Defying the laws of physics
THE performance SUV. It is a genre that includes the Porsche Cayenne Turbo, the Chrysler Grand Cherokee SRT8 and the Mercedes-Benz ML63 AMG. It also includes the BMW X5M and X6M. It is a genre that causes much debate, mainly centred around the question: “What is the point?”
I admit that I am in the camp that says performance SUVs are a bit pointless. Why would you want an SUV that can do 0-100km/h in 4.2 seconds while carrying 2.4 kids, a dog and the weekend’s luggage? You can fit all but the dog in an M3 unless you have a large set of matching luggage for the whole family. But it’s an SUV you say, so it can go off-road.
Really? I’d love to know how many ML63 AMG owners take their vehicle off-road. The very idea of it would horrify most of them and, in some cases, the ride height has been reduced so much over the standard SUV that it can barely climb a pavement.
Now before you e-mail me saying what is the point of any performance car when we all spend most of our time in traffic and the maximum speed limit is 120km/h, let me say that I know why car companies make performance SUVs. It is simply because people will buy them. You can brag that you own an M3, but in the size counts stakes, an X5M is the big daddy, unless you can stretch to a Mercedes G63 AMG.
So it was that I found myself in Austin, the capital of Texas in the US. Home to the Circuit of Americas that hosts the US Grand Prix, it was the location for the launch of the new BMW X6M. I was expecting the X5M as well, but the company finally admitted what we all knew anyway — the X5 and X6 are basically the same car — so it was just the X6M that greeted me.
I say greeted but really it snarled. It snarled while standing still. It boasts a massive front air dam which helps to channel air in to cool the 4.4l TwinPower V8. It gets wide wheel arches to house wheels that range up to 21 inches in size. The rear bumper is the size of a small Chinese car and contains plenty of sculpted aerodynamic bits, a large diffuser and those two sets of twin tailpipes. The X6 has plenty of aggro on its own, but the X6M takes aggressive looks to another level.
The looks are appropriate because that V8 pushes 423kW and 750Nm of torque through an eight-speed Steptronic transmission to all four unique forged alloy wheels, all of which are shod with regular performance tyres rather than runflats. These wheels are connected to some clever and complex computers which can manage the xDrive system to send 100% of the torque to either the front or rear axle. The Dynamic Performance Control system can also split the drive between the two rear wheels.
On a road drive past the ranches of Texas, all of this mattered little except for on one small piece of coiling road where the handling was superb. However, the BMW engineers told us that the X6M is “track ready” so the place to test it was on the Circuit of Americas. It was my first time at the track and watching F1 there on telly does not do it justice. It is a very technical track with lots of hairpins, S-bends and a steep rise up into turn one before a hairpin drops back down again. I wanted an M3 but the X6M would have to do.
And it did very well indeed. In regular mode it roared and the Steptronic gearbox with its M- treatment provided rapid changes with no sign of lag. It sat well and even refused to cut the power in corners when all the nanny systems were on. Switch to one of the two M-modes, adopt the position on the paddle shifters and it breathed like a real M car.
It might sit higher off the ground but the level of grip was astonishing, even when rapid changes in direction were required through the multiple Sbends. The acceleration was great in spite of the weight and it was only the pit straight where things felt a little uninspiring as it blended all that performance with the essential SUV comfort levels.
Push it hard into the corners and the body roll was surprisingly minimal, helped by the massive seat bolsters in the M-Sport seats that hold you fairly firmly in place. Get it slightly wrong and you get the dreaded understeer but you really have to get it very wrong because this thing can be surprisingly agile under pressure.
The rear can go light if you are a late braker but this allows the back end to step out and, as with the Porsche Macan, you can have a bit of drifting fun.
Purists will debate whether a BMW SUV should ever wear an M-badge but the engineers have done an excellent job of giving it the heart of an M. It looks the part, makes all the right noises and goes like stink. Along with its X5M sibling, it will arrive on the South African market in April with pricing of R1,657,158 for the X5 and R1,690,658 for the X6M.
Is it pointless? Well, as I stamped hard on the brakes and accelerated this huge machine out of each corner on the circuit I began to doubt my stance on the genre. It doesn’t help that I think the X6 is pointless to start with, of course, but I can see the appeal of an M-version. It is bags of fun and appears to defy the laws of physics. That, I suspect, is the appeal of the performance SUV.
Motor News travelled to Austin, Texas to test drive the new BMW X6M The rear bumper is the size of a small Chinese car and contains plenty of sculpted aerodynamic bits