cone filter and made that carbon fiber as well. The car was then coupled with Agency Power Section 1&2 pipes joining up to the Agency Power Titanium Tip race exhaust system. What sounded mean already had just become a tire ripping beast. All of this on a 7 speed DSG paddle transmission.
The car was then placed on the Mustang AWD Dyno at Vivid Racing where it put down an astonishing 474 rwhp. To compare on the dyno, a Porsche 997.1 Turbo stock is 380 awhp, a Porsche 996 Turbo stock is 330 awhp, a 2012 Mercedes CLS63 V8 Bi-Turbo is 380 rwhp, a Mercedes C63 V8 is 320 rwhp, and a stock 2009 Nissan GT-R is 430 awhp.
The look, fitment, and performance of the VF-Engineering kit surpassed expectations for what was and still is a daily driver. In combination with the Agency Power exhaust system, this “daddy car’ is now an absolute animal.

Vivid Racing is a multi-million dollar small business in the automotive aftermarket industry. They have been featured in almost every magazine about their business and cars they have built. Rob and Dan have competed in 3 Gumball 3000 events, Bullrun Rally, and featured on ESPN2's "Import Racer" TV show. Vivid Racing has also built several demo cars including some for Pepsi/Mazda and Cusco/Subaru.

Betty Mermelstein
bjmerm@vividracing.com
Dan Mermelstein
Vivid Racing
1429 W. Scott Ave.
Gilbert, AZ 85233
480 966-3040 x222

This release was published on openPR.