When diesel engines first came out on regular cars, they had the distinct sound and feel of agricultural equipment. You could even go as far as saying it had the cough of an asthmatic donkey, the power of an earthworm and the carbon footprint of a cow's behind… which by the way is very large (the footprint, not the cow's behind… oh, just forget it!).
But diesels had plenty of torque and eventually found their way into luxury automobiles, prompting BMW to start development for something made with much better animal parts.
The Bavarians are really proud of their achievement, of creating an engine that's economical, fun and powerful, so much so that they're relaxed enough to joke about it, which is something Germans don't do every day.
The new tri-turbo engine they fitted to the X5 M50d, X6 M50d and M550d xDrive is a spectacular mixture of movie monsters.
According to BMW themselves, the 3-liter diesel is a tribute to King Kong without the muddy footprints, a homage to T-rex with a smaller appetite and honors Godzilla with less smoke.
Mihnea's favorite cars have already been built, the so-called modern classics from the '80s and '90s. He also loves local car culture from all over the world, so don't be surprised to see him getting excited about weird Japanese imports, low-rider VWs out of Germany, replicas from Russia or LS swaps down in Florida. Full profile
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