Mac Motoren Carbon airbox/plenum by EVOLVE

[Loud Pedal]

Thought i'd do a quick write up on this as i have been so impressed by it!!

Having seen the Mac Motoren airbox/plenum on Jasons z3m-roadster, i was very impressed by the quality and design of it that i decided to get one myself for my S50 z3 m-coupe.

The item is very well made and only minor 'finishing' was needed during fitting. As far as fitting goes, it is a bit of a 'fiddly' job but would be much easier the second time round!

One of the good features of this set up is that it retains the standard inlet trumpets which have been very carefully designed by BMW. The overall volume of the unit is also much bigger than the standard S50 unit and is much closer in size to the S54 oem unit.
Another advantage is that the MAF sensor is not required if you run it in Alpha-n set up.

Weight wise, the oem plenum is actually a cast alloy unit and when you take into account that and the rest of the airbox tubing and MAF housing, i would guesstimate the saving to be around 3-4kg's(not a lot but it all helps!).




After the fitting was finished, the mapping could begin.
Sal at Evolve has already mapped my car a couple of times after various upgrades have been as i have one of their 'uni-q' piggy back ecu's which allow you to remap the engine through the very good oem Siemens unit. The great thing about this set up is that you can tailor your map each time you change a component such as exhaust, cams etc rather than a generic map which can't.

Also at this point, i must say a huge thanks to Sal for staying on till 10.30pm on a Fri night to complete the session(thts what i call customer service!).
Sal also let me get involved in the actual mapping of the car allowing me to see just how thorough the process is and how many parameters can be adjusted and with such fine precision.
At the end of the session we were both very impressed with the results considering we decided to finish with a 'safe' rather than 'ultimate bhp' map!!!
Engine tuning wise my S50 has a Prospeed backbox and 100 cell cat system and the Uni-q piggy back ecu.
The final graph shows how much improved the engine is and also for comparison a plot from an average(on this dyno they range from 290-300bhp) unmodified S50 MC.

The real 'proof of the pudding' was in the driving, and it certainly didn't dissapoint!!!
The car is now SO much stronger with power still building all the way to 7,600rpm that my planned 6 speed box and 3.91 diff plans have been shelved due to the car being so 'rapid' through the gears!
Oh, and the sound it makes is very naughty

Again, a huge thanks to all the guys from EVOLVE for such quality service and attention to detail!

[DjSki]

Hi,

Can you tell us how much the box and remap cost?

Cheers

Edited by DjSki on Monday 24th November 13:11

[maahny]

Looking good Tony - get some videos up!

[duff]

DjSki said:

Hi,

Can you tell us how much the box and remap cost?

Cheers

Edited by DjSki on Monday 24th November 13:11

I think this costs around £3k fitted by them, so not cheap! The clips I've seen on YouTube sound amazing

Edited by duff on Tuesday 25th November 14:07

[Loud Pedal]

DjSki said:

Hi,

Can you tell us how much the box and remap cost?

Cheers

Edited by DjSki on Monday 24th November 13:11

Cost of the carbon box, piggy back ecu, removing oem airbox/plenum, fitting carbon airbox/plenum and 3+hrs dyno mapping would be just over £2.5K incl vat.

Yes, a lot of money but the performance gains are very good and the only way to get the real csl sound

[taffyracer]

So what was the actual before and after results for your car, the 1st line is for a standard car I believe and yours was not as it already has a piggy back and other mods, so how much is the actual gain from this airbox alone?

Edited by taffyracer on Wednesday 26th November 08:14

[zmrjason]

I got 28bhp from the airbox alone. Dynoed before and after and always on the same dyno dynamics dyno. However I do have 286 Schrick cams othwerwise my engine is identical to Chippy's.

[M3John]

Loud Pedal said:

DjSki said:

Hi,

Can you tell us how much the box and remap cost?

Cheers

Edited by DjSki on Monday 24th November 13:11

Cost of the carbon box, piggy back ecu, removing oem airbox/plenum, fitting carbon airbox/plenum and 3+hrs dyno mapping would be just over £2.5K incl vat.

Yes, a lot of money but the performance gains are very good and the only way to get the real csl sound

Just food for thought here but what would the cost be of forced induction be compaired to yours above. Surely it couldn't be that much more for a much bigger increase?

Nice write up and pictures by the way !

[Loud Pedal]

M3John said:

Loud Pedal said:

DjSki said:

Hi,

Can you tell us how much the box and remap cost?

Cheers

Edited by DjSki on Monday 24th November 13:11

Cost of the carbon box, piggy back ecu, removing oem airbox/plenum, fitting carbon airbox/plenum and 3+hrs dyno mapping would be just over £2.5K incl vat.

Yes, a lot of money but the performance gains are very good and the only way to get the real csl sound

Just food for thought here but what would the cost be of forced induction be compaired to yours above. Surely it couldn't be that much more for a much bigger increase?

Nice write up and pictures by the way !

Well, before i bought this airbox, i was all set to put an e39 M5 engine into the coupe but due to the engine suppliers going bust a week after i had put a large deposit on the engine and not being able to source another at a reasonble cost i decided to forget it. I then researched supercharging but found that the S50 engine NEEDS extensive internal strenghtening to make it safe and the overall cost would have approached £10K.....I've decided that i would rather spend the same amount and put a brand new LS3 engine in!!!

As far as the airbox gain was compared to what it was before, approx.18bhp(last dyno run with before mods was done on the same dyno but on a different day so cannot be considered absolute even though AT were similar).

Jusr for clarity, Jasons car has a lightweight flywheel, ARP bolts, 8,000rpm redline and Shrick cams where mine doesn't.

Edited by Loud Pedal on Wednesday 26th November 21:35

[Diesel Meister]

Seriously nice.

Does the MM give you the very same CSL sound effects (complete with dual character - "rowdy" and "4 horsemen of the apocalypse!")?

It'd be worth it just for the sound....

[Loud Pedal]

Diesel Meister said:

Seriously nice.

Does the MM give you the very same CSL sound effects (complete with dual character - "rowdy" and "4 horsemen of the apocalypse!")?

It'd be worth it just for the sound....

The MM doesn't give you the dual character sound of the CSL but just an insane induction howl!!!

Edited by Loud Pedal on Saturday 29th November 10:41

[unzippy]

Loud Pedal said:

only minor 'finishing' was needed during fitting.

For £2.5k I'd want it to be fitting perfect straight out the box

[Loud Pedal]

unzippy said:

Loud Pedal said:

only minor 'finishing' was needed during fitting.

For £2.5k I'd want it to be fitting perfect straight out the box

£2.5K would be for the airbox,piggyback ecu,fitting and mapping!!!

As for the finishing, we are only talking about opening up 2 holes by less than 1mm. And i only did that because i'm a perfectionist!