First Drive: 2010 BMW X6 M

Story and photos by John LeBlanc ROAD ATLANTA, GA.–Over the past decade, BMW has noodled with the idea of creating a high-performance M vehicle out of one of its X-badged all-wheel-drive off-roaders in various concepts and one-offs. Once the German automaker even admitted that combining its M and X badges would be like mixing oil and water – virtually impossible. But the lure of healthy profit margins and the desire to create a "niche within a niche" has finally manifested itself as the first pair of BMW SUVs to wear the celebrated M badge of the German automaker's in-house performance brand. When they go on sale in Canada later this fall, the five-passenger 2010 X5 M Sports Activity Vehicle ($97,900) and the four-seater X6 M Sports Activity Coupé ($99,900), will join other oxymoronic "performance SUVs" like the $49,995 Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT8, $97,500 Mercedes-Benz ML 63 AMG and $118,900 Porsche Cayenne Turbo. At a time when the popularity of high-performance vehicles and SUVs has declined, why introduce such vehicles? Won't the models muddy the M-brand's credibility with driving enthusiasts? Officially, BMW's reasoning goes something like this: The M versions of the X5 and X6 were started well before the economy went to hell in a hand basket last fall. In addition, development costs using existing vehicles were relatively puny. Whatever you may think, Kay Segler, president of BMW M GmbH, said here at the vehicles' first drive event that the market called for a "sports car SUV." Visually, both SUVs receive a raft of M brand accoutrements. Inside, you'll find M-specific front seats, steering wheel, driver instrumentation and paddle shifters. Plus the steering wheel mounted M-mode button that adjusts steering, engine, transmission, shocks and stability control settings. Outside, a new hood, front air dam and headlights, fender gills, 20-inch wheels and a rear diffuser with quad exhaust pipes distinguish the M versions over the X5 and X6 models. But it's the absence of some traditional M hardware that shows the brand's evolution. With no naturally aspirated engine, rear-wheel-drive or manual transmission (only a six-speed automatic is available), the pair abandon many of the M-brand tenets that the automaker has stubbornly stayed true to since the1960s. Back then, BMW's "M" stood for "motorsports." Production cars were just a sideline, a necessary evil to satisfy homologation rules to go racing. The first official M-badged car for sale, the mid-engine 1978 M1, was more of a street-legal race car than a daily driver. Drive any contemporary M3, M5 or M6, though, and the quasi-race car driving experience is still in effect: a high-revving engine with a metallic whine that beckons you to work the clutch pedal and stick shift hard, with the sort of knife-edge handing that blows rival performance cars into the weeds. The latest M vehicles are not like that. We didn't get to drive the new X5 M. But compared to an M3, the X6 M we did get behind the wheel of is no "sports car." Like its rivals, BMW's high-performance SUV is simply too tall and too heavy (at 2,415 kg, the M version weighs 25 kg more than the non-M X6 V8) to deliver the type of driver confidence that a lower and lighter performance car would possess. All of which means: any discussion of the X6 M's performance capabilities uses a lot of parentheses. For example, we already think the regular X6 is the best-handling vehicle in its class (as an SUV). In the M version, the X6's standard Dynamic Performance Control rear differential, which accelerates either of the wheels to counterbalance grip, has been retained. Combined with M-specific suspension geometry and damping, it gives the BMW a clear-cut road-holding advantage over other sporty SUVs. Similarly, its all-wheel drive system has been tweaked subtly so more torque can be sent to the back wheels to give the sense the SUV drives more like a rear-drive M car. Yet despite these superior dynamics (for an SUV), finding the outer limits of the heavy X6 M's handling on a high-speed race track takes some bravado. Like having a pit-bull for a pet, you just never know when it may go off. And despite upgraded brakes, after two laps of Road Atlanta's road course, the X6 M's stoppers strained to rein in the SUV's heft. It doesn't have the 740 hp that the 1999 X5 LeMans V12 concept pumped out – but the X6 M is plenty fast (for an SUV). Both new SUVs get a modified version of the 4.4 L V8 that puts out 400 hp and 450 lb.-ft. of torque in the $78,100 X6 xDrive50i. In M guise, it now makes a class-leading 555 hp and a healthy 500 lb.-ft. With the help of the M-mode's launch control, the X6 M can get from 0-to-100 km/h in a segment-best 4.7 seconds. That's not only 1.2 seconds faster than the X6 xDrive50i, but about 0.3 of a second quicker than the aforementioned performance SUV rivals. At first blush, the ostentatious X6 M may be either a dream come true or nightmare in the making. Many will wonder how relevant a performance SUV is in an age of environmental and economical worries – let alone whether it waters down BMW's vaunted M brand. But lovers of such excess should have no problem with BMW putting an M on these off-roaders. Most potential X6 M owners probably won't get the opportunity to take Road Atlanta's Turn Nine at 230 km/h, like we did. But if they want the fastest, best-handling SUV on the planet, BMW's once impossible X6 M seems to be it. 2010 BMW X6 M

PRICE: (base) $99,900

ENGINE: Twin-turbo 4.4 L V8

POWER/TORQUE: 555 hp/500 lb.-ft.

FUEL CONSUMPTION: (Combined EU cycle) 13.9 L/100 km (20 m.p.g.)

COMPETITION: Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT8, Mercedes-Benz ML 63 AMG, Porsche Cayenne Turbo

WHAT'S BEST: Performance, steering and handling

WHAT'S WORST: Flaunt-it-if-you-got-it image, market relevance, breaks the M brand mould

WHAT'S INTERESTING: BMW says X6 M is as fast around the Nurburgring racetrack as the previous six-cylinder M3

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