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Originally Posted by Bimmer13
Thanks for the replies. Makes sense however a boost gauge is more than a novelty. The 135i can't be in FULL BOOST the entire RPM range. It would be helpful if I could visually see when the Turbo's are in full boost.
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In what way would it help? What is the benefit of knowing your boost level in a stock car? Once you're modded, I totally understand, but stock, I just don't see the benefit.
Peak boost is not necessarily peak power (horsepower). Peak boost will often correspond with peak force (ft-lbs/newton-meters), but if you're driving for performance, you're more interested in power band and power peak.
If you're interested in knowing where your engine performs best, go do a dyno run. They're usually pretty cheap. If you're running stock, you can just Google image search for 135i N55 dyno and browse the results to get a feeling for where your car is making power.
If you're drag racing, you're most interested in determining shift points. Those are based on acceleration profiles for each gear. Peak acceleration should occur with peak power, so once you have a dyno, you know your shift point (or roughly). With a turbo car, you can sometimes benefit from short shifting a bit. If you really want to know, you get an accelerometer app for your smartphone, and you datalog an acceleration run in each gear. You combine the plots, and you look for the cross-overs. That's your shift point.