February 11, 2009

"A track day is the Ultimate Sunday Drive"

...or for that matter, any other day of the week in our books! 

One thing I'm not clear about, the Euro spec BMW 330d claims 50 mpg while the US spec 335d with a touch more horsepower and marginally quicker performance gets about half the milage? 
Perhaps BMW might have considered the 330d in order to better highlight Diesel's "green" advantages. The 330d and 335d both have 3 liter turbo engines, not sure if one is just a detuned version of the other or if they are different enough that they would need to be crash tested separately. In the latter case then you have the answer to the riddle since it makes no economic sense to go though the homologation process for two diesel engines in the US.

Marketing considerations aside, Vicky Butler-Henderson proves once again she's the tracktard's perfect date!






And here is the rest of it.

7 comments:

  1. That's 50 mpg on the Euro cycle.

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  2. While making 425 lb-ft, the US spec 335d gets 36mpg highway on the EPA test cycle which always produces considerably lower results than the EU test cycle. The 335d is by far the fastest diesel passenger car on sale in the US.

    -Freep

    ReplyDelete
  3. Yup, Imperial vs US Gallons

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  4. Well, certainly THAT 1 British gal is worth 1.2 US chicks...

    ReplyDelete
  5. 330d is a single-turbo, while 335d is a biturbo. They differ in the engine internals quite a lot, either.
    The good news for the Americans is... this engine has been successfully tuned to 320-340HP/650-720 Newton-meters, using only a software reflash.

    ReplyDelete

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