What do you think about the CONCEPT of the X6M Competition?

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I’ll be honest, I have a hard time with the concept of this one, it’s an SUV from BMW’s M division which means it’s blisteringly quick, loud, and exciting.

BUT it’s an SUV, which means it’s got a jacked up ride, and a big trunk

AND YET it’s got the “coupe” body style so you compromise that trunk space as well the rear seat headroom a bit

Anyway, identity crisis aside, we need to talk about what this thing is like behind the wheel

Thundering away under the hood is the beating heart of a 4.4L TT V8 and we’re familiar with this S63 from our time in the X5M, M5, M8 and a few others. It’s a brilliantly powerful engine, and in Competition spec it’s dialed up to make a whopping 617hp and 553lbft

That hp figure is way up over the “base” X6M, but the torque number stays the same…But that doesn’t mean this thing lumbers off the line

This thing gets to 60 in under 4 seconds…quick reminder this is still a mid-size SUV that can go on a hefty Costco run..and the world’s quickest Costco run at that

Now, power is great for grabbing headlines and selling cars, but the M division over at BMW have always taken themselves a little more seriously than chucking up big power figures and not fussing over the rest. Leave that to SRT. No, with the letter M on the back, and especially with “competition” underneath, rest assured this is NOT a 1 trick pony.

So there’s a high level of expectation this thing is carrying around and as we start to put it through a couple corners we’ll see if the conflicting ideologies of a Super SUV Coupe really works in practice

But here’s the thing..idk how they did it but they pulled it off!

The brakes are huge and strong
The steering is super accurate
The mid corner grip from these Pirelli PZero tires is really impressive
The damping is variable and can change to suit the road conditions
And that’s made possible by that rigid and balanced chassis underneath

And then when you get to corner exit, and roll on the throttle, you have an eLSD making sure none of that power is wasted

However, there’s 2 things that I’m very aware of… weight and height

From a powertrain perspective this X6M, along with basically the entire lineup from BMW is faultless. The engines are potent, the ZF gearboxes have amazing shift logic, and their differential tuning doesn’t waste an ounce of power. HOWEVER, no amount of shift tuning or spring rate adjustment will make me unaware of how high I’m sitting and how the over 5000 lbs feels on braking and in a corner. It’s not to say that it’s detrimental to the dynamics, but if you were expecting this X6M to handle and rotate like an M5…well you shouldn’t expect car manufacturers to defy physics

That said, I didn’t go into this day thinking an SUv would drive like a sedan, that would be insane. What I went into this day thinking was “I bet that X6M will be a riot behind the wheel…and it is!

But in the interest of being thorough, let’s dail things back into comfort, slow things down and see how this X6M gets on doing the SUV part of Super SUV

Just cruising in this thing is, what I would call “fine”

You could certainly do a cross country trip in this thing, but you probably make it to the opposite coast without a licence

BECAUSE, while the X6M Comp CAN settle down a bit, it will never be as soft or plush as a mainstream SUV, it’s always giving you that little nudge begging you to pin it

So, behind the wheel this X6M Comp is insanely quick, it handles better than a lot of mid-tier sportscars, and with the comps all getting mSport exhaust it makes all the right noises…and it CAN do the daily thing, but you can tell at its heart it wants to be driven. So with that let’s step outside