SPOTTED: E70 N54 mule
 

I took a nice afternoon drive around the Greenville area today, and went out to Greer where the plant is and really had a nice drive, but as I expected for a sunday, saw nothing "special".

Until i went to Panera. There was a Silver E70 sitting there, and the only thing that really caught my eye were the stupid reflectors they glued on the mirrors. It also had rims I haven't seen before.
Naturally, my camera was out in my car, so I stepped outside, and tried to take a picture with my iPhone as discretely as possible. Hard, seeming as there were two people getting into it.
I heard it start, and the unmistakable growl of the N54, and caught one picture as he tore off.
I'll upload it in about 45 minutes when I have my cord back.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...l/IMG_0083.jpg
nothing too special. i wish i had the video camera

what is the N54 ??

waiting for the picture :)

The new twin-turbo engine currently found in the 335i, 535i, and X6xDrive35i.

:wow: they are doing x5 with the twin turbos now !! so the v8 TT will be on the x5 also :wow: :wow: :wow: :wow: i'm selling my x5 tomorrow ! and getting an 5.0i x6 !!!

The N54 is the inline 6 twin-turbo. But yes, apparently both the 6 cylinder and the 8 cylinder will be twin turbo, just like the X6.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BMW_N54

The new N54 in F01 has 326 hp.

I'd be interested to see where the N54 engine fits in real-world performance between the [US version] TT diesel and 4.8i. I would've easily paid the price between the 3.0si & 4.8i for the 326hp. I was complaining how $10k for the jump to the 4.8i wasn't ideal... half way to that would've been perfect for me.

Thanks Palbay for another informative spy thread.:nanana:

Those wheels are star spoke 213 and have been around for a while. What did the license plate say? Were the roundels exposed(not taped)? trying to find if it was a official test mule.

They were taped, with manufacturer plates. If I was faster / had balls, I would have taken a picture of the mirrors. They had basically an orange strip of reflector super glues to the top edge. You can sort of see them, the taped roundels, and if you zoom in (you probably can't I just used iPhoto on the original iphone pic) you can see the white base for the SC MFR tag.

I really wish I had my damn P+S, but I went in for lunch after a fruitless trip to Greer.

Those wheels are what most E70s come with in UK. They are part of the "Dynamic Pack" over here. Personally I didn't like them - I opted for 211s.

I don't understand why ppl think getting X5 N54 Twin Turbo is a good thing. I am on my 3rd fuel pump with my 335i N54.

2nd here. :)

^ not exactly apples to apples but the X6 twin turbo I6 does 0-60 in 6.5 sec and has 300ft/lbs of torque. The new X5 diesel with much more torque does 0-60 in 6.9 sec (the 4.8i is 6.4 sec). Anyway, presented with the option on paper, I would definitely take it over the diesel if prices matched.

BTW, is the fuel pump issue related to the overheating problems we've heard about?

I don't think so.

The fuel pump issue was apparently due to a bad batch from a supplier, but that doesn't explain the ongoing issues. Maybe fuel quality has something to do with it.

The overheating issue isn't an issue IMO, but others may differ. If you go on the track and abuse a 335, it can go into a safe mode, with reduced power. There was a lot of discussion about whether having an oil cooler helped or not, but this was one of those issues that got a life of its own on the web.

Never had a problem here.

its the damn ethonal. PPl are suspecting the ethonal are corrusive, which no where other than US is using it.

3 bad batch in 2 years? I should buy lottery.. for winning it.

It's a BMW, it should be able to handle being driven on a track.

Driving on a track didn't overheat it, just abusing it did. The real issue was that after a couple of instances of magazine writers overheating them and going into safe mode, every 335 owner decided that the car wasn't designed right, even though they couldn't replicate the issue.

I don't understand. How do you abuse a car to cause the oil to overheat?

Yes, it is currently in the X5 35d (3.0-liter, twin-turbo, inline 6-cylinder diesel engine).

From the Edmunds article (partial excerpt):

Happened to automatic transmission vehicles without sport packages. The rest had additional oil coolers. Didn't happen to the Infiniti though. "Relentless pounding....with no sympathy" in the Arizona desert doesn't sound like the design specification. It is a road vehicle. It saved itself, it didn't break. Limp home means reduced boost until it cools down. It is the equivalent of a warning light.

Owners planning to track their cars could order the sport package (with the additional cooler) or, god forbid, the manual transmission (resulting in less heat under the hood).

This article had a life beyond all belief when it came out. 335 owners, some of whom weren't sure how to open their hoods, were all inspecting their cars for oil coolers and demanding that BMW retrofit them, even without evidence of failures, or any intention to track the cars.

No doubt some 335 owners had overheating issues unlike the above. This was the article that fed the firestorm, however.

http://www.edmunds.com/insideline/do...ticleId=120061

Yes, but we are discussing the N54 gasoline engine.

So, it is a new generation of the N54? Do we know if it has different hardware, or different software, similar to the BMW performance map now available for the 300 hp version?

Or, are BMW simply coming clean on the real power of the N54? Many tests found around 330 hp on the 335 (300 hp at the rear wheels), so this could be just a truth in advertising campaign for the same engine.

I take it you've never tracked a car before. All track driving is 'flogging', even in just 20min sessions.

Ferrari's, Porsche's, M3's, M5's are road cars. They shouldn't be tracked? This non-Sport automatic trans 335i is a BMW. Living on a track should be within the design specification; it's fitting against the theme of their general marketing. Even BMW knows it. Anyone who buys a BMW shouldn't have to order anything specific; every single car from their factories should be able to take it. Hell, I remember one of the initial E70 ads being of it driven on the Nurburgring, and also remember them saying in the press release that it's only a few seconds slower than the E46 going around there. BMW doesn't spec a 10W-60 oil in M engines for no reason. etc etc. One can give many other examples of the company and its products' pedigree.

Let's assume it's ok for them to equip a twin-turbo engine'd vehicle without an oil cooler because it's a non-Sport with auto trans..how stupid would their PR division have to be to give this vehicle to any press group other than Consumer Reports for an extended review/test. :confused:

Fwiw: whatever BMW you own (diesel, petrol, auto, manual, suv, car) you can't appreciate even 10% of what it's capable of, what went into it and what driving experience is possbile driving it around on public roads. :thumbup:

Of course it matches their marketing theme. That just illustrates the differences between marketing and engineering. The roundel has a propellor in it (marketing the BMW heritage) but that doesn't mean the cars can fly.

Yes, I have tracked cars (in the UK), but not my own vehicles. The last track event I was at we drove Ferraris, Misubishi EVOs, and a range of other vehicles. I recall that three of four Ferraris went home on a trailer, as did one of the two EVOs. None were crashes (we were timed, not wheel to wheel). The Ferrari failures were a water pump, a head gasket (presumed, but seemed obvious), and whatever they call their version of SMG (hydraulic failure of the shifter). Guess they couldn't handle it either.

The BMW PR department didn't give the vehicle described above to a press group. Infiniti did (without BMW knowing) and there were charges of unfair practices there, but I left that out of the story. Maybe they beat the 335 up first, I don't know.

While I respect BMW heritage, and have great respect for BMW engineering, I am glad they don't design road cars solely for the track. If they did, the brake pads wouldn't work until they warmed up, and would be noisy. That would be the cost of reduced fade. Street pads aren't suitable for track days, no surprise there. Equipping a vehicle properly for its intended use is not a bad thing IMO.

I also think BMW is getting further away from track-appropriate cars, M cars aside. Just look at the weight of the X6. Hardly a track day vehicle.

A warning light coming on for high temperature (and an associated cut in boost) is far less of a pain than fading the brakes, and it certainly isn't difficult to fade street brakes on any track day. I recall on the Ferraris we had suggested braking points on the circuit so that we wouldn't boil the brake fluid (a problem about which the host had learned the hard way)

> The roundel has a propellor in it (marketing the BMW heritage)

Actually, BMW AG says that is an urban legend and it represents the Bavarian flag.

http://www.oaksofwindcrest.com/images/bavarian_flag.jpg

Pads aren't really a problem in most of these high-performance cars. I've used (non-oem) street pads before in my Prelude that don't fade on the track. The good companies like Carbotech, Cobalt etc have good compounds. They won't offer the performance of dedicated pads, but they won't fade or squeel either. Compromise is usually reduced life. Brake fluid is what needs to be replaced with aftermarket stuff.

The high-performance brands are definitely designed to withstand track use. I know for a fact that most Porsche, Lamborghini and Ferrari dealers will honor warranty claims from track related parts failures. My neighbor had such service done on his Gallardo last summer, as have others on the boards. In fact, a lot of Ferrari dealers hold track events. Dunno what models you were with, but the 360's, 430's and newer models are really pretty reliable these days. Audi-era Lambo's are even better.

As for engineering v. marketing, if BMW markets products within certain contexts, they better back it up. They don't need to produce outstanding performance, but they should be able to withstand it. I've tracked my Prelude more than a few times, and know many other people who drive all sorts of makes and models. For the most part, most cars (that aren't highly modified) have zero reliability problems on the track. Considering an oil cooler is a pretty straightforward solution, they should've just added it. It's pretty silly not to have one on turbocharged vehicle.

The 335's lack of an oil cooler is a problem even on the street. People who've driven in high ambient temps have reported oil temps going to 280F. That's pretty high for on-road use, and especially so with limp mode being 20F away. Even BMW admitted the mistake through product revision. All initial automatic models didn't come with oil coolers. They were eventually implemented in Sport models.

Possibly. They should look back at this, apparently the 1916 BMW logo. Perhaps the Bavarian flag colours were superimposed on the propellor from this shot.

Returning now to the original topic, what will the twin turbo petrol 3.0 be called in the X5 when it is available? In the 1/3/5 series, it is the 135/335/535. In the X6 it is called the xdrive35. These models have 300 hp (306 by UK rating system). In the new 7 series, as Lemans noted, it has 326 hp, and is called the 740. Confusing, because the 4.0 used to be a V8, but there you go. Will we see a 326 hp version, and if so will the xdrive35 be replaced by the xdrive40?

Vig:

It was years back, and there were two each of the 348, and the 355.

We have gotten off topic a little with the 3.0 tt overheating. I think it is fair to say that there isn't an overheating problem that we can expect to see on the X5 when it gets this engine.

Not sure what to say about the high pressure fuel pump failures, when some posters have had three of them. No failures that I know of in my circle, so I would suspect regional differences in fuel as a contributing factor. Or very bad luck.

> They should look back at this, apparently the 1916 BMW logo. Perhaps the Bavarian flag colours were superimposed on the propellor from this shot.

http://www.logoblog.org/bmw_logo.php

http://gawlowski.com/matt/cars/car_logos.html


I actually believe the spinning propeller theory until I heard an interview where one of the top BMW Management guys said it wasn't true.