BMW 550dXM High Performance Diesel to Be Revealed in 2012

Renault made a go-fast Megane that combined the RS chassis and a diesel engine, while Volkswagen can put a powerful TDI in your Golf GTD. Moving on to some bigger toys, Audi had that big V12 oil burner introduced into the body Q7 SUV and there results were ballistic. The world is full of fast cars that don’t burn petrol, so it comes as no surprise that BMW is also taking steps in this direction as well.

We’re not talking about another 123d, but a 5-Series M Diesel. We’ve already heard of the 550dXM, and now The Detroit Bureau has found out the car will get a triple-turbo V-8 oil-burner that will be used in a number of other products, especially in the X series of SUVs. The naming of the new car reveals that it will be offered as an all-wheel drive, though we expect this is an optional extra.

Diesel engines still need a larger displacement to produce the same level of power as their petrol counterparts, so with a name like 550dXM you’d expect that it would offer a 5.0-liter engine. But no, it will come with a 3.0-liter tri-turbo that offers 650 pound-feet of torque, which is more than what the M5 makes.

The engine will be based on the engine block we already know, but will use that new tri-turbo configuration that’s expected to debut on the X3 M, which uses a third turbocharger that is powered by electricity to reduce lag even further. Predicting the horsepower of the mill is hard at the moment, but we expect it’s going to be below 500 hp.

The Detroit Bureau states that various BMW sources say the 550dXM will be publicly revealed in spring 2012.