BMW F80 M3 STOCK DYNO RESULTS

HOW MUCH POWER DOES A STOCK F80 M3 REALLY MAKE?

BMW quotes their S55 F8X platform as making 425hp and 406tq, at the crank, of course. As it has been with most BMW’s over the past decade or so, the S55 has been quite underrated from the factory.

Our F80 M3 made significantly more power than BMW’s claimed numbers, coming in at a surprisingly high

470whp and 419wtq. Using a correction factor of 20% that puts the crank numbers at 565hp and 500tq, 140hp and 94tq beyond the numbers claimed by BMW!

IS THIS ACCURATE?

While this was exciting, it was also a bit concerning, as the data we recorded for our F80 was even higher than other stock M3 dyno results. Typically a stock S55 will average around 430whp and 430wtq, and this is about what we were expecting. To see our F80 come in at about 40whp more than average made us question if our car was indeed 100% stock, especially since our runs were done on a mustang dyno which typically reads lower than other dynos.

WAS OUR CAR TUNED?

Initially, we thought the car may have been tuned by the previous owner, but after looking at the dyno charts, specifically the shape of the torque curve, it did not reflect the shape we normally see from a tuned S55, but rather that of a stock S55.

A tuned S55 BMW on the stock turbos will normally have a very large amount of torque early in the power band and peak at around 4,000rpm before tapering down towards redline. Whereas a stock torque curve will be mostly flat between 3,000-6,000rpm.

Adding to that, the peak torque number of 419wtq wasn’t excessively high compared to other stock S55’s. In fact, the torque number was disproportionately low considering the 470whp peak. In conclusion, it was safe to say that while our F80 did put out some high numbers, it was indeed stock. But not for long…

Time for more power! Sure, we were ecstatic about the numbers we made, but we want to see what this S55 is really made of. We will cover multiple stages of this build, from FBO, to full e85, to upgraded turbos.

For assistance with your S55 build email us at getarmed@armmotorsports.com.

BMW’S SPORTING THE S55 ENGINE

The F8X platform consisting of the F80 M3, F82/82 M4, and F87 M2 Competition, all come equipped with BMW’s stout 3.0L Twin-Turbo S55 engine.

Make

Model

Submodel

Engine

BMW

F80

M3

S55 3.0L

BMW

F82

M4

S55 3.0L

BMW

F83

M4

S55 3.0L

BMW

F87

M2 Competition

S55 3.0L

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