X6 M Competition: 3.2-second 0-60, Off-roading Savagery
X6 M Competition: An ‘Alphabet Soup’ of Specs
That’s partly to blame on the new X6’s far stiffer new shell, bespoke kinematic and elastokinematic properties. Add M-specific adaptive suspension with electronically controlled dampers, active roll stabilisation, M Servotronic steering and Dynamic Stability Control form in the M Dynamic Mode. Sounds like alphabet soup, I know. But it all works!
Which means that X6 M Competition goes exactly where you point it; on or off the power. It holds the road effortlessly and devours the space ahead in dramatic fashion. Quite astounding for a 5000 lbs behemoth to be truthful.
21” front and 22” rear wheel and tyre gives the big, bad Beemer the best of both worlds — directional control into corners and a cool, planted feeling coming out. Just amazing for such a big car. never mind a shockingly comfy ride.
Having devoured a considerable amount of fuel at full chat (don’t worry — it’s actually quite good in normal driving at 15 mpg), I was still eager to drive this car hard and took in a few local passes.
Then we slowed it down completely. I had long before decided to take the beast off-road — it’s a damn well 4×4 after all, is it not? So we need to test it off-road, no…?
I’m not a fan of off-road courses — sure, they’re great for training, but this is actually the real world. To that end, we have a good few really rough routes close by, old loggers paths and farm tracks, which I know relatively well. And we’d just come out of three day of rain, so it was a proper little test with all the mud and muck.
A fish out of water? Not quite!
To be honest, X6 M Competition handled the tougher dirt very well. It’s important to know how deep or severe a ditch you can tackle. The front valence and spoiler are really low, which is the only real limitation if you’re gentle enough. Sure, the low profile rubber is also a limiting factor and I would not get clever over too sharp a break-over angle.
Against expectation, the X6 M Competition proved a gentle giant in the rough. It’s soft enough not to break traction even with all that grunt and throttle modulation is good. I had to reverse out of one muddy situation after underestimating the severity of the hole, but it pulled out easily.
On my way back onto the tarmac, I stopped to snap the picture of the car reflecting in the puddle.
I hopped out, camera in hand. And went down like a lead balloon, the camera skitting across the slime. Remember those old Italian sneakers I refer to above? Well they did not like that mud one bit. it was quite a tumble. I had to walk very carefully from there to get the picture – it was quite treacherous!
The point of reporting my tumble is simple. X6 M Competition was just as out of its depth on those muddy tracks as I was in my sneakers. In 4×4 terms, those tyres have no real traction at all in the mud, just like my Supergas. But the BMW mastered the conditions and I went ass over kettle.
Moral of the story — this BMW passed the off road test as well as it aced it on the road. And that’s something I’d never have expected!
Photos: Michele Lupini