Part I: Birth Of The Supercharger
Paul Shaw Shares His Own Experiences
Part 1: Birth of the Supercharger
In spring, 2002, a team of performance specialists custom-made a supercharger for Pat Philpot’s BMW E34M5. This promised to be one of a kind, at least in North America. Rumor has it that a white E34 M5 had been custom supercharged several years ago in Europe, and that perhaps a kit was available for around 15,000Euros, but no one, including myself, was able to confirm the source.
Pat’s team appeared to make great progress. They machined an impressive, 1” thick aluminum bracket that fully housed a smaller, but more powerful generator and a top rated Vortech V2sq supercharger. The bracket was supposed to keep vibration to a minimum. They built a custom intercooler to reduce the heat of blown air, thus increasing the supercharger’s efficiency. They cast a full set of custom, aluminum tubing, including a blow-off valve. And they fitted a custom crank pulley, blower pulley, blower belt, and FMU rising rate fuel pressure regulator. All that was needed now was dyno work to map out horsepower and torque under different fuel/air combinations, and the development of related software for the engine management system.
And then disaster struck. The day after the hardware had been installed, a drunk driver apparently demolished the rear end of Pat’s M5 as it sat outside his home – only hours away from his first tuning session. Needless to say, plenty of enthusiasts felt sympathy for Pat as he closed his website where he’d been reporting progress, and then simply terminated the project. And perhaps most frustrating to all is that no one got to see the final result – a classic E34M5 restored to the front lines of performance with a supercharger tucked under the hood.
That’s when I came into the picture. Pat listed his SC kit on ebay; I bought it in a private transaction, outside of the bidding process. In addition, I purchased a 3.48” Vortech pulley that would deliver aroung 6-8psi in addition to the 3.33” pulley provided by Pat (good for 8-10psi). Put differently, I made a strategic decision to go for lower boost in view of the M5s high compression ratio (10:1) and my desire NOT to modify the head. I also purchased an additional, in-line fuel pump from Porsche, to pump the juices more rapidly. Did I know what I was getting into? Not really; no brand name, no warranty, no proven performance, no technical back-up, and no guarantee the “kit” would actually fit in the seemingly impossible spaces available. Total risk! Almost like a lottery, with the seductive promise of a possible win.
It took me a full year to bring the SC kit and my M5 together. I was living in Washington DC when I bought the kit, whereas my M5 was stored in Vancouver, Canada. By August, 2003 I would quit my job and head west. That’s a lot of time to ponder scary things, like forced induction engines blowing up, especially high compression one’s like the E34M5. Didn’t want that to happen to my pristine 93 avus blue M5 with only 23,000 miles.
Written by: Paul Shaw
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