Well ya... I mean come on! Remember Jeremy's umm blinker comment and Nav comment... PLEASE!!!!!!! they lost their credibility with that one...
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... did they have one??....[/quote]

Have one what? ya... last week... M5 review... Horrible review... even tho in the end they said it was good... they say more bad things about it than ever... and they wernt the car's problem... it was the big bafoon behind it!

 

Here in France we do not have BBC2. Do you know when it will pass on BBC world?

 

When you see how close Top Gear placed the 535d is to the 545, it explains why BMW choose to keep the 3.0 d twin turbo down to 272BHP/ 560 NM; if they'd offered it at the level its more than capable of - even BMW admit the bottom end of the engine is strong enough for more power and torque - then it undermines the price position of the models above it.

With the arrival of the 550i, and the upgrade of the 530d to 231BHP/500Nm, what's the betting on a 'redesign' of the 535d lump next year to release more power.....

 

It is on again TONIGHT on BBC2 in the UK (Monday 1st August at 1900Hrs)

It is the first article for 10 minutes.

 

one thing that i thought made the race unclear was that it was a saoking wet track. therefor how much power was lost with that in mind. would do 545 pull away more if it could get all it's horses down out/round the bends?
i wonder how different it might have looked.

 

A reasonable test would be to compare a standard 535d and a standard 545i from 0 to 155 MPH and see which one is the fastest. Better still, the 0 to 100 to 0 MPH test....

There is no point people saying how "great" a 535d remapped would be over a 545i because the comparison is not fair - unless the 545 was ALSO remapped.

BTW, what is this Santa Pod? Is it a straight piece of tarmac or what? If someone wants to compare a standard 535d with my 545, then I could probably do the test anytime in the last week of August

 

Santa Pod is a drag strip where general public can do arrive & drive 1/4 mile runs. Still fairly unreliable as can depend on traction off the line. Over 0.523 miles from a rolling start (c.50 mph), my 535d Tourer terminal velocity is 10mph less than my M3 CSL (130mph vs 140mph), I would expect the 545 to be somewhere in between - but still dependant on gearing etc...

 

Hurrah :-) Tim, the reason that *I* think that a remapped 535d vs 545i *is* a fair test is that the d is still over ?4000 cheaper than the i.... so we're still actually comparing a much cheaper car with a more expensive one. Given how inefficient (bhp per ? ) NA tuning is, I would also say however that it would be ok for the 545i to have had ?750ish of remap for the test to be fair. I've always said that I don't know which will be quicker, but I'd like to find out. The only other issue is that of course we would really need an auto 545i in the mix too as the 535d only comes as an auto, but I suspect that would be too hard to organise

Santa Pod RWYB runs most weekends unless there is a special event. Tim, if you know a weekend you can make, let me know, and I'll let you know if I can make it too and we'll post it up in events :-)

 

I'd have thought the reverse could be true - i.e. the 535d would be suffering more in the rain as it struggles with all that torque...

 

I am off to Brands Hatch Indy circuit with mine in a few weeks.

Looking forward to that!

I am with CliveD - shurely the torque being greater on the 535d would mean more wheel spin.

Like I said earlier - two great cars (and the only Red 535d's I have seen have bene on magazine/TV tests)