Need for Torque!

[dcaron9999]

am always daydreaming about upgrading power/torque on my 328i versus swapping for a 4-5 year old pre-owned, maybe certified, 540i or E46 M3. I was checking pricing and the 540i upgrade would set me back about 30K including trade-in of my 1999 E46 328i. Th M3 path is anywhere 35-45K extra.

This is a lot more money than a supercharger, maybe even with an intercooler, and brake upgrade on my 328i ( ETA= probably about 15-20K Canadian).

My car has the OEM sport suspension, 101,000Kms, and a shark injector and cold air intake, which I both installed when I purchased the certified 328i car 3 years ago. The certified 6year/120,000Km warranty expires in April 2005)

Maybe I have lots of spare cash and the upgrade bug next summer. I might consider supercharging ...

Your thoughts?

 

[Kirby]

If you plan on keeping the car a number of years, supercharging might be worth the $$. But if you plan on selling/trading in the next 3 - 4 years, you will be hard pressed to recover even 33% of the supercharger cost when you sell it.

 

[Tom]

How about adding an UDP.

 

[dcaron9999]

Good point. Add to that the fact that people might get worried the car has been driven harshly, and might not even consider buying it. Unless you have a good paper trail for maintenance, upgrades costs, long ownership, etc. It is still more affordable than trading the car in for an E46 M3 or E39 540i, not considering ownership costs of these two marvels.

 

[epj3]

If you improve the suspension, you might end up being content enough that you won't worry too much about having more power.

 

[sly]

At the risk of sounding preachy, I wouldn't add a supercharger to any engine that's not designed for one. When Audi turbo charges one of their stock engines, they will invariably increase the thickness of the cylinder walls to withstand the increased pressures. Therefore the engine displacement decreases. The Audi two liter engine for example is decreased to 1800ccs when it is turbo charged. But if engine durability is not a concern, give it a try.

 

[HornyHornet]

Pulleys are not a bad upgrade. Usually gain ~10hp. I have heard Rogue Enginnering make a good set. Try UUC as well.