BMW 3.0-Liter Twin Turbo Oil Burner Heading Stateside
American pistonheads, tree-huggers and pistonhead tree-huggers have been clamoring for Euro-diesels long before California passed regulations making them legally untenable. WardsAuto reports that The Boffins of Bavaria will add a urea-injection system to their 3.0-liter variable twin-turbo diesel and bring that bad boy stateside. In the Eurozone, Bimmer's six cylinder oil burner cranks-out 286 hp and stumps-up 427 lb-ft. of torque– which, it must be said, is one Hell of a lot of torque. (Satch Carlson, editor of Roundel, the official magazine of the BMW Car Club of America: "It feels and sounds something like a big-block Chevy when you put your foot down.") The not-smelly, non-clattering 3.0-liter inline six currently serves duty in BMW's European 335d, 535d and 635d models. There's no word on which US models will be blessed with the oil burner, or what they'll cost stateside.
More by Robert Farago
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Audi and Mercedes are trying to advertise themselves as leaders in diesel technology. Audi in LeMans and Merc with its Bluetec brand. But in 3L diesel class where the competition is most fierce Audi and Merc have nothing to show against BMW's 3.0d TT engine. The gap is HUGE! BMW 3.0d TT (535d) Horsepower: 286 Torque lbft: 427 Mercedes 3.0d T (E320CDI) Horsepower: 224 Torque lbft: 398 Audi 3.0d T (A6 Quattro) Horsepower: 233 Torque lbft: 331
Greetings European owner of the new 535d and long timer reader of TTAC. The 3.0 twin turbo diesel was nothing short of an automotive revolution to me. Having previously owned the Audi A3 2.0T (200 BHP) and the Porsche Cayman S I was per definition a petrolhead. One test drive of the 535d instantly killed all my oil burner reservations. Having a small turbo spooling up early and a larger turbo kicking in later provides an instantaneous and constant shove from standstill to max rev. Of course you have a shorter rev range than the petrol counter part but there is zero hesitation and the old diesel tendency to loose breath in the higher rev range is also gone. The petrol twin turbo is faster from 0 - 60 but door handle dragging off the light signal got old 10 years ago anyway. Now it is all about the in gear acceleration and the torque in which the diesel absolutely destroys the petrol. Regardless of what speed you are cruising in a quick tap on the accelerator will press back in the seat and complete overtaking in a blink of an eye. The car literally pulls like this from 0 - 155 MPH. To put the torque into perspective: If you dis engage anti spin, apply a medium pressure on the brakes and start accelerating the car will pull a burn-out on dry asphalt - in an automatic no less. Enough rambling. Don't take my word for it. Book a test drive when it hits US soil and you can make your own conclusions. Ken
"Then again, the M-division doesn’t usually have longevity of their cars as top priority." Eh-hem, daily driver of a 90K mile 1999 M3 here.
guyincognito -- 8 years is a great start. How much maintenance and/or repairs have you had to invest in since warranty expired? I'll breathe a sigh of relief when you report that you've made it to 150k+. :)