Fifth Gear takes the BMW 330d around the track

By Horatiu Boeriu. Read Bio
February 14th, 2009 | 3-Series | 9 comments

The famous Fifth Gear host, Vicky Butler-Henderson, decided to do a trackday with the facelifted version of the BMW 330d. While I haven’t had a chance to drive it personally yet, our collaborator Mauro Corti took the 330d for a spin a few months back. You can read his extensive review here.

But before I will let you watch Vicky pushing the 330d to the max, let me give you a quick refresher of the car’s specs:

BMW 330d

245 PS @ 4,000 rpm
520 Nm (383 lb-ft) @ 1,750 – 3,000 rpm
0-62 mph in 6.1 sec
49 mpg hwy / 32 mpg city / 35 mpg combined
152 g/km CO2

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Doug

Very interesting… didn’t realize it was a turbodiesel. How does the variable geometry turbos that they’re now using compare with the sequential big/small turbos in the 335i/d engine?

Her comments about the handling are interesting, and disappointing, although not entirely surprising. Did this car have either of the ZSP or ZHP suspensions?
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=51500531 Andrew Murphy

@Doug: Looks like the M Sport suspension.
Gord

Is it just me or does that track look really narrow ?
Mauro corti

Acutally it’s Corti not Conti :)
Ezh

Could you please convert the acceleration, max. speed and consuption numbers also to km/h and liters per 100 km? The europeans will apreciate it. :)

Tnx!
Doug

@Andrew Murphy: Do you mean the sports package? They may be the M wheels. I don’t think the M package options have any suspension options (or even anything performance-related). So you’d want to combine the M with ZSP or ZHP.

I’m very curious which suspension she’s actually critiquing.
Doug

@Ezh: Oh not the metric system again!! Will that outmoded, backward system of measurement never die??

You just cannot get the tangible sense of things unless they’re measured in firkins, jiggers or furlongs.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=51500531 Andrew Murphy

@Doug: My guess is it’s a M tuned suspension.

I say that because BMW.co.uk’s site reads “M Sport Suspension” when you choose a 330d M Sport Saloon to spec out. So, this is probably something a little lower and firmer than the standard sport suspension in the US.
Ezh

Doug, outmoded is the american/english mile system. All normal countries use the standard metric system. ;)

USA as well is slowly moving to metric system.