My Evolve experience - Evolve Primary CAT Delete Pipes

[KudosM3]

Those of you who know me, would probably describe me as being more sceptical than the average especially when it comes to modding/servicing/repairing cars. Therefore, what I am going onto explain are my real world feelings and thoughts on some work Evolve carried out on my M3 over the last week or so.

Firstly, due to working in the City, my car is a weekend toy essentially and I had no plans or desire to extract any extra power from the already potent engine.



That was until I popped down for the Evolve BBQ on Saturday...Sal took me to the side and pointed at the ground in the workshop. Evolve Primary CAT Delete Pipes. At this stage I should state that my car is OEM except for an Eisenmann Sport rear section and connecting pipes, therefore the Evolve Link Pipes would remove the highly restrictive front cats and effectively with a remap the car would then be at stage 2 tune.



I think it's important to evaluate what you actually want/enjoy from your own car to then be able to decide whether you actually find the mods an improvement or not. For me, I don't redline the car every time I get in the car, I like to hear the exhaust/engine noise and normally spend most of my time between 3k and 6.5k revs. Smooth power delivery and the beautiful V8 burble is a big part of the enjoyment I have with this car.

I was a little worried that I did not want a chavved up OTT exhaust note as I don't drive around like I stole the car and I wanted to keep the 'feel' of the M3 the same as I love the drive as is.

The idea was to dyno the car with just the Evolve Link Pipes and no remap, drive around for a few days to gauge the difference to stock and then Stage 2 remap a few days later to again see what the improvement is in driveability/performance.

This was suggested by Evolve so that I could feel the difference between the two different parts of the upgrade.

While I was on the way to Evolve, I got an update from Sal that my car made as stock 409hp crank SAE.



Ok, so the centre section with Evolve Primary CAT Delete Pipes were fitted and I was told to go fire it up. Initial thoughts after starting the car up...no change to exhaust note on idle, exactly the same as before.



Sal then jumped in and moved the car off the ramp and out of the workshop for a test run. I immediately could tell that the exhaust note had deepened and sounded more 'precise.' Time to dyno it.

I told Sal previous to taking the car I don't want to know any dyno figures as to me they don't mean much, it's about how it is on the road that counts for me. However, it was reassuring to see that my car standard made 409hp. What was even more impressive was what happened next...on the road.

I know my car, I've had it over a year now, and right from the word go I could feel the car was more eager. The power is instant and the sound is just what I was hoping for. Off throttle, quiet as OEM, on throttle burbling and gurgling through the rev range. It's just everything as before but louder and more distinct. The M3 is definitely pushing more power, very noticeable and almost seems endless. What I love about this set up more than anything else, given my driving style, is the torque. It's so beautifully smooth to drive, pulling even at 1.5k revs in 6th gear!

Now to dyno it with the Evolve CAT Delete Pipes. The car was carefully strapped up, first dyno run - thumbs up from Sal. 4 consistent runs with little or no rest in between and the car made +20hp and more torque from the very beginning.



I will leave it to Evolve to put the graphs, pics and videos up.

I was in no doubt the car was faster and markedly faster too, but 20hp! That's without remap, so just by adding these pipes in place of the front cats! Crazy. So from 409hp to 430hp!

Sal and Imran then went on to show me all the pre cat delete dyno runs and quite clearly they could have used far lower horsepower runs. I now understand that the ECU requires a few runs to hit the ignition targets.

The drive home was very rewarding, Sal as co-pilot, through country lanes I soon discovered that my seating position was all wrong. Couple of changes to this and the car felt even better! Just goes to show how simple changes can make such a big difference. The car itself requires less throttle due to the improved torque and I can stay in higher gears. I'm busy practicing rev matching, it's a lot of fun and sounds awesome!

After that drive, I've been driving it on and off the last few days and it feels great, can't wait to see the effect of the remap! We will see.

I will chime back in here and update the thread with my thoughts after the stage 2 map is on and I've had a few days to adjust to it.

Thanks to Tates for kindly letting me experience his stage 2 conversion, which went a long way in convincing me to take this route.

[E92M3GT]

Good to hear this !

Let us know after the ECU tuning how much hp are added and drivability

I will be getting my X pipe and Stage 2 tune soon from Evolve !

[EvenSteven]

20 from removing primary cats is about what you should expect. A good tune should add another 20.

[pkimM3r]

409hp at the crank?! Im confused.

[EvenSteven]

Originally Posted by pkim1079

409hp at the crank?! Im confused.

OP probably misheard what he was told and doesn't know the difference between crank and wheel hp.

The more time I spend on this forum, the more I realize that 90% of people that drive this car can barely find the gas pedal. Not including the OP in this number, just making a generalization.

[pkimM3r]

Originally Posted by EvenSteven

OP probably misheard what he was told and doesn't know the difference between crank and wheel hp.

The more time I spend on this forum, the more I realize that 90% of people that drive this car can barely find the gas pedal. Not including the OP in this number, just making a generalization.

Yes otherwise i would have been not impressed. Although what does SAE do? Adjust it to 414? Lol

[longuyen88]

I am excitedon my evolve staage 2 tune as well... hopefully this week@@

[M0J0]

How much did it cost to install?

[socalm3lover]

Does not BMW rate euro versions at 420 at the crank? Considering a minimum 15% drivetrain loss, that would be 357 at the wheels. Still not sure what the op means by the 409.

John

[Nugget]

I think they use different dynos over there that try to measure drivetrain resistance and give a hp figure at the crank.
I have no idea if they are accurate or not.

[Sales@Evolve]

Crank HP / Flywheel HP is very much measured and accepted across the rest of the world.

Most dyno's have this facility and show crank horsepower.

The Dyno Dynamics machines calculate it and it's very very close on many models of cars as to what it should be. It's only available in shootout mode.
The MAHA machines (world renowned and used by OEM to estimate flywheel HP) measure wheel HP and then the drag measured on the coast down.
Dynojets also have this feature but no one uses it in the US.

So there is no mistake.

Here is the graph of OP's before/after session with the test pipes with wheel HP.



Here is the exact same set of tests in Flywheel HP:

[liquidsmoke]

Do you have a plot when you added the remap?

[Imran@Evolve]

Originally Posted by liquidsmoke

Do you have a plot when you added the remap?

[liquidsmoke]

Thanks!