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Originally Posted by bimmergoat
I'm no mechanical engineer but I would like to know which is better. I know it's used in motorcycles, M cars, Ferrari's, etc. I loved my GTO and C5 but the M is exciting in a different way. Is the new X5 M engine a better design? Screw emissions, I just want to know which is a better and why?
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Its not better in design many tend to argue that there is nothing better than a naturally inspired engine. I used to own a 335i with the first of the new reborn twin turbo design from BMW. NOT THE FIRST BMW TWIN TURBO but the first reborn one after long years. The 335i was a nice engine lots of low torque and 100hp for every litre of displacement. As the famous line says " There is no replacement for DISPLACEMENT" and that was BMW's answer. the 300hp 300 Torque engine proved to take small displacement to a new level. V8 engines and V10 engine level while reducing emission and fuel consumption. The new X5/X6 M engine is the same one used on the 7 Series. It's the 4.4L V8 Twin Turbo. another great engine making 555 HP. So 126HP for every litre of displacement. Another great achievement from BMW and of course another great torque curve starting at 1500 RPM. As you can see going from a 3.0 300HP to a 4.4 555HP meant that they improved HP to litre ratio while maintaining the same level of least turbo lag and improved throttle respond. A lot of cars before that were equipped with turbo's had a significant turbo lag and were not much liked by many people who have driven raw naturally powered V10 or even V12. A lot of other manufacturers in the same market are leaning towards this sort of turbo power. Example Nissan GTR and porsche. So to answer your question of which one is better it all depends. as you noticed people here complain about the M3 low RPM power saying its not there you have to hit over 5k RPM to feel the power. Drive the 335i and even though its just 300 HP you will feel the torque as low as 1500 RPM. So it depends on what you like a lot of people complain about turbo lag and from the 335i that I owned I can say that BMW reduced that lag to almost nothing. OH also another advantage of the turbo charged engines is that they produce the same power of a bigger engine but are compact and much lighter. For example the 335i 3.0 incline 6 is thought to produce the same power as bigger V8 engines but is more compact and can be as high as 80kg lighter. Which is good for weight saving. From what I see from BMW they seem to be changing the way they think of their cars, rather than putting bigger and stronger engines in next generations. And due to the Market in Europe and gas prices increasing, they want to make the engines smaller lighter improve on emissions and increase HP to Litre ratio.
I hope that helps you a little I'm not an expert but I try to read and learn. It's a very good question though. I wouldn't ask which one is better because you will get a million but rather what is the difference between the two.