Q.BMW X3 - Royal Rajasthan

Planning a road trip through Rajasthan in the winter is always a great idea. My choice of wheels for the 5 day trip was the BMW X3 30d XDrive M-Sport. Yes, that is the complete model name of this mean machine. I planned my trip in such a way that we could broke the journey into four legs - Delhi to Jaipur, Jaipur to Kota, Kota to Bharatpur and then finally Bharatpur to Delhi. We wanted to see how this SUV from the Bavarian stable does on the not-so-perfect highways of our country. And on some "soft roads" [IMG]https://www.zigwheels.com/forum/filedata/fetch?filedataid=10876&type=medium[/IMG] The bright red colour of this car is the first thing that caught everyone's attention wherever it went. Quite the looker! The X3 30d comes standard with the M-Sport kit. It includes the 'Sport' front and rear bumper, M-Sport 18" alloys, The 'M' steering and body coloured accents. [U][B]Day 1, 0500 hours[/B][/U] We decided to start from my house, in Noida, at around 5am for Jaipur. A total distance of 295 kilometres and we expected to reach the Pink City around 11am after accounting for two stops: Food & Fuel. The first thing you appreciate about the BMW X3 is the fat, chubby steering it comes with, along with the brilliantly supportive front seats that are 12-way adjustable. It makes for a snug fit and keeps you extremely cushioned. Ideal for a trip like this. [ATTACH=CONFIG]n23083[/ATTACH] The view out of the driver seat is very commanding and confidence inspiring. Now coming to the highway drive: Our first stop was 70 kilometres from home. We had to fuel up for the drive ahead and decided to stop at one of the known Reliance fuel pumps near Rewari, Haryana. (On our Drive to Bangalore, we had tested with various fuel pumps around the country and figured that Reliance/Shell was better than the others). [ATTACH=CONFIG]n23084[/ATTACH] We covered this distance of 70 kilometres in about an hour-and-a-half. Early morning and an empty highway stretch made for the perfect scenario to see what this 3.0-litre TwinPower Turbo diesel engine could do. It packs more than 250 horses and around 560 Nm of twist. The brilliant road-bias xDrive helps propel this 1,800kg elephant to a hundred in less than 6.5 seconds. That is very respectable considering its a full-size SUV and not a sprinter hatchback. We managed to reach Achrol, which is 10 kilometres from Jaipur, at around 10 30am. Slightly ahead of schedule. India's first ever Motosport Park has been opened here for enthu-cutlets like me and since we had some time on our hand, I decided to check the facility out. [ATTACH=CONFIG]n23085[/ATTACH] There is a screen on the iDrive screen that shows the 'xDrive Status'. As you can notice, the right side of the screen has the car displayed, along with the horizontal and vertical tilt. It's one of those gizmos that make you feel real good about driving one of these machines and adds to the "Driving Pleasure". [ATTACH=CONFIG]n23087[/ATTACH] What a facility! I was super impressed as soon as I drove into this place. The Motosport Park comprises of essentially two sections of land that are 3 kilometres apart. The first is what is pictured above. It boasts of a brilliant line-up of fun machines! [ATTACH=CONFIG]n23088[/ATTACH] Pictured here are - the Polaris RZR 800 (in a not so brilliant shape) and two Rage buggies. Rage buggies are 'Made-In-Gujarat' machines that come with a 1.3-litre Suzuki engine and are a featherweight. They make for fun off-road buggies, but are not for the faint hearted! [ATTACH=CONFIG]n23089[/ATTACH] The interior of these bugs is kept simple and functional. The speedometer is from a Maruti A-Star and the tachometer is digital. [ATTACH=CONFIG]n23090[/ATTACH] The red bug in the picture above is a custom made one. Put together by a passionate engineering student and Manish (the owner) himself, this thing is supposed to be quite the beast. Powered by a 1.6-litre Suzuki engine, it has the go-anywhere, do-anything capability. From this area, it was a 10-minute drive to their test track. I was told that the X3 would get there without any issues. And it did. [ATTACH=CONFIG]n23091[/ATTACH] The road did exist for a kilometre or so and then there was this. Yes, we had to go up that slope and above the mountain to get a clear view of the entire track and obstacles. [ATTACH=CONFIG]n23092[/ATTACH] The Gypsy I was following disappeared into the sand while I was taking it nice and slow, testing whether or not the X3 would struggle. It did not. The xDrive worked brilliantly, and before I knew it, I reached the top. [ATTACH=CONFIG]n23093[/ATTACH] The view was spectacular and we happened to reach there while preparations were underway for a silent noise party. What views! [ATTACH=CONFIG]n23094[/ATTACH] The road that we took to reach this spot is visible in the photo above, toward the right side, behind the hillocks. [ATTACH=CONFIG]n23095[/ATTACH] Initially I was quite skeptical about the X3 on sand. I thought they might not get along. But they did. Very well in fact. Even with extremely loose sand, where walking was also difficult, the car did not show any hesitation and made it everywhere! The H/T RFTs (Run Flat Tyres) turned out to be far more capable than I thought! [ATTACH=CONFIG]n23096[/ATTACH] You can see a part of the main rally track behind the car. The steep drop on the left. Quite intense! I refused to take this on the entire track as the overhang on this car was a bit much to tackle the dynamic slopes. However, I did take it on a steep, downhill slope to see the Hill Descent Control in action. Here are some shots in sequence of the X3 in action. [ATTACH=CONFIG]n23097[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=CONFIG]n23098[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=CONFIG]n23099[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=CONFIG]n23100[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=CONFIG]n23101[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=CONFIG]n23102[/ATTACH] Very well done. The car did this course effortlessly and with no tantrums whatsoever. The path that had only been tread on by Thars, Gypsys and JCBs was now also BMW territory. [ATTACH=CONFIG]n23103[/ATTACH]