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      10-07-2012, 03:52 PM   #12
jnm
Second Lieutenant
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Drives: fast, but could be faster
Join Date: Feb 2011
Location: CA

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Ok, so mistake on my part: if you hold down the traction control button down for a few seconds and it goes to the second mode with DSC off.

Now for today's update:

Autobahn from Innsbruck to the Nurburgring: the Autobahn is a mixture of short bits of brilliance in between much longer bits of frustration: even on a sunday morning you're still stuck between roadworks sections and traffic jams (they even have fixed road signs to tell you where the traffic jams are (!)). Very rainy most of the day, the X-drive and new tires with full depth threads were put to good use, eventually in the afternoon the traffic thinned up and the road dried and I was able to see (briefly) 240 Km/h (that's 140 Mph) on the speedo. The N20 certainly keeps up even with the fast 'left lane' cars over here, once again a superb freeway mile-muncher, even though it could use a little bit more high speed stability (probably a little bit wider tires).

Then we finally made it to the 'ring. What is there to say about this place that hasn't been said already, two words to sum it up: "gearhead heaven". Some incredible cars out there and a dry track meant that I was able to break the 2000 Km mark on the Nordschleife. 4 laps cost almost 100 euros (plus a half tank of gas (!)) and the X1 even in the hands of a 'ring newbie (though I knew the way around... mostly ) was certainly not the slowest (though far from the fastest!!!). Pretty darn safe, though definitely the front tires are too narrow to bother the rears and it's "understeer city" pretty easily but the stability control does a good job (as much as it can) to try and keep it in check if you keep pushing the front past the initial tire complains. AWD definitely doing it's job as well and I could tell there's a little bit of 'rear wheel drive bias' (supposedly part of the M sports package) that lets you adjust the rotation a bit on the throttle, and grip was decent as well (though the OEM tires did get a bit over heated and started feeling greasy half way through the 3rd lap in a row). It's also got some decent acceleration too and that engine does like to rev nicely now that I can consider it properly broken in.

It's going to be hard to have to drive it at US speeds on US roads full of US drivers after this...
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