How much noticible is the performance gain with turbos in winters?
Thanks.

 

What is the basis of this question? Is it colder denser air or is it the cooler air which will keep the engine temp lower? Remember, as the the air gets colder the density increases. This is good for O2 in the engine but is bad for Drag on the car because there is more air to push trough. From my past track experience, the cooler temps do help some but I am pretty sure that your not going to feel like your car is getting faster because the gains are very minute if your not on running against the timer

 

My main experiences of Turbo engines in the past have been on a modified Subaru Impreza. When driving in the winter months I could definitely 'feel' a difference in engine response - it felt much crisper and had a more 'instant' throttle response. That said I'm not sure it was dramatically quicker, but certainly noticeable. This is obviously due to the colder denser air being channeled through the Intercooler.

One thing that was more noticeable however, was on a very hot summers day (especially after a period of queuing in traffic) the car felt considerably down on power and lacked throttle response, until it had been running with cool air going through the Intercooler again for a few miles. That said the Impreza uses a Top Mount Intercooler which is not mounted in the optimum position (in attempts to reduce Turbo lag) and is known to suffer from heat soak, something that shouldn't affect cars with Front Mounts like the BMW.

In summary, in winter months you should be able to feel a small difference.

 

This behavior is by no means unique to turbo motors.

 

i've had several turbo in seatle and have had no drivability issues. i did always run a pint of riselone in the oil.