We drove the BMW diesel king.
As some of you might have read, we went to the Nordschleife last weekend. Rather than taking the Alfa Romeo, a friend borrowed me his BMW 535D. I had the car for a total of 4 days and in that period I used it as I would with my regular car. I do this to get comfortable with it and get the hang of a car. First I’ll tell you guys about this car and the engine, ending the article with how I experienced the car.
Produced from 2003 up to 2010 it was the fifth generation of 5 series. The E60/61 was a major leap for BMW if you look at the E39 series before that. It was the first 5 series fitted with a turbo charged petrol engine, it being the 535i twin turbo. Other big improvements were the Idrive, V10 M5 and the X-drive in the option list. The car we drove was a pre-facelift model with the M57 type engine and an automatic transmission. It produces 272 horsepower and a whopping 560 nm of torque. Zero to a hundred is done in 6 seconds and the V-max is limited to the gentleman agreement of 250 kph. The car is heavy though, weighing in at just under 2 tons when drive-ready.
One of the reasons, well actually the main reason I wanted to get my hands on this car is the '35' in the typename. BMW has been building those sweet 3 liter six inline engine for a while now and these blocks have been honored for their smoothness for decades. And man was it smooth, okay I know diesel engines get smoother once they run more kilometers but all I read about his engine was more then true. The torque is mostly available from 1500 rmp up to 2500 rmp. Cruising at a gentle 160 kph on the autobahn it only needed 2000 rmp.
Like I said, we drove this car on the Autobahn but we also lit up the rear tires. And why wouldn't I as the owner ensured me he was replacing the tires after we were done with the car. DCT (traction control) was turned off entirely and Stan and I enjoyed our first drifts on several abandoned parking lots, yes 'first drifts' because I actually never drifted a car before. Of course I spun the first few times, mostly scared of what might happen. When I found my confidence again large smoke curtains followed, man this car eats trough its tires if you let it. We were enjoying ourselves way to much and forgot to film the whole thing. Sorry about that.
We ended our last day with this car on our way back home from the Nordschleife. The sun was setting and the roads were rather abandoned the first few kilometers and so we put our foot down. We didn't hit the v-max due to the traffic, but did manage to reach 240 kph with ease. This car is by no way a pleasant car in bendy parts of the world due to its weight and understeer because of that, but it is a true Autobahn king. At no point do you have the feeling that you need more power as even the accelerations at 200 kph felt quick enough. And that bring me to the last part of the report.
Some people rode shotgun with me and all said that my driving changed and called me a 'typical BMW driver'. That wasn't a positive comparison though as they told me I took far more risk and was far less of a social driver. Reflecting on that I do have to admit that they were right, I change when I got more power. Power corrupts and yes, even diesel power.
