RDSport ///M5 vs RPI ///M5s
04-30-2009, 10:09 AM
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My Ride: E60 M5, F85 X5M
I meant to post this a couple weeks ago after MFest but have been busy and was out of the country on vacation last week.
First of, sorry but unfortunately I don't have any videos of these runs. However, I'm not one to stretch the truth by any means so you can be sure that my description of the runs below are very accurate. If not, the RPI guys can chime in and correct me where needed.
For MFest, I drove down to SoCal and met up with Eloy (RPIpower) and Joe (Vegastrashed). We then met up with 3 other M5board/e60.net members who all have RPI equipped cars, Rab Dog (Sohrab), keang24 (Kenny) and MPower82 (Eddie) and caravanned to Vegas that Fri morning.
Straight to the runs. I'm going to skip the stories of how I forgot to put my car into M mode and get to the runs that matter (I did the same thing when I ran Darren_Dallas a few months ago and believe it or not, I did it again a few times against the RPI guys. ).
1) The first car I ran against was Eddie's car. We both had a passenger with luggages and the run was from 3rd gear at about 50mph. We were pretty much dead even. However, Eddie's and my car had about the same exact mods EXCEPT Eddie didn't have headers and I have the RDSport headers.
2) I then ran against Kenny's car. Weight-wise, Kenny had the edge because he didn't have a passenger and I had Joe in my car with all our luggage as well as an RPI M3 exhaust stowed in the trunk. Kenny's car had identical mods to mine (just different brands) but Kenny was running a detuned version of the Powerchip/RPI tune (I have the RDSport tune). We also started in 3rd gear at about 50mph but right at the third honk, Kenny's car immediately jumped on me and pulled away pretty easily. I think he had about 3 car lengths from me when we shut down; probably around 140ish. Even though Kenny had a slight advantage with less weight, I don't think it would have mattered much if we had evened things out. I may have gotten half a car to a car length back but there was no doubt his car was stronger.
3) The last car I ran against was Sohrab's car. We both had passengers in our cars and did the same 3rd gear/50mph start. Both our cars also have the same mods but Sohrab did not have the Powerchip/RPI tune. His car had the factory software. On the third honk, his car didn't jump on me like Kenny's car did but it just slowly pulled away. By about 140, he had approx 2 car lengths on me.
That evening I got a chance to meet Federico from RDSport and I discussed the runs with him. He wants the opportunity to diagnose my car to do some dyno testing and look at the software data to see if any improvements can be made. I'm just not sure when or how we'll do this as I'm in NorCal and they're in SoCal but I will probably work something out with Federico.
One slight difference in mods between my car and the RPI cars is that I have secondary cats while they're running straight pipes. I know that's true for Kenny and Sohrab but not sure about Eddie's car. I just learned that RDSport does make straight pipes, with and without resonators, so I might give that a try.
Conclusion...I don't know if the troubleshooting or doing the secondary cat delete will help my car (although I'm a hopeless optimist) but there's no doubt that on those runs, the RPI cars outperformed my car pretty convincingly. Great job RPI!!
I still haven't given up hope though and looking forward to working wiht Federico to see how my car can perform better. Some may say that the results of these runs would be all they need to make the switch but I want to let RDSport have a shot at rectifying the problem. Will keep you guys posted.
Sorry for the long post....
Tony
First of, sorry but unfortunately I don't have any videos of these runs. However, I'm not one to stretch the truth by any means so you can be sure that my description of the runs below are very accurate. If not, the RPI guys can chime in and correct me where needed.
For MFest, I drove down to SoCal and met up with Eloy (RPIpower) and Joe (Vegastrashed). We then met up with 3 other M5board/e60.net members who all have RPI equipped cars, Rab Dog (Sohrab), keang24 (Kenny) and MPower82 (Eddie) and caravanned to Vegas that Fri morning.
Straight to the runs. I'm going to skip the stories of how I forgot to put my car into M mode and get to the runs that matter (I did the same thing when I ran Darren_Dallas a few months ago and believe it or not, I did it again a few times against the RPI guys. ).
1) The first car I ran against was Eddie's car. We both had a passenger with luggages and the run was from 3rd gear at about 50mph. We were pretty much dead even. However, Eddie's and my car had about the same exact mods EXCEPT Eddie didn't have headers and I have the RDSport headers.
2) I then ran against Kenny's car. Weight-wise, Kenny had the edge because he didn't have a passenger and I had Joe in my car with all our luggage as well as an RPI M3 exhaust stowed in the trunk. Kenny's car had identical mods to mine (just different brands) but Kenny was running a detuned version of the Powerchip/RPI tune (I have the RDSport tune). We also started in 3rd gear at about 50mph but right at the third honk, Kenny's car immediately jumped on me and pulled away pretty easily. I think he had about 3 car lengths from me when we shut down; probably around 140ish. Even though Kenny had a slight advantage with less weight, I don't think it would have mattered much if we had evened things out. I may have gotten half a car to a car length back but there was no doubt his car was stronger.
3) The last car I ran against was Sohrab's car. We both had passengers in our cars and did the same 3rd gear/50mph start. Both our cars also have the same mods but Sohrab did not have the Powerchip/RPI tune. His car had the factory software. On the third honk, his car didn't jump on me like Kenny's car did but it just slowly pulled away. By about 140, he had approx 2 car lengths on me.
That evening I got a chance to meet Federico from RDSport and I discussed the runs with him. He wants the opportunity to diagnose my car to do some dyno testing and look at the software data to see if any improvements can be made. I'm just not sure when or how we'll do this as I'm in NorCal and they're in SoCal but I will probably work something out with Federico.
One slight difference in mods between my car and the RPI cars is that I have secondary cats while they're running straight pipes. I know that's true for Kenny and Sohrab but not sure about Eddie's car. I just learned that RDSport does make straight pipes, with and without resonators, so I might give that a try.
Conclusion...I don't know if the troubleshooting or doing the secondary cat delete will help my car (although I'm a hopeless optimist) but there's no doubt that on those runs, the RPI cars outperformed my car pretty convincingly. Great job RPI!!
I still haven't given up hope though and looking forward to working wiht Federico to see how my car can perform better. Some may say that the results of these runs would be all they need to make the switch but I want to let RDSport have a shot at rectifying the problem. Will keep you guys posted.
Sorry for the long post....
Tony
04-30-2009, 12:11 PM
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My Ride: 2006 E60 M5
Silver Gray / Silverstone / Olive Ash
All Options (Except Perf. Leather & Heated Rear Seats)
1997 540i Sport
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Thanks for the interesting post!
04-30-2009, 01:58 PM
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Originally Posted by EGBOZ' post='864360' date='Apr 30 2009, 01:11 PM
Thanks for the interesting post!
04-30-2009, 08:11 PM
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Originally Posted by alpinewhite' post='864621' date='Apr 30 2009, 04:31 PM
Tony, get the stroker and call it a day.
