It really is a shame that the US market doesn’t embrace diesel engines. It that weren’t the case, cars like the BMW M550d xDrive would probably be loved and cherished in the USA as they are in other parts of the world. If you travel to Europe, you’ll notice that almost 90 percent of the cars on the road are diesels. Despite the current change in perception that turned oil burners into a kind of Antichrist equivalent, some people still love the torque and range these cars bring.
The new BMW M550d xDrive is probably the best diesel you can get today. In one of my older reviews I remember saying that if you want to convert a diehard petrol fan who never wanted to hear about a diesel engine before into a fan of the compression-ignition technology all you need to do is introduce him to the N57S engine. That was the old tri-turbo 3-liter straight six mill that used to power cars with the 50d lettering on their boots.
Today, the M550d uses a new mill, one that takes things to a new level. The B57S mill is now the only diesel engine in the world with four turbos attached to it. It is also one of the only two engines in production these days that uses so many turbochargers, alongside the iconic Bugatti Chiron. The specs have also been improve a bit, the M Performance diesel making 400 HP and 760 Nm (560 lb-ft) of torque while also losing some weight on the 5er.
The video below shows what this beast is capable of. The 0-100 km/h (62 mph) should take 4.4 seconds according to BMW but the Germans didn’t tell us just how fast the top speed limiter kicks in. Since the video below is pretty self-explanatory, it looks like it takes just about 35 seconds to reach 250 km/h (155 mph).
