BMW tuner AC Schnitzer will shut down at the end of 2026

[Quick///M]

Bye Bye ACS, yes everyone will miss the AC Chips that cost R120k more than a JB4, For Styling everyone now goes to Rennzsport

https://www.topgear.com/car-news/business/bmw-tuner-ac-schnitzer-will-shut-down-end-2026

 

[TurboLlew]

I’ve had my fair share of ACS items over the years, and historically, the quality was top-tier. Even when the styling was hit-or-miss, the F10-era pedal sets and front lips were, in my opinion, unmatched. Mechanically, they even had some gems for the E92.

But the rot started setting in around that same generation, and it came down to a few major failures:

First was laziness in whitelabeling: the exhausts were VERY meh for the quality on offer. It was a cobbled together Remus exhaust with no valves and some tips that were poor quality as well. You could get a better exhaust from Remus themselves for less money. This was the time M Performance was launched as well. It was "only" 20% more to go from an "AC Schnitzer" rear section to a full titanium Akrapovic M Performance system. Apart from the demo units, I am not sure they sold a single one of these systems.

The styling and pricing was also out of kilter with the times IMHO. JSN at the time received a bunch of 340i non-M Sports in peasant spec (meant for government but cancelled) that they put a bunch of ACS stuff onto them for basically zero cost so no doubt there was a lot of stock of items sitting in germany already needing to be cleared.

Then I decided to look at the ACS goodies on offer for the F90. OMG - WHAT HAPPENED?? The interior bits look like they came from Temu too...

Then there are the wheels. For several generations now, they’ve abandoned model-specific fitments. Expecting someone to drop R110k on forged wheels that require spacers to fill the gaps is nonsensical (the whole reason you go with custom wheels in the first place). Why bother when you can get proper-offset BBS FIs, or a fully custom set from someone like Firi for half the price? You can’t achieve modern concave trends with a "one-size-fits-most" mass production approach.

In a nutshell this has been a long time coming I think. The death knell was how much better M Performance items have become. I even wondered whether BMW would buy ACS like they did with Alpina and convert M Performance to AC Schnitzer with the racing heritage etc. It seems M Performance has been a huge success for them so, coupled with the growing irrelevance of the pedigree, there was no real need to do it.

 

[Nukleuz]

My personal opinion, there is not one thing I've ever seen AC make that i would put on my car. No tears shed from me.

 

[Greenz]

I liked the look of the ACS M Coupe.

 

[FiRi@Rennzport]

The wheels from the 90s....oof

Acs 1 2 and 3s were beautiful

Sent from my MBH-N49 using Tapatalk

 

[Mytfine]

I made my 1 st 535 an ac replica cosmetically, the 5 bar rims cost more than i paid for the car

 

[Pisancho]

It's what happens when you ride on the past and don't do any real RnD to stay relevant. Personally, good riddance to them. Never saw the hype but I think the older guys would disagree.

 

[Mytfine]

My personal opinion, there is not one thing I've ever seen AC make that i would put on my car. No tears shed from me.

I was 20, at that age i had some questionable styling likes, I had underglow to 🤣

 

[Nukleuz]

I was 20, at that age i had some questionable styling likes, I had underglow to 🤣

Since this seems to be a safe space, when I was that same age, my first car was a Toyota Tazz, the windshield spray nozzles had blue
LED's in them.

 

[modocrat]

Since this seems to be a safe space, when I was that same age, my first car was a Toyota Tazz, the windshield spray nozzles had blue
LED's in them.

I changed the LEDs on my Nokia 3310 from green to blue and I put a clear cover on the phone

 

[Mytfine]

Since this seems to be a safe space, when I was that same age, my first car was a Toyota Tazz, the windshield spray nozzles had blue
LED's in them.

That will make a good thread, Questionable styling mods we did at age 20

 

[Quick///M]

I changed the LEDs on my Nokia 3310 from green to blue and I put a clear cover on the phone

so basically DRLs and PPF ?😆

 

[TurboLlew]

Since this seems to be a safe space, when I was that same age, my first car was a Toyota Tazz, the windshield spray nozzles had blue
LED's in them.

May I present this artifact of my youth some 2 decades ago : The Tyre Fly

It is still rolling around my tool chest after all these years

It's what happens when you ride on the past and don't do any real RnD to stay relevant. Personally, good riddance to them. Never saw the hype but I think the older guys would disagree.

Yeah they became totally irrelevant in recent times (like the last 10 years). Prior to this, there were some fond memories of years past, but as mentioned above this was largely those of us who grew up in the 80s and 90s.