A fascinating project of a BMW F11 carrying a former NASCAR engine is underway by renowned tuning shop PRD Motorsport, owned by Mattias Sörgren. PRD has converted the engine to EFI and has turbocharged it with two Borg Warner turbos. We managed to get a small but enticing sneak preview, as well as some feedback on Mattia’s choice for the PLEX SDM-700.
PRODUCT HIGHLIGHTS
- Chassis: BMW F11
- Engine: Former Nascar V8 Engine & gearbox, rebuilt and converted to EFI and Twin turbocharged with Borg Warner Turbos (S200SXE)
- Dash Display & Logger: PLEX SDM-700
- ECU: Link Thunder
KEY TEAM MEMBERS
- Driver/Owner: Emil Erson
- Tuner/Fabricator: Mattias Sörgren
- Fabricator/Mechanics: Anders Sörgren
Photo Credits: Barry Li (www.digifi.se)
PT: Plex Tuning
MS: Mattias Sörgren
PT: Mattias, you are among the first 10 customers who have purchased our new SDM-700 to integrate in a unique NASCAR conversion customer project. What made you choose this product over the other dash displays available in the market?
MS: We’ve been using the PLEX SDM-300 on a previous car for this customer before and really liked the simplicity of setting up the display and also how easy it was to configure the custom CAN BUS. The BMW F11 project required a bigger top-notch display with at least the same flexibility and with increased functionality to be able and integrate it effectively with the other electronics of the project. We’ve read the pre-release information on the SDM-700 and where impressed by the extended functionality, outstanding UI and it’s convincing price-performance ratio.
“The BMW F11 project required a bigger top-notch display with at least the same flexibility and with increased functionality to be able and integrated it effectively with the other electronics of the project”
PT: What other aspects drive your decision when it comes to electronics and in particular displays and loggers?
MS: On one hand it’s the supplier’s understanding of the customer’s needs. We think that Plex Tuning’s knowledge from being a tuner themselves and using all kinds of different products, sets them apart from the rest as this gives them a unique advantage to create solutions that will suit the end user better than other competitors. Another thing that is of paramount importance is the support you get from the supplier. We’ve been using PLEX TUNING products since early 2011 and have always received nothing but superior support whether this involved upgrading software and firmware or listening to our needs and requirements and then responding quickly with custom solutions or updates.
“We’ve been using PLEX TUNING products since early 2011 and have always received nothing but superior support..”
PT: A dash display is an electronic component primarily utilised by the driver of the car. Still, other parties, such as the engineers, tuners, etc are also involved in using the product whether this means programming it, downloading the logged files or interpreting the warnings/logs. What in your view are the most important attributes required from each person involved?
MS: The driver cares most about the display being big and easily viewable. Even with your medium size displays such as the SDM-300 or SDM-500, the graphics are clean and large. The SDM-700 goes much further due to it’s massive 7” size. So long that the driver does not bother to edit the display manually is also very important and hence we’ve seen that the Auto Display Page feature you offer is really practical and ame goes for the alarm pop-ups. At the same time the tuner cares more about how easy and quick the configuration is. Also, having an integrated dash-logger so that he only downloads a single file and analyses it on the same software suite. And the analysis software is also very critical for him as well. Lastly, the mechanics are mostly concerned with the overview & histories of the alarms [The PLEX SDM displays keep detailed alarm history]. The on-device data-log review that you offer on some of your displays is also very important to them.
“So long that the driver does not bother to edit the display manually is also very important and hence we’ve seen that the Auto Display Page feature you offer is really practical.”
We’d like to thank the whole PRD MOTORSPORT team for providing feedback and content on this project in-progress and wish them successful completion soon!
Visit PLEX SDM-700 Webpage
You can also follow the project’s updates on PRD Motorsport’s instagram page.
© 2016 Plex Tuning.