In the latest issue of European Car Magazine (Oct 2009), in their latest Proven series, they tested three products on an E60 M5; Powerchip Stage 1 software, AFE Intake and Evosport Pulley.

The PC tune showed a max gain of 10hp and 10lb-ft, the Evosport pulley showed +8hp and +8lb-ft.

The interesting part is the AFE intake which showed +9hp and +6lb-ft. The test notes said that they actually saw a drop in horsepower on the first couple of passes but then after a few more runs, the power "...rose and stayed there". They mentioned they weren't sure if ECU adaption for fuel had anything to do with the changes.

Their testing method is different than RPIs as they mentioned they cool downed the car to make sure all the testing parameters were the same whereas I think RPI did repeated runs without any cooldown. Also not sure if they did it with the hood opened or closed.

Overall, they got peak power gains of 20whp and 13lb-ft from the three combined mods. They also performed some 40-120mph runs on their VBox and got 10.8 seconds with all the mods compared to 11.4 with the stock car.


No personal opinions here, just thought the article was interesting and wanted to share.

 

 

To clarify this point, RPI's method of repeated runs was to simulate real world conditions where you don't necessarily get a chance to give your car a break before you have some "spirited" runs with others.

 

That is interesting. The question I have is how independent this Euro. Car Magazine is. I wonder if they have advertising/sponsorship from aFe.

 

haahah they let the car cool down first... that just tells me they were 'cheating' the dyno. if a mod really shows gains they should be able to run it repeatedly without problems. if the afe mod does add power congrats to them for finally producing a filter that works

 

I think aFe used to advertise in EC but I didn't see an ad for them in this particular issue.

As for the cool down, they did that to obtain the same testing conditions as when they ran the initial baseline dyno to make things consistent. They weren't trying to cheat.

 

But if a mod actually has proven gains, cold or hot the dyno should show.... shouldn't it?

 

I agree and I think it's worth noting again that their test notes said they saw a decrease in hp on some of the first few runs but then it picked back up. Not sure why....

 

Yes, without a doubt that AFE gains when the car is cold or on cold climates. Imagine running under +90F / +30C in the summer of California. Of course AFE loses power in hot climates. I tested AFE and stock during the winter season (below 32F / 0C). AFE rocks.

In the winter AFE gains much more than the stock. Believe me I tested them with several runs below 32F / 0C here in Canada. In hot days or summer days, AFE is garbage. IMO.

Maybe the european tested it in a cold climate country while RPI tested in the sunny California.

 

Temperature was noted as 72-80 degrees Fahrenheit. The license plate on the car in the pic looks like it's a Missouri plate. They did it at some place called Modified by KC.