The rumor coming out of a BMW dealer presentation held in the Netherlands last week is that the previously rumored M550d will officially come in with
381 HP from its tri-turbo inline-6 cylinder diesel motor, far lower than the initial speculations of 500+ HP. But it will make over
516 lb-ft torque! Finally, it will be
AWD-only, as speculated earlier.
This new tri-turbo diesel F10 5 series was
previously confirmed to be coming, but a power figure was not yet known. That set off a round of high horsepower estimates because this model was supposed to have been tuned by BMW M.
Production of the M550d will begin next March, but it's not yet known whether this model will be available in North America. Future applications for this new tri-turbo diesel motor will include at least the X5 and X6. Source:
driving-fun
* The image featured in this story is what originally set off the original speculations. It's taken from a new BMW brake pad package shows the appearance of a new model - "M550dX"
P.S., the other report coming out of this dealer presentation is that there will be the introduction of an M135i with 320hp next summer.
See
http://f20.1addicts.com/forums/showthread.php?t=614224 for more details.