Photo: Screenshot from Youtube
When you’re thinking of a Volvo SUV, you don’t immediately imagine a car on the track but rather seatbelts, airbags and other safe stuff, the kind of things the Swedes are known for. It’s not the case with a BMW, now is it?
When BMW launched its first SUV, back in 1999, the car was immediately portrayed and sold as an alternative to heavy, lumpy, hard to control over bumps at speed cars. It was introduced as a sporty experience, one that would handle great despite its size.
Over the years we even saw M versions of that car and they are crazy to drive. With 555 HP and 680 Nm (501 lb-ft) of torque, few people could say that the X5 M shouldn’t be tracked.
Today, we’re looking at the third generation model, the F15 and we’re still finding it ok to race it on the track, despite not being the M model. The guys from TFL Car just pitted an xDrive50i model (the top of the range one) against a poor Volvo XC60 T6. What could possibly have happened?
We’ll just take a look at the specs and let you figure out exactly how things went down. The Volvo has a 2-liter, 4-cylinder engine that uses both turbocharging and supercharging to get 302 HP and 295 lb-ft (400 Nm) of torque to the front axle alone. That easily translates into torque steering, when pushed hard.
On the other hand, we have the xDrive50i X5 that uses a twin-turbocharged 4.4-liter V8 engine making 450 HP and 650 Nm (480 lb-ft) of torque, all of it send to all four wheels. Could this really be a challenge for the Bimmer? Not really.
Going over the specs, things are pretty well sorted out. The BMW is going to win but one important aspect is how it’s going to do it and that is worthy of your time. Just look at how excited Nathan is driving that beast around the track. Now that’s driving enjoyment, right there!
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