Dealing with these things in order: first, gas flow. Maximum power is available at wide open throttle (WOT), because then the largest volume of air is allowed to enter the engine. There will be losses due to obstructions in the inlet or exhaust tracts, and because on a standard Z3 the cam train won't be engineered to flow air effectively if we increase the rev limit (which is why performance declines as we near the rev limit) but software changes in a remap won't alter these, so there's no gain here. At high revs and WOT the variable valve timing will be enhanced to its maximum so there's nothing to be gained here either. The only way to increase gas flow is to make a physical change(s) such as better flowing air filters and plenums, throttle bodies, intake or exhaust manifolds, ported heads, larger valves, high lift, different profile cams, etc. World Class Accident has made good progress here by swapping the inlet manifold, fitting a free-flow air filter with cold air feed (good use of a flowerpot), and fitted a straight through, free flow exhaust. A good next step would be to fit an M3 exhaust manifold. In other words, Nick is working to increase gas flow through his engine. His final step before spending huge sums of money would be to remap his ECU so fuel and ignition parameters exploited this additional gas flow.
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