Currency Motor Cars, a company based in California, brings to the world this limited edition 10-unit run of the BMW M5 luxury sports sedan. The modifications on the interior itself costs about US$100,000, trimmed with some really expensive materials such as fully aniline dyed Florida Crocodile in black. For that ultimate luxurious touch, the leather used on the steering wheel is the same one used for the chairs!
That’s just the interior – what about under the engine bay? As you can tell from this post title, the award-winning 5.0 litre high compression high revving V10 has been modified to be force inducted via two turbochargers, one for each bank of 5 cylinders. The turbocharged air flows into a custom hand-crafted intercooler system before entering the cylinders, and this results in a mind blowing 810 horsepower.
Loving the huge amount of power, but don’t really like the crocodile interior, and very skeptical on how long the 7-speed SMG clutchless manual is going to take all of that power and torque. I am also baffled at the choice of putting the turbochargers behind the rear wheels just before the exhaust mufflers – refer to the photo of the undercarriage.
More photos after the jump.
After dabbling for years in the IT industry, Paul Tan initially began this site as a general blog covering various topics of personal interest. With an increasing number of readers paying rapt attention to the motoring stories, one thing led to another and the rest, as they say, is history. An avid electronic gadget aficionado as well as big-time coffee lover, he's also the executive producer of the Driven motoring TV programme.
It's that crocodile skin?
Haha, got the same opinion as you Paul; don't like the croc interior, and I really don't get why the turbochargers are waaaaaay back, but since they made it so, it must serve some purpose :p
Paul, you forgot to mention that the two turbos were placed in the not so conventional rear bumper right before the exhaust pipes.
If you examine closely, the two turbines are placed very vicariously at the undercarriage.
Couple of worries
1) Hello?? Turbine theft??
2) Reliability, wear and tear of the parts on the road? Exposed to the conditions
3)Oil leads look dangerously close to the ground? Safe??
My bad bout the turbine placement. I accidentally skipped that part of your article. Sorry.
ok i think, rear turbo good idea, the charged air will cool down as it travel through piping cooled by air traveled underneath the car apart from intercooler before entering the chamber i supposed,
good part for long pipe exhaust and charged air pipes,
1 distant turbo exhaust pipes allows 'reserve exhaust pressure' reducing lag,
2 long piping for charged air will cool the charged air as the heat loss through pipes cool by the air trveled undercarraige apart from the intercooler itself,
anybody here from the animal rights group?!!!
its wil be bought by basebal,basketball players or jus rappers who comes out with one lousy shity album n become a billion-air in a week…!
its the first time i see a car with 810bhp to the rear wheels only…i tink u need to take off on 5th gear in order not to spin it !
Any torque figures, Paul?
810bhp!!!…man, that would mean top speed nearing Bugatti Veyron's territory?
Hmmmm the Looooooooooooooooooooong travel of the exhaust and compresed air should actually mean SERIOUS turbo lag ain't it? weird…
TURBO??
810hp is too big power for a luxury sedan…
although brabus make all this things
then now BMW?
ingolstadt,
it seemed like turbo lag, but i think the concept just like a concept of of 'turbo air box' where constant pressure is always there,
well the lag presist just when the car just started ,but when everythig heats up it just on,
reverse of the theory is the brake servo the bigger the servo the batter assist we get,
anyway this is beasty,
Can it effectively deliver all the power to the tarmac? Brabus SL63 fail already
Crazy americans….
yup, crazy americans
Crocodile skin? they should have just stick to leather!, but with 810 horsepower? i don't mind the croc skin…i can bear with it!
american like chrome alloy, too sweet dont like it,
turbo gonna lag a bit, what the hack ,V10 is huge already,
running on wet clutch, again typical american,
Houston, we have a problem!
Think about it, you drive this car on a rainy afternoon and going under a bridge and looking some small puddles around there, you could seriously feel yourself in a huge trouble, cose if you go ahead you will mostly kill your both turbos on the way, its hundred percent
If you don't wanna go in, you can save 'em, but WHY ?? you have a 300.000$ crap, just go in and call the warranty
LOL
Cheers,
Nord
The rear end turbos are an american design that have been used on quite a few muscle cars.
Actually, they claim them to be more reliable, and I can see thier point. Its much cooler back there than if you mounted the turbo's on the manifold. A turbo's greatest enemy is heat.
For a big engine like that, lag is usually not an issue.
dats wat i call nice…
Doesn't look like a single turbo per bank layout to me.
Have a look at the outlet on the passenger side compressor – a single intake piperuns towards the back of the car, bends behind the rear bumper and folds back in towards the drivers side compressor outlet then heads towards the engine.
Would be rather pointless in having independant intakes with a 4 metre long inlet anyway; there's bound to be a difference in boost levels which would make the engine run rough as hell anyway.
Were do you get the fresh air for the turbo's ?