As many of you know, I am the factory sales rep for BMW in south Florida…been doing this about 20 yrs and love my job. Who wouldn’t? One of the perks is I drive everything new so I can train the sales staff at the dealerships here. Every now and then I get to drive something special yesterday I got an M6 for a few weeks –> 500+ hp V-10 engine and as the Germans want it – no cup holders whatsoever! See here:
Please no anti-BMW comments – I don’t care what you buy….that’s not the point…. read on….
The interesting thing is this the first car I have seen with the ability to dial up or down the horsepower, not the “economy” or “sport” buttons on some cars that change the shift points, this is changing engine mapping and gets specific about it...you can choose 400 hp, 500 hp or 500 hp “plus” – Naturally the MPG changes too and the diff in the "400" and "500 plus" settings are HUGE – 10 mpg vs 17……see here on the dash how to dial it up or down:
So that begs the question, why can we do this in OB motors?…. Many of the motors made today are nothing but software changes, if you have a 200 verado and can find a wrecked 275 and can salvage the computer..it will plug in and voila!, you have a 275..Naturally your warranty is gone and you can’t order a new 275 computer from merc without trading in your old one…EPA and all that stuff.
So we know that due to the EPA we can't dial up, but how about this? – how about the ability to DIAL DOWN your hp when you don’t need it? Say you are heading out for a long trip to the canyons or Key West and you are on plane, all weight distributed and you’re running 275-300 somethings….and on your instruments you had a button labeled “economy” that would load the 225/250 engine map? A good example is the new Yam F350…why can’t you dial that motor back to the F300 if you’re up and running on flat sea and save a few gph?
Let the discussion begin…