Well, this is going to be interesting...
There is a lot of hype about a new CSF intercooler on the market for the N55. A member of the community was gracious enough to contact us because he noticed some obvious similarities. Well turns out there are more than a few similarities and I think many of you will find this info interesting.
Does this look familiar?
What the facts show is very clear, EXACTLY the same as far as manufacturing tolerances go. As you can see below everything is copied, most of it down to the millimeter. What caught our eye initially are the mounts and the endtanks. ATM is the only one that has this shape of endtank with these mounts.
But it gets worse, they didn't stop there. Fin count and type are the exact same as well. Bar and plate specs are exactly the same as well as the number and size of the rows.
And it gets even worse yet. CSF advertises a rounded front/face bar plate design that is a "world exclusive". Well anyone that has been around the BMW platform for any amount of time knows that ATM was the inventor of the rounded header bar (since the helix core days) and we continue to use it in all of our cores. We are also still the ONLY ones to use it internally where it matters most for a positive effect on airflow through the core.
Given the above facts regarding construction, these intercoolers would perform similarly under the same conditions. Regarding any test comparisons that are done, at the end of the day if 2 intercoolers are not tested back to back in the same setup under the same conditions, no solid conclusions can be proven. And this is especially important when the tester is a distributor for one of the products and not an independent customer, naturally a vendor would push his or her product.....
It's really sad that we need to post this information. But what's worse is when one company feels it's ok to rip off the design and R+D of another and label it as their own. We feel the community needs to know what product they are buying and from what company though, as well as what time, effort and reputation is associated with that product. So for those that want an original and not a copy, you know where to find us
There is a lot of hype about a new CSF intercooler on the market for the N55. A member of the community was gracious enough to contact us because he noticed some obvious similarities. Well turns out there are more than a few similarities and I think many of you will find this info interesting.
Does this look familiar?
What the facts show is very clear, EXACTLY the same as far as manufacturing tolerances go. As you can see below everything is copied, most of it down to the millimeter. What caught our eye initially are the mounts and the endtanks. ATM is the only one that has this shape of endtank with these mounts.
But it gets worse, they didn't stop there. Fin count and type are the exact same as well. Bar and plate specs are exactly the same as well as the number and size of the rows.
And it gets even worse yet. CSF advertises a rounded front/face bar plate design that is a "world exclusive". Well anyone that has been around the BMW platform for any amount of time knows that ATM was the inventor of the rounded header bar (since the helix core days) and we continue to use it in all of our cores. We are also still the ONLY ones to use it internally where it matters most for a positive effect on airflow through the core.
Given the above facts regarding construction, these intercoolers would perform similarly under the same conditions. Regarding any test comparisons that are done, at the end of the day if 2 intercoolers are not tested back to back in the same setup under the same conditions, no solid conclusions can be proven. And this is especially important when the tester is a distributor for one of the products and not an independent customer, naturally a vendor would push his or her product.....
It's really sad that we need to post this information. But what's worse is when one company feels it's ok to rip off the design and R+D of another and label it as their own. We feel the community needs to know what product they are buying and from what company though, as well as what time, effort and reputation is associated with that product. So for those that want an original and not a copy, you know where to find us
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