Better intake for your BMW

SPEED Engineering BMW Intake Kits

“RAM-Air doesn’t work” – “RAM-Air doesn’t help” – “The turbocharger pushes much more anyway”.
Typical forum posts

Based on these statements about the myth of the ram-air effect and the desire for cost-efficient, easy-to-implement, possibly performance-generating measures, we took a look around two extreme areas of motorsport.

Our Speed Engineering RAM-Air kits for the N55, S55 and B58 engines offer two decisive advantages for the performance-hungry ¼ and ½ mile drivers among you, as well as for the circuit drivers, which we would like to explain based on the product development

Basics

Modern engines and their turbochargers work according to the principle that energy is required to generate a defined overpressure (the boost pressure), which the exhaust gas turbine of your turbocharger extracts from the engine’s exhaust gases. For this purpose, the exhaust gases are passed over the turbine wheel, which drives the compressor wheel that generates the boost pressure by “forcing” air from the intake side into the pressure side of the engine. Two points are crucial here: the heating of the intake air (which is later cooled by a certain amount in the charge air cooler) during this process and the energy required by the turbocharger to generate the pressure difference between the target charge pressure and the ambient air pressure. Both variables can be measured: The intake air temperature via a temperature sensor and the utilization of the turbocharger via the activation of the wastegate or, in the case of turbochargers with adjustable turbine blades, via the degree of activation of these. To record this process, engine management engineers have stored speed maps in modern engine control units, which ensure that the turbocharger performs its work within the intended target values and is not damaged.

With the help of our RAM-Air kits, the overpressure created by the driving speed can act as effectively as possible on the intake side of the turbocharger. This means that your turbocharger has to overcome a smaller pressure difference.

What advantages does this give me?

better response behavior
Lower maximum speed or utilization of your turbocharger à potentially a little more “headroom” for optional tuning/increased boost pressure

In addition, our RAM-AIR kits ensure a continuously lower intake temperature than OEM, as the intake air is taken from the ambient air instead of the air in the engine compartment.