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      04-28-2014, 10:55 AM   #1
Imran@Evolve
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Z4M with Evolve Airbox

Z4M with Evolve Carbon Airbox. This Airbox is the prototype we made to check fitment so it is unfinished. The customer may lacquer it after track season finishes this year.


Evolve Z4M Carbon Airbox by evolveautomotive, on Flickr

Evolve Z4M Carbon Airbox by evolveautomotive, on Flickr

Evolve Z4M Carbon Airbox by evolveautomotive, on Flickr

Evolve Z4M Carbon Airbox by evolveautomotive, on Flickr

IMG_009Evolve Z4M Carbon Airbox 2 by evolveautomotive, on Flickr

Dyno Graphs:

Z4M's typically make 325 BHP (Flywheel) and 270 BHP (Wheel) on our dyno.

Evolve Z4M Carbon Intake and AlphaN Remap by evolveautomotive, on Flickr

Evolve Z4m Carbon Intake and AlphaN Remap Torque v Power by evolveautomotive, on Flickr

Video to follow.
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      04-28-2014, 11:11 AM   #2
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Those wheels are gorgeous, mind you that airbox is too... Looking forward to the video.
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      04-28-2014, 11:12 AM   #3
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I think we all know who the client is
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      04-29-2014, 09:47 AM   #4
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Do not want to mess with the thread, but what finish is that on those wheels?
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      04-29-2014, 10:40 AM   #5
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Lovely stuff, owners of the air box and tune please share you experiences. Any troubleshooting/unexpected issues during installation, or driveability issues. More importantly have there been any solutions/work arounds.

I've been PM'ing evolve successfully but I want some replies from the select few who made this upgrade.
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      04-29-2014, 07:41 PM   #6
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When I installed my 'box, the Evolve tune was done along with Euro headers and cats. No CEL's were ever indicated. The only driveability change was a slight revving when the foot brake is on at warmup and maybe 1 mpg better fuel mileage than before the changes.

As Imran indicates, 270 whp is a typical benchmark for stock on the dyno, and there are several references to it on this board that can be found in the archives. It appears to be a European model in the picture. EAS, who dyno'd mine, indicated to me that it is typical for U.S. spec cars to show 270-275 on their dyno. I did not have mine benchmarked prior to the improvements. My dyno run after these improvements showed 318 whp.

And yes, you do feel it and hear it. I've not accurately timed it 0-60 or a 1/4 mile, but my observation on the P3 gauge is an improvement of .4-.5 secs off the 0-60.

Evolve are very good for their service and support and experience. The quality of the piece itself is first-rate.
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      04-30-2014, 12:01 PM   #7
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Walkurie View Post
When I installed my 'box, the Evolve tune was done along with Euro headers and cats. No CEL's were ever indicated. The only driveability change was a slight revving when the foot brake is on at warmup and maybe 1 mpg better fuel mileage than before the changes.

As Imran indicates, 270 whp is a typical benchmark for stock on the dyno, and there are several references to it on this board that can be found in the archives. It appears to be a European model in the picture. EAS, who dyno'd mine, indicated to me that it is typical for U.S. spec cars to show 270-275 on their dyno. I did not have mine benchmarked prior to the improvements. My dyno run after these improvements showed 318 whp.

And yes, you do feel it and hear it. I've not accurately timed it 0-60 or a 1/4 mile, but my observation on the P3 gauge is an improvement of .4-.5 secs off the 0-60.

Evolve are very good for their service and support and experience. The quality of the piece itself is first-rate.
What are your plans come smog time?
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      04-30-2014, 04:14 PM   #8
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Looking good! Wouldn't daily drive that colour wheels but for a track car not bad at all. Nice engine candy as well. :P
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      05-01-2014, 08:31 AM   #9
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"What are your plans come smog time?"

Plan A is to try to get a reading on the emmissions prior to the test itself. If within limits, hope for the best on the visual.

Plan B is to switch back to stock on the 'box. If necessary, revert to the stock tune.

There have never been any CEL's, so that won't be an issue.
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      05-01-2014, 10:26 PM   #10
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Walkurie View Post
"What are your plans come smog time?"

Plan B is to switch back to stock on the 'box. If necessary, revert to the stock tune.
Oh I hadn't thought of just putting the stock intake back on while keeping the alpha n tune!
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      05-05-2014, 05:15 PM   #11
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Haven't been on here for some time (to post anyway) but figured I'd make the exception to add some words and opinions to Evolve's post

So yes, I noticed the other week that Woots was thinking of letting his Evolve prototype airbox go soon (as he is returning his to stock for now) so shot him a PM straight away. Did a deal and had the work done just over a week ago. Now the Z is no longer my daily (hasn't been for some time tbh), and in fact is more of just a trackday whore these days, with the occasional meet/show thrown in Suffice to say though that the addition of the airbox returned the Z to daily commute duties for a few days, as the sound of the thing is rather intoxicating and I couldn't let it just sit there on the driveway doing nothing!

So impressions from the driver? I would say this mod is very, very worthwhile to anyone even thinking of trying to extrapolate performance from their Z4M. Yes, you can go down the route of forced induction of course, but sometimes there is more to the way a car drives than just a raw headline power figure. There is something pure about an NA engine, not to mention this modification is just so straightforward. It took the guys about 60 minutes to install and then another 60 to modify the mapping and get it on the dyno.

So the important things first. Performance. The power curve is arrow straight all the way to the redline. No flatspots, lumpiness, or any hesitation. Just raw pace and the relentless consummation of any road or track ahead of you. Throttle response is also sharpened to almost telepathic levels. It's not like the Zs really suffered from being sluggish to respond; the S54 feels every inch a tamed race motor even in stock form, but the combination of this air box and map make it feel like the throttle linkages have been hardwired to your cerebral cortex. Every single demand you make of the engine's attitude is delivered as you think it, the intake barking back to the affirmative.

And that bark. If this thing doesn't make you feel like you're in a GT or Cup racer from the word go then I don't know what will. It may as well have open throttle bodies/velocity stacks. It breathes hard and loud! Under 3k it's relatively tame. This isn't a bad thing, as it keeps the car subtle enough to drive slowly around town, if my Z was subtle in the first place (but it may be important to some!). The only tell-tale at this stage is an increased sucking-air sound on a light throttle, and slightly gruffer induction, but I would say no louder than any other intake or the Gruppe-M I had before this. From 3k though, on anything from 50% throttle or more, all hell breaks lose. The once muted engine suddenly finds its voice and fills the cabin with a hammering induction note, as if the fuel were now being injected by Railgun instead of Bosch 440s. This increases in speed and pitch until you reach the upper 5000's where it takes on a different tone, seemingly pulverising the cylinders into submission and releasing the battle cries of all six of the forged pistons into a howling wail all the way to 8000rpm, whereupon there is a just a moments silence, as the clutch is dipped, the revs fall and the next gear is engaged ready for it all to begin again!

I shot a little bit of video from a trackday I was on last Friday. It really doesn't do it justice mind you, but hopefully it gives you an idea (plus it gives me somewhere to post this video ). I will try and do some exterior shots shortly as well, and maybe drop them into a comparison video with some of my old Gruppe-M fly-bys. Anyway, here's the link:

Cadwell Park


So, as you can tell I'm pretty happy with the box so far. However there are a couple of minor issues that have been mentioned on here already I believe, that I want to just add my 10p worth to.

There is a minor cold-start issue. It's not really anything more than an inconvenience and a bit of weirdness, but basically results in the engine revs "hunting" when you depress the brake pedal when the car is first fired up from cold. I would say it is in obscure vacuum problem of some kind, and it only happens for the first 30 seconds or so? Indeed, if you drive the car off immediately, and depress the brake a few moments later it has already stopped doing it, and it never happens once its past this point.

Secondly, and I believe this was mentioned by fullera on a couple of the other threads about this box already, but you cannot heel-and-toe since the new map was uploaded. For whatever reason, it appears as soon as you apply the brakes, the throttle is disabled. Nothing happens no matter how hard you prod it, nada. Now for most people this wouldn't pose much of a problem I guess, but if you're tracking your Z4 then this could be a major concern. I was definitely surprised when I found this out. Not being able to balance the car under breaking and down-change into a corner kind of takes away any advantage you might achieve down the straights from the extra power! :P I've already spoken to Imran on Friday whilst at the track though about this, and dropped Sal who does the mapping an email, and fully expect them to come up with a solution and amendment to the map shortly

Other than these (for some very minor) issues, which will likely be ironed out shortly, I've got nothing but praise for this modification. I'm impressed with what has been achieved, and trust the backup the Evolve guys give their products. I'll update shortly on the issues above, especially the brake/throttle problem, as this is particularly important to me since my car spends a lot of its time on track.

Overall though, a big thumbs up!
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Last edited by sixspeed; 05-05-2014 at 05:44 PM..
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      05-06-2014, 05:33 AM   #12
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Great write up. Something that's definitely on my list for the future. Hopefully by then the braking issue will be resolved.

So does the Gruppe M noise start to fade after 3000rpm in comparison?

In the meantime, does this mean you have a GruppeM for sale?

Last edited by SCZ4; 05-06-2014 at 05:47 AM..
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      05-06-2014, 05:49 AM   #13
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In comparison, from 3000rpm onwards, the Evolve airbox is significantly louder and deeper in tone. I would say the Gruppe-M is about 60-70% of the noise in terms of loudness, and doesn't have that depth to the growl in in the induction note.

But you are right that the Gruppe-M I have will be up for sale shortly
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      05-06-2014, 05:52 AM   #14
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Sounds good! I'd love this, but should really invest in Coilovers before a full blown airbox.

PM me when you have a price in mind
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      05-11-2014, 10:38 AM   #15
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This no heal toe downshifts is a deal breaker for me. Any updates of status of tune/fix?
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      05-11-2014, 03:24 PM   #16
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I've been speaking with Sal@Evolve throughout the week. He is looking into it at the moment, and will shortly be sending me some files to flash to see if we can eradicate the issue.

It is a pain, but definitely resolvable. I've spoken to a couple of guys with other tunes that run Alpha-N on our cars, and they do not have the same problem, so it can and will be fixed I am sure. Just need to give the guys at Evolve a bit of time to code it right.
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      05-26-2014, 06:57 PM   #17
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Any luck on finding a resolution to heel toe dilemma?
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      05-27-2014, 08:30 PM   #18
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I spoke to Sal last week for an update (and because of my recent woes with emission sensor readiness) he said that he anticipates a fix in the next couple of weeks for this problem, and doesn't believe it will be terribly difficult.

that being said... I completely agree with you in that if I had known about the problem beforehand I would have waited or explored other options, b/c if you cannot heel-toe then the car is pretty much useless on track, unless you are okay with putting excess strain on the drivetrain.
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      05-29-2014, 05:24 AM   #19
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Same update really. Hopefully have something very soon. Was told by Sal he'd have something for last weekend, but has slipped and we had a bank holiday here so lost another day. Pretty sure we will get something very soon though from conversations with them.

If I had known it would have probably deterred me, but equally if a fix is imminent, then I'll still be happy with my purchase.
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      06-17-2014, 05:53 AM   #20
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Still no rectified tune a couple of weeks on. Starting to get a little impatient at the moment as I have a big track commitment at the 'Ring which will be severely hampered by this issue in 2 weeks.

Starting to look at other options for mapping as I need a solution. Any ideas? I'm thinking ESS at the moment as they have Alpha-N on their Supercharged cars, but not sure if they have a map for N/A.
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      06-17-2014, 06:46 AM   #21
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Quote:
Originally Posted by sixspeed View Post
Still no rectified tune a couple of weeks on. Starting to get a little impatient at the moment as I have a big track commitment at the 'Ring which will be severely hampered by this issue in 2 weeks.

Starting to look at other options for mapping as I need a solution. Any ideas? I'm thinking ESS at the moment as they have Alpha-N on their Supercharged cars, but not sure if they have a map for N/A.
what a pain in the ass andy.... woots would have never have know about this i guess as he doesn't heal / toe and doesnt do track work...

i was out in mine yesterday and triple checked by left foot braking and keeping foot on the gas with deliberate stabs on the throttle, defintely functioning as normal.
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      06-17-2014, 07:16 AM   #22
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Beedub View Post
what a pain in the ass andy.... woots would have never have know about this i guess as he doesn't heal / toe and doesnt do track work...

i was out in mine yesterday and triple checked by left foot braking and keeping foot on the gas with deliberate stabs on the throttle, defintely functioning as normal.
Sal has contacted me after I pinged him yesterday saying he is close, but that he needs some more time to analyse some of the maps. I just can't leave this to chance that he finds the solution in the next couple of weeks though so need to explore options...
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