Bucket Seat: BMW Powerhouses launched

In the space of under a week, BMW have launched two powerhouse cars, first the M4 CS last week and today they lifted the covers on the all new range topping diesel derivative of the new 5 Series, the M550d which has a quad turbo! Yes, you read right, it has FOUR turbos! The German manufacturer is staying true to it's roots by offering more aggressive engines to it's luxury line up of cars and this can only mean good things for their loyal support base. 

BMW M4 CS

The new M4 CS which is due to hit local shores in October see's it fill the gap between the M4 GTS and the M4 Competition Pack, it will be available in limited numbers so if you're interested in getting one, best you head down to your dealer now to book a spot! The car will be built in the original BMW plant in Munich, which saw many special edition M models being built there. The engine is a 3.0l high performance, which is tweaked to offer the driver a more responsive and power enthralled drive. The CS packs 10 more horses than the M4 Competition pack raising the brake horsepower to 460 which see's the 0-100km/h dash dip below the 4 second mark at 3.9 seconds. Top speed of the car is electronically limited to 280km/h on the M drivers package, standard should be limited to 250km/h. The CS will have a seven-speed M double clutch transmission, a cutting edge design which has a separate oil cooler and enables both automated gear changes in fractions of a second. So much so BMW claims that using the car in standard auto mode will be better than using the paddle shifts. Pricing on the CS is still not known locally yet but indications in Europe is that it would start around the EUR116,900 mark. 

BMW M550d

After driving the new BMW 5 Series earlier this month, I did feel that the smaller petrol engines were lacking that oomf you needed in a big car like the 5 Series. Dubbed the "Business Athlete", the new 5 does offer a remarkable lot of technology but all that will prove fruitless to the owner is if all his interested in is raw power and quick response times from the engine. I've yet to drive any of the diesel options but there's no doubt the new M550d will offer more than what you're looking for. It's the world's most powerful 6-cylinder diesel engine in the automotive area. It has a multi-stage turbocharging with four turbochargers for high output and powerful torque combined with impressive efficiency. So while you're blast your way around, you're still not using as much fuel as you normally would. The 6-cylinder engine produces 294kW at 400bhp with a maximum torque of 760Nm! The M550d will come with standard M sports suspension, integral active steering, M aerodynamics package, exhaust system with M Performance specific twin tailpipe trims in dark and chrome and M Sports brake featuring brake calipers finished in blue metallic with M inscription. I'm a big fan of the M diesel cars from BMW and cannot wait to get into this one!