Car UK May 2019

fast, providing ample shove when you need it, smoothly

balanced cruising when you don’t. There’s a pleasant mellow

growl under acceleration, but it’s church-mouse-quiet other-

wise. This is one very well-insulated car.

For now, the other two engine options in the UK are both

six-cylinder 3.0-litre diesels: the £72,155 30d with 264bhp and

the £87,240, 394bhp 50d. A V8 50i with more than 500bhp

will join the range in a few months, but it’s not yet officially

confirmed for the UK.

Onwards through Yucca Valley on Highway 247, the

landscape grows more arid and dusty and the palm trees are

replaced by Joshua trees and cacti, the golf courses by coarse

liquor shacks. This part of California is a giant playground, the

light aircraft above gazing down upon hard-charging dirt bikes

and Baja Bugs trailing dust like tiny comets.

Time for a little off-road driving of our own. The trails

criss-crossing this corner of the Mojave are marked on the

iDrive’s sat-nav but there’s no tarmac, just wicked whoops and

ruts. We pump the air suspension’s variable ride height to the

uppermost of its five levels, fire up the off-road camera displays,

which swoop around a graphic of the car to help pick out hidden

obstacles, and crack on.

This particular X7 is fitted with the optional Off-Road

package, with an underguard at the front, diff-lock at the rear

and a suite of xOffroad modes for the gearbox, traction control

and pedal response curve settings, for sand, gravel, rock and

snow. Okay, it’s not the kind of terrain that would worry a

Land Rover Discovery, but the X7 acquits itself well. What’s

immediately clear is that its structure is inherently stiff. The

X7 is built using the same aluminium and steel platform as the

7-series (albeit without its composite Carbon Core elements)

and there’s not a hint of flex while tackling awkward troughs.

There are some worryingly pointy rocks about but thankfully ⊲

First drives 300-mile test

Pitstop at a crossroads

cafe in the vast Lucerne

Valley. The T-shirt’s not

joking about the location.

NASCAR on the TV, rare

meat on the barbecue.

Let’s off-road! iDrive has

off-road-specific graphics,

showing data including the

car’s current lean angle. There

are cameras at each corner.

With a blunt

drag coefficient of

0.34, the butterfly

didn’t stand a

chance

52 MILES 88 MILES

36 CARMAGAZINE.CO.UK | MAY 2019