Well, the first thing we
learned is that the split Qualifying is a complete turn-off
for everyone. It does not make you want to sit in front of the
TV to see the cars doing single laps on Saturday, and then do
it again on Sunday. It is high time the FIA woke up and
reverted to 12 laps in one hour on the Saturday, with the
fastest man on pole for Sunday.
We also learned that there are fast
drivers, and there are ‘racers’ and they don’t
necessarily go hand in hand. Alonso in the Renault won the
race by a comfortable margin, but he wasn’t the fastest
driver in Bahrain. That was Pedro de la Rosa in the
McLaren-Mercedes, who was three tenths quicker than Alonso,
four tenths quicker than his team mate Raikkonen (who came
third), and almost one second quicker than Trulli in the
Toyota who came second!
Fortunately Pedro was there, standing in
for Montoya who injured his shoulder playing tennis (though
scuttlebutt has it that he fell off his trail bike), as
otherwise it would have been a fairly dull grand prix. His
attempts at passing which resulted in his falling off the road
several times certainly brightened up our day.
The next GP is the San Marino on the 24th
of April, and I expect Montoya to be back behind the wheel,
and Pedro sent back to the test team. The GP will be televised
here live at 7 p.m. (I think). By the way, try to get the
South African feed via Supersports 2, it is much better than
the Star Sports commentary on UBC, and has no adverts, so you
do not miss any of the action.
I will not be in Thailand for this GP
(having fled Songkran), so my seat at Jamieson’s Irish Pub
will be vacant. Keep it warm for me till I get back!
BMW showed many new vehicles at the Bangkok
International Motor Show, with the 1 Series, the 3 Series and
the updated 7 Series. Also on the stand were the X3 and the
X5, and it is this last vehicle that caught the imagination of
some of the testers from Australia, who gave the good points
as - Performance, grip, handling, exhaust note, six-speed
auto, equipment list, safety features, stability, steering,
build quality, and exclusivity. Not a bad sort of wrap!
What they didn’t like was - Aerodynamics
(eh? It has all the aerodynamics of a house brick), no manual
transmission, no third-row seating, some gear hunting in the
auto mode, and needing premium unleaded fuel.
BMW
X5
Tim Britten, the tester for GoAuto in
Australia, began his report by writing, “This is the sort of
car that demands superlatives. BMW reckons so anyway. In three
brief paragraphs containing a total of 132 words, the X5 4.8is
was introduced at the 2004 Sydney motor show using terms like
“fire-breathing”, “steroid-enhanced”,
“benchmark-setting”, “tarmac-melting” and
“driver-thrilling”. That the X5 4.8is is a mighty force
among SUVs (sports utility vehicles) there can be no doubt.”
Down under, only the Porsche Cayenne Turbo has more grunt and
it is more expensive, though in Thailand they are about the
same price - around 10 million baht, though what we get is the
4.4 litre version of the X5.
According to GoAuto, and to put it into
perspective, the 4.8is is basically a pumped-up version of the
4.4i X5. However, this vehicle is not really an off-roader
that you can drive on the road, it is more of a bitumen burner
that you can drive on the dirt. (It’s the old is it a pub
that sells food, or a restaurant that sells beer, situation.)
Again, GoAuto says it all, mentioning that
testing and development of the X5 included time at the famous
Nurburgring. “That’s why acceleration times (zero to 100
km/h in 6.1 seconds) are more important than how it goes in
the bush. This is an AWD one could use to joust with a sporty
V8 sedan.
“Its 265 kW are massive enough, but the
500 Nm of torque are even more impressive, exceeding the
Nm-per-litre output of just about any other regular, on-road
engine.
“The X5’s suspension has been
re-worked, and there’s a set of new wheels and tyres, larger
at the back than at the front, that give the BMW some really
workmanlike contact patches on the road.
“A
bodykit underlines the intentions of BMW’s high-performance
team in developing the 4.8is, as it is aimed at improving
aerodynamic stability at high speeds. The Cd figure is
reasonable for a big AWD at 0.38.
“The 4.8 litre gets things like a new
engine management program, as well as modified inlet and
exhaust systems with a quadrupled array of pipes thrusting out
of the rear panels. In addition to providing all that extra
power, this ensures an omnipresent, thundering V8 exhaust
note.
“All the torque and kiloWatts are
directed through the familiar six-speed ZF automatic used
widely across the range (and by other car-makers). There’s
no manual transmission option.
“Standard gear includes adaptive,
see-around-the-corner bi-Xenon headlights, full leather
upholstery, power front seats with memory settings on the
driver’s side, power-adjusted steering column,
climate-control air-conditioning, multifunction steering
wheel, 10-speaker sound system with boot-mounted CD stacker,
on board monitor with TV, and park distance control.”
With this car (and most BeeEmms) you have
to memorize the acronyms! Try Automatic Stability Control and
Traction (ASC-X), Dynamic Stability Control (DSC-X), Anti-Lock
Brakes (ABS), Dynamic Brake Control (DBC), Automatic
Differential Brake (ADB-X), Hill Descent Control (HDC, which
helps keep things under control, without driver intervention,
on a steep off-road slope), Corner Brake Control (CBC), self
levelling suspension and park distance control.
In the safety stakes, just in case you do
fall off the road, despite the numerous electronic systems to
keep you on it, the X5 also gets a five star Euro NCAP crash
test safety rating with standard passive safety features
including 10 airbags - dual front, four side, and four front
and rear headbags.
Tim Britten gave the driving side the
thumbs up too. “The driving experience is pretty familiar
X5. The inside feels quite massive, with plenty of stretch-out
space even for beefy passengers. There’s no third row
seating, of course, but the load area behind the rear seat is
quite spacious and covered with a roll-out blind.
“With all-wheel drive (AWD) constantly
available via the new infinitely variable xDrive system,
there’s always traction to control any wayward kiloWatts,
even on slippery surfaces. The xDrive favours the rear wheels,
where it can send up to 100 per cent of the power if needs be,
but also apportions some of it to the front wheels when
necessary. It’s also connected into the electronic stability
control, meaning it can juggle the power so it goes to the
wheels where it will have most effect in controlling an
imminent slide. And the tyres - 275/40 R20 at the front and
315/35 R20 at the rear - are what’s needed for the task,
even if they are clearly not intended for even a whiff of
off-road work.
“The 4.8is feels as quick as virtually
anything on the road, which in fact it is. A non-turbo,
massive vehicle like this that accelerates like a Subaru WRX
is something to be experienced. And, like all X5s, the
handling and road grip is something to be experienced as well.
The top-heavy feel of just about all 4WDs, soft-road or
off-road, is hardly noticeable here, apart from the fact
you’re always aware of the elevated seating position.
“The BMW, which basically uses 7 Series
self-levelling suspension, steers with a sharpness and a sense
of agility that it rare in this segment. Only the Porsche
Cayenne shares the BMW’s sense of stable, high-speed
security. The ride is firm, but quite comfortable, making the
4.8is feel quite regal on the road, pretty silent on a country
cruise where the sight of an appealing back road is sure to
entice, remembering always that the tyres may not like too
much sharp-edged stuff.
“It’s all a quite thirsty business
though. Our test car averaged around 14.4 litres per 100km on
test, which admittedly isn’t bad considering the weight,
size and power of this vehicle but would have been worse had
we covered more urban kilometres. At least it is offset by a
decent size, 93 litre fuel tank. Premium grade unleaded is a
prerequisite, however.
“The six-speed auto, as in the 7 Series,
is a smooth shifter with plenty of ratio options to choose
from although, surprisingly, it will hunt through the gears at
times when left in drive mode. The sequential pattern is
standard BMW (forward to downshift, back to upshift) but
non-standard compared to just about everyone else.
“In the end, the X5 4.8is is a hell of an
indulgence. If you want a really fast SUV, you won’t do any
better - unless you start thinking about the people from
Stuttgart.”
Will we get the 4.8 litre version here? I somehow doubt it,
but the 4.4 isn’t a poor relative in any way either!
Chequered
flag