Some young SUVs at the off-road summer school were chatting in the dorm after lights out. "What do you want to do with your life?" Rav asked Tig Wan, who was the new kid on the campus. "That's a bit personal, wouldn't you say, Rexton?" remarked C Harvey, who was rather conservative. Rexton smiled; people usually ignored him. "Am I boverred?" snapped Sedici, who was only sixteen. "Er...I would like to be..a...er, thexthy," lisped a nervous Suzi, who was small and shouldn't have been there. "I'd like to climb every mountain and ford every stream," mused the crossover, Qashqai, smoothing down his skirt and pretending he wasn't urban.
They argued into the night but in the end agreed that Suzi was right: deep down inside everyone wanted to be an X3. (Listen - if Fergie can make a fortune out of a talking tractor, I can anthropomorphise a Suzuki Jimny, OK?) Anyway, judging by the roads in my part of Surrey, everybody got their wishes. In a county overrun with SUVs, you could be forgiven for thinking BMW had cornered the market. There are three BMW X3s in my street alone; and there are only four houses. I lie, but you get my point: in an area where shekels flow like Chardonnay, X3s are as common as Wagon Rs in Worthing.
I suspect it may just be a matter of status, but I would like to think my neighbours have got good taste, as well, not to mention a sharp eye for technology. By no means the cheapest SUV on the market, the BMW X3 offsets its hefty sticker price with an impressive CV. I use the singular because that remark is largely reserved for one particular model - the range-topping 3.0sd M Sport. Its twin turbo-charged engine delivers a sub-seven-second 0-62 time, which would have chuffed old Rudolph Diesel who would have been 150 in March 2008, had he not fallen off a cross-channel ferry. A ripe old age, you will agree.
 |
 |
the BMW X3 offsets its hefty sticker price with an impressive CV |
|
 |
|
The BMW's oil-burning engine has got 20 per cent more torque than a Ferrari F430 V8, and very nearly as much horsepower as a 4.2-litre Jaguar XK engine. And it takes a 4.8-litre V8 Porsche Cayenne to keep up with it - just. The hefty sticker price is beginning to look like a Super Saver: buy one Newton-metre, get one free.
Forget what you read about 'power', it's torque that turns a drive into a drag race, and few cars - of any description - can out-drag a twin-turbo diesel X3. The 0-62 time is a remarkable 6.4 seconds, and the top speed is more than twice the legal limit. And given that it's tough and terrain-happy, it is no wonder that it was Ram Raider magazine's 'SUV of the Year'.
The X3's theme song should be 'Blowin' in the wind', or maybe 'Puff, the magic dragon', since this fire and brimstone engine is first brought to life by a modest little gust from the low-pressure turbo. As the engine speed picks up, a second, and larger, turbo takes over, and a Belugan blast secures the Beema's place in the oil-burner Book of Fame. Beluga is the Aboriginal god of wind, which is entirely apposite as the torque curve for the 3.0sd engine somewhat resembles the profile of Ayres Rock. Peak torque of 580 Newton metres is sustained between 1750 and 2250 rpm, and 90 per cent of that figure is on tap from 1500 to 3500 rpm.
|
