In an effort to enhance the performance of their celebrated twin-turbo straight-six engine, BMW M will soon produce a model featuring water injection system. As a sort of teaser, and we suspect testbed, the system is now being used, for the first time, in the BMW M4 MotoGP Safety Car for the 2015 season.

We won’t bore you with the technical details of the Water Injection System and only mention the most important facts about it. The purpose of this technology is to reduce the temperature in the combustion chamber, thus reducing the risk of uncontrolled combustion (knocking).

In a turbocharged engine like the one in the BMW M4 MotoGP Safety Car, water injection complements the function of the intercooler. The upshot of all this is the engineer can “bring the point of ignition forward and thus closer to the optimum value,” thereby increasing the performance of the engine by dialing up the pressure of the turbo or supercharger.

Compared to a normal model, BMW M4 MotoGP Safety Car with water injection system comes with frost-proof five-liter water tank, water pump, sensors and valves, as well as water injector inside the engine bay and revised ECU map that governs the whole thing. BMW has not revealed yet any performance figures proving the worth of the system.