BMW 525si

E92

I saw this video on YouTube. Now, of course the person who wrote the article doesn't realise that the E34(and not e34 as written there) died off in 96 and this car is an E60, but I noticed that people are taking about this "525si", which from the sound of things has 240 bhp(a 530i would have had either 231 or 258 bhp at the time), and was available in Medeteranian countries.

Is there such a car, and if there is, why didn't BMW bring it here, where it would have been a lot cheaper to tax over the similar power 530i, and more to the point, why do they offer such a car there?

And are there other si/is models around the place that I've missed out on?

I know that there either was or is an E30 318iS, an E30 320iS, which unlike normal 320i's has a 4 cylinder engine based on the E30 M3 and was a special for southern Europe, an E36 318is available in saloon(briefly), Coupé and Converable guises, and the 318is in Europe was called the 318i in the US, an E36 325is(US only), same as our 325i IIRC, an E53 4.6is X5(or was it 4.8, actually come to think of it, wasn't there both a 4.6 and 4.8is, the 4.6 being replaced by the 4.8 when the E53 got it's facelift), si versions of the 2.5 and 3.0 E83 X3 and E85 Z4, a 3.0si E70 X5, a 3.0sd E83 X3 and E70 X5, and an E90 320si, but has there been anything else?

maidhc

?

I think you should enclose the above in Anorak quotes!

mick.fr

SI is used by BMW for touring/racing cars.
For example, the 320SI is a racing car running the WTCC and has been developed by Motorsport.
It is based on a 320i but with some magics it achieves 270HP, a nice pretty extra 100HP.

BMW has produced (and still is) some SI in limited editions and I do not believe they are available in some countries only. I do not seeany reason why Mediterranean countries would have more powerful engines.

The car from this video is of course a new bimmer E60/E9x but I can't say exactly which one for sure. One thing for sure, is that the 128Mph limiter has been disabled.

mick.fr

E92 wrote: »

I know that there either was or is an E30 318iS, an E30 320iS, which unlike normal 320i's has a 4 cylinder engine based on the E30 M3 and was a special for southern Europe, an E36 318is available in saloon(briefly), Coupé and Converable guises, and the 318is in Europe was called the 318i in the US, an E36 325is(US only), same as our 325i IIRC, an E53 4.6is X5(or was it 4.8, actually come to think of it, wasn't there both a 4.6 and 4.8is, the 4.6 being replaced by the 4.8 when the E53 got it's facelift), si versions of the 2.5 and 3.0 E83 X3 and E85 Z4, a 3.0si E70 X5, a 3.0sd E83 X3 and E70 X5, and an E90 320si, but has there been anything else?

Careful here, there some wrong statements.

318IS was in the US between 1992-1995 with 134HP.
Changed the name to 318I in 1996. Was 138HP.
Also 325IS was in Europe, had extra stuffs, sport body, more options etc.
That is what what "S" used to stand for usually.
In the US the "S" disappeared in 1996 really.

CrowdedHouse

There is an E90 320si
2,600 of them made,they had to make and sell them so they could enter in touring car races or something.

http://www.ultimatecarpage.com/car/2592/BMW-E90-320si.html

E92

I thought the E36 318is had 143 bhp when it was a 1.9 and had 140 bhp when it was a 1.8. The E30 318iS had 136 bhp. And the 320si has 173 bhp, it uses the N45 engine, basically the 4 cylinder unit found in the 116i in the pre EfficientDynamics days stretched to 2.0 litres, and totally unrelated to the N46 engine found in the 320i and 318i (though I think the EfficientDynamics models have a different engine code, or are they simply N46TU?) and also nothing to do with the Prince engine found in the Mk2 MINI.


Didn't know the US got a 318is though, and I can never remember seeing or hearing about a 325is for Europe either.

As for the video, it's an E60, and all BMWs are limited to 250 km/h(don't know where you got 128 mph from) or 155 mph in old money bar the X5 which is limited to 210 or 240 km/h(130 or 150 mph respectively) depending on whether the sports pack is fitted or not(and the X3 is also limited to 210 km/h).

mick.fr

E92 wrote: »

I thought the E36 318is had 143 bhp when it was a 1.9 and had 140 bhp when it was a 1.8. The E30 318iS had 136 bhp. And the 320si has 173 bhp, it uses the N45 engine, basically the 4 cylinder unit found in the 116i in the pre EfficientDynamics days stretched to 2.0 litres, and totally unrelated to the N46 engine found in the 320i and 318i (though I think the EfficientDynamics models have a different engine code, or are they simply N46TU?) and also nothing to do with the Prince engine found in the Mk2 MINI.


Didn't know the US got a 318is though, and I can never remember seeing or hearing about a 325is for Europe either.

As for the video, it's an E60, and all BMWs are limited to 250 km/h(don't know where you got 128 mph from) or 155 mph in old money bar the X5 which is limited to 210 or 240 km/h(130 or 150 mph respectively) depending on whether the sports pack is fitted or not(and the X3 is also limited to 210 km/h).

No the e46/e90 320SI has 270HP. Well 275HP exactly. This is a race car only.
http://www.andypriaulx.com/ap/wtcc06/320si.shtml

The commercial E90 320SI has about 20 more HP than the standard 320I. And it is the limited edition I was talking about.
http://www.ultimatecarpage.com/car/2592/BMW-E90-320si.html

It has been a good couple of years now that the bimmers are electronically limited to 128MPH = 205.99KMH.

Do you remember my video shot in Germany, max speed with my 325i, 206Kmh on the GPS?

E92

mick.fr wrote: »

It has been a good couple of years now that the bimmers are electronically limited to 128MPH = 205.99KMH.

Do you remember my video shot in Germany, max speed with my 325i, 206Kmh on the GPS?

I can assure you that BMW have never limited a car to 128 mph. Ever since BMW started limiting the top speed of their cars back in 1987 in the E32 750iL, they've always been limited to 155 mph, with the exception of the E46 M3 CSL which was limited to 175 mph IIRC and you needed to have a racing licence to get the higher top speed, if you didn't it was the same as normal, 155 mph, and the other Beemers I mentioned yesterday though I made one error and that is that the E70 X5(current X5) is actually limited to 155 mph with the sports pack.

Now that you mention it, I do remember your video, and you've said on more than one occasion that your E46 is an SULEV E46 which was a North American market E46, and that's obviously a different story but as this isn't North America, European(and actually the rest of the world come to think of it bar Japan where all cars sold in Japan are by law limited to 180 km/h which I think is 112 mph) BMWs have never been limited to 128, 130 or 150 mph bar the X models I mentioned above.

mick.fr

I do not know if this is in th US only, but I know all M/Performance pack (ZHP) models are limited to 155Mph and others to 128Mph because of the rating of the tires fitted in factory (130Mph max speed I believe?).

Now a couple of years ago with a 316i I achieved 220Kmh, but this was a old E36 from 1991.

I believe this speed limit now affects all newly BMW produced cars.
But I have no official documentation...

Anan1

mick.fr wrote: »

Now a couple of years ago with a 316i I achieved 220Kmh, but this was a old E36 from 1991.

You must have been pedalling your heart out.

E92

See above. All BMWs bar those for North America and Japan and the models I mentioned above are limited to 155 mph. And the tyres used in the X5 models without the Sports and all X3s pack are H rated tyres, they use V rated tyres in the E53 with the Sports pack, and any other BMW fast enough to be limited to 155 mph uses ZR rated tyres.

mick.fr

E92 wrote: »

See above. All BMWs bar those for North America and Japan and the models I mentioned above are limited to 155 mph. And the tyres used in the X5 models without the Sports and all X3s pack are H rated tyres, they use V rated tyres in the E53 with the Sports pack, and any other BMW fast enough to be limited to 155 mph uses ZR rated tyres.

Forgot the link?
No only M/ZHP are limited to 155, others to 128 in North America for sure.