narvselius

It's "a German" thing. In north European countries you down play your abilities (for others in that culture to rate them higher), wheras in other cultures you overrate your abilities as you know that other listeners will cap of some 10-15% of what you say. If you are not aware of this, coming from a very "down playing culture" like the one in Scandinavia you could end up markes as a sucker by listeners in a different cultural context such as USA, Latin America etc. For the interested one - check Geert Hofstede - he has written a lot about this.

My take is that this has spilt over to rating of horse powers, as you will see the same from Porsche, or Audi's S-models. And the same goes for the 3.0 lit twin-turbo. Officially 306 BHP, but tested it produced app 320 BHP.

cobradav

Add also in Europe HP rating can have a tremendous impact on taxes. Auto mfrs there often try to make it less painful to own in those countries that tax by HP numbers.

525iEnjoy

Our Tundra 5.7 puts out 390 414 NA, but there will huge potential for aftermarket like C2 and HPA and HP Freaks.

E60714

What do 535i's put out at the wheel if they truly do put out 326hp? I saw a dyno with a 535i with an RPi exhaust, and it said 250-something horsepower.

tbal

why is it that bmw decided to use the 4.4 instead of the 4.8?

studavis

In my experience, all German manufacturers low ball horsepower. Although conditions will change from one test to the other on a same car, same day, same machine, you extract enough real world data to get a statical trend that offers a good confidence threshold. My 993 Turbo S pegged 451 - 459 in three tests. My E 60, hit 371, and 374. My 997 Turbo, which is not quite stock, pegged 491 and all of these numbers are higher than claimed. Some day, it would be nice to take 9 E60s fresh off the boat, and dyno them and see what the trent and standard deviation is. I would bet the farm it is within .09% of 360.

v_therussian

Gawd I want that engine!!!

sdg1871

I hear you V. That new engine, especially its massive 90 ft-lbs increase in torque, should allow the F10 550 to torch the E60 550 coming off the line. Maybe with the new engine I wouldn't have been owned as much as I was coming off the line last Sunday against a Mitsubishi Lancer Evo. Just maybe.

Seriously, the new TT V8 is a major major power upgrade from the NA 4.8 in the E60 550.

Now if BMW can only fix the annoying delay in full power once you floor the gas...(I know that SB is the answer to that issue). The instant response is one thing I really miss about my E39 540.