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Worlds First: Savspeed Auto Twin Turbo (Top Mount)
BMW M3 S65 Build
Our company, Savspeed Auto has been around for over 25 years. We are known for our street turbo conversions and for our building of front running BMW race cars in South Africa. We have turbocharged over 320 BMW vehicles to date, ranging from E30’s, E36’s, and E46’s, M coupes and Z4M’s. We have turbocharged anything from 325i’s all the way up to the flagship BMW models being the M3’s.
In the beginning, we started making a name for ourselves and in a sense, put ourselves on the map by turbocharging the first BMW e36 325i RHD in the world in the year 1998. From then, we grew from strength to strength and began developing and mastering our e36 turbo conversions. We then turbocharged our first e36 M3 which was ground-breaking on many levels, the power, the reliability and the risk we took putting our reputation on the line to prove both to the world and ourselves that we were capable of achieving whatever we put our mind to.
Our South African land speed recording holding 800hp E46 M3 turbo.
We were most famously known for turbocharging the first RHD E46 M3 in the world back in the year 2007. At the time, this vehicle in particular was making 600hp at 1.2 bar boost and running 12.2 seconds on a 400m at an exit speed of 198Km/h. Since then, the development has continued, we are now making 770hp at 0.9 bar boost and 1060hp at 1.4bar boost. Our 400m times have dropped slightly to an 11.2 second run but at an exit speed of 232Km/h. This vehicle in particular is still running a standard manual M3 e46 gearbox with standard differential, side shafts and propshafts without the use of traction control, hence we are always struggling for traction. However, our focus has never been on 400m racing, when it comes to road conversions we aim to give our clients reliable cars in which they can have fun with and we believe we have achieved this to date.
​“The Judge,” S50B30 Savspeed turbo and race car build driven by Lorenzo Gualtieri.
Our main focus at Savspeed Auto has been circuit racing. In the year 2010, we built the fastest Circuit racing BMW in the country, famously referred to as “The Judge.” The lap times we achieved with this car, which had an S50B30 turbo motor built by us, back in 2010 is still currently only 2 seconds per lap slower than the fully de-restricted latest Gen GT3 cars from Lamborghini, Ferrari and Mercedes at our local race circuits. It is to be noted that we achieved these lap times without the use of a sequential gearbox and without traction control assistance. We used a standard 6 speed manual gearbox with our locally produced Powermods ECU with the standard BMW ABS system and standard M3 Differential.
The revival of something special
Now that we have given a bit of background, it is time to focus on the future. Some people might remember that back in 2012, we attempted to turbocharge the first S65 in the world, which we did. The car was running, there were multiple videos of the dyno runs etc. The setup was very simple and basic with a single turbo application and the power figures were not bad either, making 690hp at 0.7bar boost. As a reference the power figures from the supercharger kits at the time were making 570hp. Unfortunately, we kept having issues with the engine check light coming on and we realized that the management systems available at the time were not able to accommodate the project, thus, the project was deemed unsuccessful, and development stopped there and then.
Our single turbo S65 F30 leading the field in the hands of Sav Gualtieri
Since the day we deemed the project unsuccessful, it always ate away at us at Savspeed that we were unable to complete the project successfully. So, 10 years later, we decided that it was time to revisit the project. Our widebody, full carbon fibre F30 race car was to be the chosen test mule for the project. We embarked on the journey, knowing full well the obstacles that lay ahead but ultimately, we came out on top this time. Our F30 now has a single turbo, S65 V8 M3 motor which produces 1210hp at 1.2bar boost. The purpose of this project was to test the limits of the S65 motor and determine whether or not it would be able to withstand the punishment it will go through being driven hard and producing 1200hp to 1300hp. The car raced its first event last year and completed 2x8 lap races flawlessly, aside from damaging the 1300hp rated clutch pack on the last lap of the second race. The onboard lap of qualifying which earned us P1 on the day can be seen below. Savspeed S65 single turbo record BMW lap at Redstar raceway:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0gkJJRMZLE
Our top mount twin-turbo build
So, what led us to trying to turbocharge an E92 M3 for the road again? The answer is fairly simple, a long-time friend and customer of ours wanted something unique, something nobody had and something that would be fast… very fast. This led us to begin thinking, once again we discussed the possibility of turbocharging an E46 M3 but evolving the kit even further with a high rev kit, bigger Precision turbo, more aggressive cams and then it dawned on us… the customer has an E92 M3 so why don’t we just twin turbo that!? And that is exactly why we are here writing this article.
Once again, much like the single turbo S65 in the F30 race car, we knew there was a mountain to climb but we knew that if anyone could pull this off, it would be us.
A top mount, twin turbo S65 build is most certainly the world’s first and we are proud that we are able to say that the project is nearing completion. The configuration of the build needed to be simplified in order to make everything accessible if any work needs to be done on the car and also make it convenient for any of our clients who purchase this kit from us across the world. We decided to opt against the bottom mount turbos as space is a big issue and trying to get to the turbos is an absolute nightmare.
The heart of the project, fully forged and entirely rebuilt.
The twin turbo top mount design fits in quite snug, we had to fabricate custom log type manifolds which are similar to those used in our single turbo S65 race car. These manifolds and components are designed with proper tooling to ensure each manifold, for example, fits perfectly and it is then double checked on our mock V8 engine to confirm that all the gaps and spacing are spot on. These are then paired up with two Precision wastegates with custom wastegate pipes on each bank. We then fitted two 60/62SP Gen2 Precision turbochargers and began making our custom exhaust downpipes. the next step was to build the custom intercooler system which fits perfectly into the cradle. The intake pipes to the top of the cooler were really challenging to design as we did not want to cut the top of the front valence, so we took out what we felt in order to make it work and we were able to fit in 3inch charge pipes. The intake manifold has worked in ram tubes that sit in a 4mm thick 88mm cylindrical pipe which ensures that if we experience a huge backfire, it will not develop a leak or crack.
Our top mount twin-turbo build
The twin turbo top mount design fits in quite snug, we had to fabricate custom log type manifolds which are similar to those used in our single turbo S65 race car. These manifolds and components are designed with proper tooling to ensure each manifold, for example, fits perfectly and it is then double checked on our mock V8 engine to confirm that all the gaps and spacing are spot on. These are then paired up with two Precision wastegates with custom wastegate pipes on each bank. We then fitted two 60/62SP Gen2 Precision turbochargers and began making our custom exhaust downpipes. the next step was to build the custom intercooler system which fits perfectly into the cradle. The intake pipes to the top of the cooler were really challenging to design as we did not want to cut the top of the front valence, so we took out what we felt in order to make it work and we were able to fit in 3inch charge pipes. The intake manifold has worked in ram tubes that sit in a 4mm thick 88mm cylindrical pipe which ensures that if we experience a huge backfire, it will not develop a leak or crack.Once again, much like the single turbo S65 in the F30 race car, we knew there was a mountain to climb but we knew that if anyone could pull this off, it would be us. A top mount, twin turbo S65 build is most certainly the world’s first and we are proud that we are able to say that the project is nearing completion. The configuration of the build needed to be simplified in order to make everything accessible if any work needs to be done on the car and also make it convenient for any of our clients who purchase this kit from us across the world. We decided to opt against the bottom mount turbos as space is a big issue and trying to get to the turbos is an absolute nightmare.
