Not that me or any of friends would ever consider driving so quickly of course ;-) How hard is it to remove the limiter on a V8 M5? Where does one get this done? I've heard reports of it been ridiculously easy, is this true? A simple DIY job or does it need a man with a laptop?
Why?
Even in Der Fatherland you'd struggle to hit the limiter.
Why would you? Maybe you might struggle but I regularly used to come back home down the M180 after working for bike mags or after whatever around 1am at 170+ sometimes if there was no other traffic - even in my old V8 Sierra I would get it to its 6000rpm max in top (about 148 at bruntingthorp according to the timing beams). Even on some deserted long A roads you can max out a big bike or fast car. You may NEVER hit the limiter but why would you rather have one?
I might have known you'd claim to have done it. But I take most of your claims with a pinch of salt these days.
Seriously, the opportunities for doing it are so limited you may as well not even think about it.
I'm certainly not stupid enough to try it on an A-road.
doubt an M5 would the easiest way is to buy an Alpina as i'm sure they don't put the limiter on. it's a software limiter so an aftermarket tuner can do it or BMW themselfs but finding a willing dealer isn't gonna be easy. a aftermarket ECU would probably ditch it.
You've mutated into a carzy Belgian ;-)
if you used it out on track i bet you could get past the 155mph limiter on an M5, i've seen MR2 Turbo's hit that kinda speed on tracks and still have lots of straight left! i doubt the old M5 could go far past 175-180mph mind
I'm struggling to think of many tracks where a road car, especially some hairdresser special, could hit that kind of speed.....
Perhaps you could give an example or two.
I used to get my CBR600 flat out in top on many occasions coming back home from work at night when I was younger and more stupid. It's not hard to do at all.
Mike P
CBR600 != Lardy Kraut car.
A CBR6 will be at 100mph before the BMW hits 60mph.
I've done it on a bike, but I'd not even consider it in a car.
Point taken :-) I've done just over double the limit in a car. Once. On a totally deserted M40 at 7am on xmas morning a few years back. Not something I'd care to do again to be honest.
Mike P
M10, 9am, Sunday morning.
Indicated 14-something mph.
Definitely don't want to do it again on a public road.
agreed i got 145mph on the speedo once and could have easily pushed the car to over 150mph but traffic slowed me down. pre-ban of course wouldn't try it now! not on a public road anyways
One does not remove the limiter, the limiter is fed false information. All it takes is connecting 4 wires.
-1200 UKP for something which (I think) is worth 5 UKP in components.
The M5 E39 is a fabulous car, found its way on my "Want" list. It is however a very heavy car (1720 kg iirc). I first would shed some weight (fitting the supersprint exhaust sheds weight and release a fair herd of horses) before installing the "V max Aufhebung"
And yes: for a car as the M5 E39 it is essential that the limiter is off. It will go, go and go and top out a fraction under 300 kph.
Tell your friend that he must also install the brakes ducts, they cost next to nothing (what on a BMW is rare and almost unheard of on a M- car).
I drove both the M5 V8 and the new V10 in Italy some 2 months back. The V10 is faster, the V8 somehow more ferious and more rewarding to drive. It idles like race Mercury-outboard engine. I am not into noice but that sound means business :-)
Tom De Moor
If you ever drive a car with 300 Hp or plus, you will know.
The standard M5 e39 has 400 horses, they are bred to run.
For what concerns Germany: I do Brussels-Munich twice a month. One way is 880 km, record is 4 Hr 52 minutes one way (filling the beast up included).
Between Koln and Frankfurt I am at full chat and even at speeds around
260-270 REAL kph mirrors need to be checked: Krauts have discovered and embraced the 4x4 Lambo's and dice each early morning with turbo 911's, GT3 RS and other Brabusses.There are quite some living around Koln and working in Wiesbaden/Frankfurt. One of them is a certain Bsher, ex Le Mans driver and winner for McLaren and Williams iirc, now returned to being a modestly (ahum) succesfull banker. I suspect that the only reason why they live in Koln and work in Frankfurt a highway named "Autobahn" is.
Why do you think that my 928 is now in California in order to receive a stroker engine which should deliver some 600 HP at the crank? For going to the supermarket? For racing Alfa 75's at the red light?
No, next time the guy in his yellow Murcielago sees me, slows down to
240-250, waves "Gutentag" and then floors it, he will be in for a surprise. I know that it is madness, dangerous and all that stuff: I need that Lambo's scalp... and a 600 Hp V8 (from 350)in a 928 GTS is just the ticket for getting that spaghetti VW-sportscar-hairdress.Men are but grown up boys. I am the kind of boy who likes to win.
Tom De Moor
Only time I've hit a 155 limiter was in the 540i on a "private test track" between Wigan and Liverpool. Nothing else I've driven has had a working one .
That twin turbo 4x4 Sierra definately didn't have one...
Heh, I got an indicated 135ish in AshtrayVanMans old 730i on the M6 Toll..
Sorry, Pete. I don't think I told you. It was the only bit of tarmac smooth enough to actually open the thing up.
If you do 110 in the UK it's "dangerous", if you do 110 in France it's "not that bad, everyone does it", whereas if you say to someone you did 110 in Germany they say "Wuss, why didn't you do 150?".
I've done 150+ on stretches of A road in the UK more times than I care to remember, more times than I've done it on motorways, put it that way. Irritatingly there are cameras everywhere I used to be able to go fast regularly, and I've never seen or heard of an accident at any of my old high speed haunts.
I know a chap who's got an E39 M5, and a 911 GT3. He goes to the Nurburgring about once a month as he's buying a flat there.
Reckons the 911 averages 24 mpg at a steady 130 mph, the M5 averaged 16 at the same speed.
The 911 will also do 16 mpg around the 'ring (8'10 secs) whereas the M5 would average 7 mpg going slightly slower (8'14 secs)
His mate takes a very tricked up Sapphire Cosworth, 550+ bhp. That'll do a quicker lap than the M5 and use less fuel doing so.
don't know why I felt the need to share that, but hey, it's usenet.
I thought we already had one of those here.
Fraser
Are there others?
TDM
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