Wednesday, February 06, 2008
BMW X6 in the wild
Living close to Munich means we tend to spot most new BMW models on the road before they've officially launched. A few years back, my first glimpse of a 6 Series was seeing one being driven at actually rather ridiculous speeds on the twisty bits between Lenggries and Silvenstein. I'm a fan of cutting corners to straighten out minor bends, but at an estimated 140kmh when there's oncoming traffic (namely, me)?
Last weekend we were overhauled by an X6 SUV coupe as we joined the A95 autobahn heading south. "Quick daddy, catch it up!" urged the boys. Ah, no chance - it was being driven at around 200kmh, and our Peugeot 807 doesn't do 200 in such a short distance like the 25km or so to the end of the autobahn - it needs a bit more acceleration room. When I first saw it in the mirror, I thought the grille was a bit strange. It's not exactly the kidneys (although, honestly, BMW has changed the shape of these so often it's becoming boring) and I wondered why a Dodge Ram had a BMW roundel (albeit a black one) before I realized.
Tonight, headed out of Munich, I saw it / another one. Again, the BMW badge is blacked out. This is one big car - from my lowly seat I couldn't see the instrument binnacles, just caught a glimpse of the beardy driver. A test driver, I presume ... and once we reached the end of the 80kmh section, I got to see how the twin-turbo V8 gasoline engine pulls. The answer: quite impressive.
This is a pre-prod model that BMW's shipped over from Spartanburg - as they're all made there. What was somewhat interesting (for us petrolheads) was that the turn signals on the Munich-registered X6 were US spec, ie they blinked red not orange. Surely this is a pretty minor mod for the German highway?
Last weekend we were overhauled by an X6 SUV coupe as we joined the A95 autobahn heading south. "Quick daddy, catch it up!" urged the boys. Ah, no chance - it was being driven at around 200kmh, and our Peugeot 807 doesn't do 200 in such a short distance like the 25km or so to the end of the autobahn - it needs a bit more acceleration room. When I first saw it in the mirror, I thought the grille was a bit strange. It's not exactly the kidneys (although, honestly, BMW has changed the shape of these so often it's becoming boring) and I wondered why a Dodge Ram had a BMW roundel (albeit a black one) before I realized.
Tonight, headed out of Munich, I saw it / another one. Again, the BMW badge is blacked out. This is one big car - from my lowly seat I couldn't see the instrument binnacles, just caught a glimpse of the beardy driver. A test driver, I presume ... and once we reached the end of the 80kmh section, I got to see how the twin-turbo V8 gasoline engine pulls. The answer: quite impressive.
This is a pre-prod model that BMW's shipped over from Spartanburg - as they're all made there. What was somewhat interesting (for us petrolheads) was that the turn signals on the Munich-registered X6 were US spec, ie they blinked red not orange. Surely this is a pretty minor mod for the German highway?
Labels: petrolhead
# posted by Nesjo : 22:25
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