It turned out there was an engagement in NC at exactly the same time she had a break from school. Daddy/daughter road trip. Momma stays home. The X5 4.8is — still on its original 11,000 miles, purchased just the year before — was the obvious choice for a haul like this. Better than the supercharged 540 for keeping everyone out of jail on a trip this long. At least we could hope.
The plan included the Tail of the Dragon at Deal’s Gap — 317 curves in 11 miles — then the Blue Ridge Parkway, and a stop in Spartanburg to say hello to old friends at the BMW Performance Delivery Center. The X5 was born there. Or near enough. It felt right to bring it back.
“Two 2004 eight-year-olds. My X5 and my little girl.”
The Dragon delivered. XDrive just pulls the X5 around tight turns. When the front sidewalls are screaming under hard braking, you hammer the throttle at the apex and the big X5 feels like it’s being towed by a steel cable through the corner. After too many shift changes, 3rd gear and just run it. So much torque. So much sound from the resonator-free exhaust. It was a real blast — in between the moments of second-guessing the speed.
It gets a bit spooky when the 315s in the rear try to follow along. More than once the back end wiggled enough to make the starfish pucker. DSC would occasionally waggle an electronic finger. Most prevalent under an extreme bank with an off-camber turn — not the X5’s happy place. But since there was a daughter in the car, by about the 70th curve the pace settled in. Eyes closed a lot of the time.
The brakes were hot at the end. They smelled like they’d been working. Not a bit of fade. If the Dragon was within an hour of home, StopTechs front and rear would have been next on the list.
At the Zentrum, a man came out and talked for about ten minutes about the X5. Whether this is a planned service — short straw at the Zentrum café, go make the Bimmer nerd feel great about his car — it worked. The guy was genuinely excited about the E53. It felt good to tell the story.
Thirteen hours in the car. What did we get? About three times in the closing hour: “How far away are the cousins?” She absolutely exceeded any reasonable expectation of an 8-year-old. She let me take pictures with her at Greer. That says everything.
