Driving the 173 test hack, a car with 60,000 miles and a ten-hour, full-load test on its engine, the most obvious impression was dreaded diesel clatter at idle. It is deeper-toned, perhaps, but still present. Then the light turns green and you push all those anti-diesel thoughts into limbo. This is a thumper which runs with the hot ones. It revs as briskly as any sporting saloon, albeit only to 4800 and pulls hard in top when the needle already shows 110, where a normal 524 td has long-since run out of breath.
