KEY POINTS:
The mother and daughter that run a petrol station in a South Carolina city named after a soldier in the 1775-1783 revolutionary war between Britain and America don't care much for 2008 tourists and niceties.
They were bunkered down inside the service station, suspicious of a visitor clearly confused by the workings of a petrol bowser that preferred credit to cash. The visitor was getting impatient and waving his arms.
Perhaps it was the New Jersey number plate on the visitor's 5-Series BMW station wagon. Damn Yankees. Can't be trusted.
The women's reticence coulda' come with the territory around Greenville too. A sign on the shopping mall up the road said: "No concealed weapons permitted inside". Nothin' about visible weapons. Mighta' been the other sign on rural land: "Howdy. Now git." A local way of saying "No trespassing".
The inference was clear: folks with a funny accent who git ornery with a gas pump can't be trusted, ain't that the truth.
Mom seemed irritated by the $20 cash payment in the first place. She was busy with a computer game. "Could I have a receipt please," said the visitor. Mom looked to the heavens, produced the receipt, and said: "Y'all jist pull on the lever."
Daughter in too-tight stretch slacks and an overalled fellow wearing a God Bless America baseball cap were stacking shelves. He sniffed a lot. She was chewing hard on some gum.
Coulda' bin brother and sister. Mom mighta' had an uncle/auntie/brother named Cleetus up yonder in the Blue Ridge Mountains, where Confederate Flags hang on verandas. Wasn't Deliverance filmed near here?
After the visitor sought help for the third time, daughter slowly, very slowly, ventured outside. "Y'all got to pull the lever."
The visitor had had enough. "I keep pulling on the damn lever and nothing happens."
Daughter shook her head, flipped down an innocuous plastic elbow on the bowser itself, and returned, mumbling: "Y'all got to wait awhile for the pump to start," to the shelter of the shelves. The elbow was the lever.
The visitor filled up, pulled out past the rusted 1968 Chevy pick-up truck covered in beer stickers at the back of the gas station and on to Highway I 85 towards Spartanburg, where Germans called Hans and Tomas make the new BMW X6 alongside Carolina workers called Billy Joe and Bobby Ann.
Spartanburg, too, was named after soldiers the Spartan Rifles, who helped defeat the British during the Revolutionary War.
Nowadays the city boasts a thriving manufacturing base, which accounts for about 34 per cent of its labour force. More than 100 international companies from 16 countries are located there, including tyremaker Michelin.
BMW has invested more than US$1.2 billion ($1.5 billion) in a 1000-acre complex near the Spartanburg-Greenville airport that offers nearly 2000 jobs. Another 18 BMW suppliers have made the area home.
Nothing unusual about a BMW on Spartanburg roads. Unless it's the X6.
The new model is BMW's version of the ultimate performance four-wheel drive. The carmaker is calling it the world's first Sports Activity Coupe.
It's a big four-door with slanted roofline, loosely an every-which-way pumped-up and bigger version of the old Honda CRX hatchback.
It's sort of an X5 with extra muscle wrapped in a tighter, form-fitting package. Sort of. It challenges all sorts of convention. It is exaggerated in every sense, especially the slanted back, wedge profile, high waistline, flared wheelarches and big bum. Only the front end - kidney grille and lower air intakes - contains familiar BMW design cues.
BMW has taken a 2.2-tonne big car platform and made a smaller car out of it. How it uses its size is a concern. The 570-litre boot can accommodate a reasonable amount of luggage - golf clubs have to be stacked lengthways - but taller rear passengers under the slanting roof will find things cramped. There is no third seat, the space in the centre taken by a sliding storage cover.
But criticism of its visual make-up and practical place in the market is quickly balanced by the X6's extraordinary on-road behaviour. It is one part Joe Frazier and two parts Muhammad Ali. The threatening presence of Frazier bobbing low and weaving, and the agility and accuracy of Ali working the ring. A cruiser one minute, a menacing sports car with a glorious V8 exhaust growl the next.
The electronic stability gizmos at work in the X6 challenge the laws of physics. It's a big car with the nimbleness and directional stability of a vehicle half its size. A car this big with such ample ground clearance shouldn't be able to do these things.
Much of its dynamic ability is aided by a new Dynamic Performance Control, designed to work with the excellent xDrive all-wheel-drive system on the X5.
It splits torque between the front and back axles and sends extra power to the left or right rear wheel, depending on road and cornering conditions.
It is most noticeable on the throttle through corners, where the system tightens up the big car's entry and exit. The excellent braking retardation helps here too.
Three X6 models will be available in New Zealand, each mated to six-speed sequential gearboxes. The 3-litre twin-turbo diesel and 3-litre petrol versions will arrive in June. The range-topping 4.4-litre V8 is expected later in the year.
The inline six-cylinder twin-turbo X6xDrive35d diesel produces 210kW at 4400rpm and 580Nm of torque between 1750-2250rpm.
The straight-six X6xDrive35i petrol unit puts out 225kW between 5800-6250rpm and 400Nm between 1300-5000rpm.
The V8 X6xDrive50i delivers 300kW between 5500-6400rpm and 600Nm between 1750-4500rpm.
The 4.4-litre unit is a reworked version of the 4.8-litre variant found in the X5, with two turbochargers sitting between the V of the cylinders.
BMW says the design allows the powerful engine to be unusually compact. It's a veiled hint that the V8 might appear under the bonnet of the next-generation 5-Series sedan.
