BMW M has been a partner of the MotoGP World Motorcycle Championship since 1999. This cooperation will continue in 2015, i.e. the 17th season in a row. BMW M has signed a cooperation agreement with the MotoGP organizer, Dorna Sports, up to and including 2020. As in previous years, BMW M has the position of " Official MotoGP Car " this year as well. The partnership also includes the delivery of a Safety Car for the entire championship. Among these cars, for example, the BMW Z8 appeared in 2001 or the BMW X6 M in 2009. For this year, the BMW M4 Coupé will be the Safety Car of the MotoGP World Motorcycle Championship. Unlike last year's white-painted car, this year's black special arrives with a specially modified engine equipped with water injection.
The M TwinPower Turbo inline six-cylinder petrol engine with a high-revving concept and distinctive racing genes contributes significantly to the high-performance character of this car. The production version of this sports engine already produces a maximum output of 317 kW (431 hp) and delivers a maximum torque of 550 Nm across a wide range of usable revs (combined fuel consumption 8.8-8.3 l/100 km; combined CO2 emissions 204-194 g/km). The Safety Car, which moves in the extremely performance-oriented world of MotoGP, in which the best motorcycle riders fight for points and positions, must also have suitably remarkable performance parameters. With this in mind, BMW M Division engineers equipped the high-performance power unit with innovative water injection. This significantly increased the performance parameters of the engine. Water injection makes it possible to increase the maximum power limits, which are otherwise limited by thermal resistance.
The high potential performance of the turbocharged six-cylinder has so far placed extremely high demands on the control of the operating temperature of the engine and its auxiliary aggregates. In addition to the main cooler, additional coolers guarantee balanced temperature control in the high-temperature and low-temperature circuits. This also applies to the gearbox and turbochargers. The compressed air, which is heated in the turbocharger, is cooled by an indirect intercooler with an additional electric water pump. The water injection system used by the BMW M division further optimizes the performance parameters and fuel consumption of the turbocharged straight-six under full load. Engineers use the physical effect of water evaporation to extract the necessary energy from the surrounding medium. The water is finely sprayed into the suction module, which significantly cools the compressed suction air during evaporation. This reduces the temperature in the combustion chamber, and with it the tendency to detonate combustion (so-called engine knocking). The turbocharged engine can therefore operate with higher boost pressure and optimized ignition advance.
Source: BMW
