Tuesday 3rd March 2015

BMW - Geneva 2015

2 Series Gran Tour... oh, and water injection for an M4 GTS coming later this year

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Geneva is a quiet show for BMW, which tends to reserve its big-ticket debuts for Frankfurt in September. When the most prominent car on the stand is the new seven-seat 2 Series Gran Tourer MPV, you know that you're going to have to look elsewhere for excitement.

Or look a bit harder, at least. Because tucked away at the back of the BMW stand was the M4 MotoGP safety car, wearing what has to be about the meanest looking livery ever applied - it looks like the sort of thing you'd send to arrest Batman. So just a track-only M4 in a Darth Vader colour scheme then?

Water injection added to M4; previews GTS tech

Well, no - because the MotoGP M4 has a water injection system, which a very well-placed BMW source confirmed to PH that we'll be seeing in an M car before the end of the year. The forthcoming M4 GTS, in fact; which we can anticipate seeing in concept form at the Pebble Beach Concours in August and which will be on sale next year. Water injection is nothing new, of course - Subaru has used it on STI models in recent years - but it's a fresh direction for BMW. Sending a spray of water into the intake charge helps to both cool it and allows fuel to burn more efficiently - both good things - giving a performance boost. There are no more details on the GTS, but on previous form we can safely anticipate it will make the standard M4 look a bit tame.

And some more good news - we're also told that we'll be seeing the eagerly-awaited new BMW M2 before the end of the year as well. So not much at Geneva, but plenty of jam tomorrow.

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Click here for the PH Geneva news hub!

[ColinM]

"Subaru has used it on STI models in recent years... Sending a spray of water into the intake charge"

Did it ? I thought they only sprayed water onto the outside of the intercooler to cool the intake charge not mix water into it. At least thats what it does on my 2007 STI.

[aeropilot]

[quote]And some more good news - we're also told that we'll be seeing the eagerly-awaited new BMW M2 before the end of the year as well.
[/quote]

M2 debut is Frankfurt from what's been hinted at towards end of last year.

[P4ROT]

ColinM said:

"Subaru has used it on STI models in recent years... Sending a spray of water into the intake charge"

Did it ? I thought they only sprayed water onto the outside of the intercooler to cool the intake charge not mix water into it. At least thats what it does on my 2007 STI.

Yes, this is what I thought.

[Turbobanana]

"Water injection is nothing new, of course - Subaru has used it on STI models in recent years"

...and Saab used it on the 99 Turbo S in about 1978. And Oldsmobile in 1962.

Edited by Turbobanana on Tuesday 3rd March 14:30

Edited by Turbobanana on Tuesday 3rd March 14:39

[corcoran]

2 Series Gran Tourer MPV.

So. much. rofl.

[thatdude]

So with the water injection, is there a separate tank for the water? How much water is used on an injection? Is it injected only under certain conditions?

[Eddie1775]

I would imagine it would only inject under full load/boost pressure otherwise you are going to need a trailer and a towbar

It's been used in marine engines for ages to reduce emissions

[Olf]

thatdude said:

So with the water injection, is there a separate tank for the water? How much water is used on an injection? Is it injected only under certain conditions?

I think it has been tanks historically. Maybe BMW will have come up with something a bit cleverer like injecting the condensate from the air con.

[g3org3y]

corcoran said:

2 Series Gran Tourer MPV.

So. much. sadness.

EFA.

[MattW123]

http://www.bmwblog.com/2015/02/14/bmw-m4-gts-featu...

[will261058]

The Rolls Royce Griffon Aero engine used Water/methanol injection in some applications to cool the charge. It produced fabulous blue flames from the exhaust at max chat. Looked like a Bunsen burner!

[zeppelin101]

thatdude said:

So with the water injection, is there a separate tank for the water? How much water is used on an injection? Is it injected only under certain conditions?

In this capacity it will probably be full load only above a certain boost pressure.

However water injection can be used at lower loads as an emissions assist so it may feature there in future models if widely adopted.