spoted one of these special x5's last night on the rd.
The X5 4.8is ups the ante on SAV performance. Sporting a muscular 4.8-liter, 355-hp V-8 power plant that stuns with a heart-pounding 5.9-second 0-60* launch, the X5 4.8is boldly seizes the title of ultimate Sports Activity Vehicle®. With its exclusive front and rear treatments and an array of striking colors, the newest X5 can lay claim to good looks as well as brawn. The BMW X5 4.8is. A powerful presence on the road.
4.8-liter, 32-valve V-8 engine with Valvetronic variable valve lift delivers 355-hp of thrilling performance, 369 lb-feet of torque, and an unforgettable 5.9-second launch to 60 mph*.
-BMW north america
a review by EVO magazine
By Peter Tomalin/Kenny P August 2004
By a neat twist of fate, the range-topping 4.8-litre X5 arrived for assessment at the same time as the new Discovery. Parked side by side, the Disco's Tonka-meets-Transit industrial funk made the curvy X5 look extravagantly curvaceous but suddenly rather dated and conservative, though in isolation the Bee-Em is still a mightily impressive-looking behemoth, if you like this sort of thing.
The contrast in the driving was equally marked. The Land Rover, I thought, was nicely refined and solid-feeling. It is, as you will have read, not much of a 'driver's car' but probably all the better for not trying to be one. BMWs, on the other hand, are expected to drive like sports cars even if they're shaped like motorhomes. Hence the introduction of a yet more powerful derivative of the X5 monster-truck.
The engine is a 4.8-litre development of the familiar V8, producing 360bhp and 369lb ft of torque. It also produces a vaguely thuggish and extremely amusing V8 soundtrack that's somewhere between Munich and Santa Pod. Leave the door open when you start it up and I guarantee it'll make
you grin for whole seconds.
BMW claims 0-100kph (62mph) in 6.1sec. You take those sort of figures for granted these days, but it's worth pondering for a few seconds. The 4.8is leaps off the line in tigerish fashion, and it pulls to three figures with barely diminishing vigour, the auto 'box flicking through its six ratios. Unlike, say, Audi's twin-turbo V8 in the RS6, this unit is not massively endowed with low-down grunt; rather the power just seems to keep on flowing all the way through the rev-range, much as it does in kid-brother M3.
With 20in rims, shallow-walled but almost comically wide 275/40 front and 315/35 rear tyres, and a roll-resistant suspension set-up, it's no surprise that the ride is taut-bordering-on-stiff. The upside is that you can chuck it around pretty much as you would a sports saloon, certainly until the tyres start to squeal in protest. With the trick new xDrive's electronically activated multiple-plate clutch directing torque to where it's needed, the 4.8is also finds massive drive out of corners, while the steering, slightly over-heavy at low speed, feels direct and keenly responsive as you increase the pace.
As we've commented before, these X5s feel far more agile (and are more fun to drive) than logic and physics dictate they can possibly be.
They are also an extremely comfortable place to sit, especially with this car's Cream Beige Exclusive Nappa Leather and the model's low noise- levels at cruising speeds.
The list price is a suitably gargantuan ΂£58,025, and our test car also came with aluminium running boards (΂£215), adaptive headlights (΂£275), a 'professional' speaker system for the hi-fi (΂£615), a six-disc CD autochanger (΂£250) and communications pack (΂£2500) comprising sat-nav with colour monitor, a built-in telly, a ritzier radio than standard, and Bluetooth preparation, which sounds pretty indispensable to me. All of which brings the total price as tested to a giddying ΂£61,880.
But then it's an awful lot of extremely capable motor car for your money. And yet, much as with the Cayenne Turbo, another magnificently able monster, some of us struggle to see the point. The Discovery makes some sort of sense, trundling around the countryside enormously but relatively unthreateningly. With the BMW and Porsche, the design details and dynamics are all attuned to fast road driving, yet the silhouette and the bulk are of a high-riding off-road vehicle and the body-language is overtly aggressive. And there is, of course, no more space or versatility than in a decent estate car. Even if you drive one as courteously and considerately as you're able, you still look like a bully, or simply a bit of a twit. But lots of people are perfectly happy with this, and BMW is happy to take their money, so that's all right then. It'll all end in tears, I tell you.
