Few people actually remember, but back in the first years of production, the BMW F10 5 Series had a 530i on offer. It used a 3-liter naturally aspirated straight six engine and even came with a manual gearbox if you so desired. It was the enthusiast’s choice, as it was one of the last Bimmers to come without forced induction. Those days are over though and now some audacious people are even comparing that car to a Volkswagen.
In their defense, we’re not talking about any VeeDub here, but about the most stylish and fresh offering from the Germans in Wolfsburg, the Arteon. Launched earlier this year, the four-door sedan (or coupe, depending on what you want to call it) is replacing the CC and it has the looks to do so according to most of the media. I’m don’t share their opinion, in case you were wondering, mostly due to that over-complicated front end with way too many straight lines, but let’s not digress.
Of course, that being a VW and having a BMW on the other side of the drag strip doesn’t seem like a fair fight but looking at the specs, they do come close. The 530i with its naturally aspirated engine used to make 272 HP and 310 Nm (229 lb-ft) of torque. They allowed the 5er to reach 100 km/h (62 mph) in 6.6 seconds if it came with the 8-speed automatic gearbox. With the 6-speed manual, things were a bit faster at 6.5 seconds.
On the other hand, the Arteon here seems to be the top of the range version, which uses a 2-liter turbocharged 4-cylinder engine taken from the Golf R, making 280 HP and 350 Nm (258 lb-ft) of torque. It also comes with 4Motion all-wheel drive and a 7-speed gearbox. VW claims it will do 62 mph from a complete stop in 5.6 seconds but, to be honest, it doesn’t seem that much faster than the considerably older BMW it goes up against here. It also jumps the gun when launching which gives it the upper hand in the end, as throughout the race, the difference between them seems to stay the same until the end.
