car4man

 When a tuning company decides to play with a car that’s essentially first-class, there’s a very real danger that the core qualities that made the standard car so good will be sacrificed for the sake of extreme power outputs and a super-size alloys. So you can imagine our scepticism when the evo car park resonated to the deep-chested rumble of the new Hartge S3-3.5.

Nothing against Hartge, you know. Indeed, from experience we know it creates some of the most thoroughly considered conversions in the industry. And yet, knowing how silky and understatedly stonking the biturbo BMW 335i it is based upon is, we couldn’t help but wonder what this re-interpretation would be like.

There’s no doubting that Hartge’s 335i looks the part, a set of 20in multi-spoke ‘Classic 2’ rims, low-profile Pirelli P Zero Nero rubber (235/35 front, 265/30 rear), a discreet carbon chin spoiler and a quartet of polished tailpipes seemingly all that’s required to transform the standard 335’s looks from plain to plain stunning.

However, it’s beneath the svelte two-door body that Hartge has really gone to town. As tested, the S3-3.5 currently develops 360bhp and 328lb ft, thanks to a re-map of the motor’s ECU. The engine work is still in the final stages of development, though, and will eventually run sports catalysts and possibly an intercooler, lifting power and torque outputs to 381bhp and 336lb ft – a thumping gain of 79bhp and 41lb ft over the standard 335i.

Impressive figures, but what they fail to convey is the increased sense of muscle and urgency, and the delicious and seemingly ever-increasing surge of power and torque as you power through each gear. In developing the revised management system, Hartge found just how much BMW had reined-in the 335’s engine (presumably to avoid any embarrassing comparisons with the E46 M3), but now that the engine has been allowed a little more electronic freedom it delivers big league performance without any compromise in smoothness. (more…)