30 years of BMW xDrive. This is how it started

Posted on 17-10-2015 to 13:00 by rubenpriest – 52 Comments”

You are authorized to drink a beer to drink tonight. BMW celebrates 30 years of xDrive. Time for a party.

We go back to the year 1985. To the moment that it was time for the IAA in Frankfurt, where many a mortal man with a cigar, or pipe smoking, he was drooling on the works Porsche 959. Correct in that specific year, where actually on the stock market no real firsts took place, came BMW with the unveiling of its 4×4 system. The first model that the AWD treatment underwent was the 325i. A year later, the car is in production under the name 325iX. The precursor of xDrive was born.

BMW based the system on the always-underlying idea: Freude am Fahren. The German carmaker promised still sharp handling characteristics, but with simply more traction. Very far developed was the technique otherwise not. Audi continued to the king and the Quattro system.

In 1991 BMW’s four-wheel drive to deliver on the 5-series. The 525iX was, in an evolved form, the system fitted. For the first time the power is electronically distributed. The new system also brought lamellenkoppelingen to the car what the road conditions had to improve. First was a hydraulic system used for the rear axle to steer, but this was eventually replaced with an electronic variant. By the new technique was the car much better in anticipating the constantly changing situations during a trip, such as hard rain or snow. This ensured that in the 525iX a totally different driving experience experienced compared to the 325iX.

Then, in 1999, came BMW with its first SUV: the X5. The car got a lot of new electronic stuff, where the drive for 38% on the front wheels was released and 62% of the strength found its way to the rear axle. The four-wheel system in the X5 was used, brought to BMW in 2000 to the fourth generation 3 series (E46). The SUV was also the beginning of a new formula for success that the German automaker went handle. In 2003 came the X3, and in 2008 saw the striking X6 the light, where we are a year later, a baby SUV were in the form of the X1. Last year came the X4 on the market, and the compact cross-over will certainly not be the last model of the famous X-badge it will wear.

The current xDrive system what we now know of BMW, took its origin in the X3-and second-generation X5 (E70). In cooperation with the Dynamic Stability Control (DSC), the drive power is continuously adapted to the driving situation. A tap on the steering wheel or with the throttle play has a continuous influence on the all-wheel drive. In this way prevents the system to wheelspin and getting over – or understeer. Now you can get xDrive checkbox on virtually all BMW models. I say cheers to BMW, on to the next 30.

PS: When BMW 30 years of front wheel drive celebrates in 2044, we are emphatically not of the party. That you know.