Munich’s fastest full-size SUV-coupé gets mid-life powertrain and chassis tweaks
MODEL TESTEDM COMPETITION
Super-SUVs like the BMW X6 M have always been a puzzling concept: big, heavy and tall, yet supposedly also fast, sharp in the corners and fun to drive. For the traditional car enthusiast, they have never really worked.
But it seems modern suspension technology is allowing the super-SUV to come of age. Four-wheel steering, active anti-roll bars and air suspension – or in the case of the Ferrari Purosangue, mind-bending spool-valve dampers – all work together to deal with the weight and high centre of gravity of these SUVs to create genuine driver’s cars.
The X6 M – and its mechanically identical sibling, the X5 M – have long done without many of those mechanical aids, sticking with steel coil springs and a standard rear axle that doesn’t steer. The only concession are active anti-roll bars.
The standard X5 and X6 have just been facelifted, which has brought in mild-hybrid tech, and that even extends to the M versions. However, while there have been a number of chassis optimisations, the BMWs remain quite simple – or quite pure, depending on how you look at it.
We have put the refreshed X6 M through the full road test to find out whether that recipe is able to translate M-car sensations to an SUV – and whether it can work on the road as well as the track.
DESIGN AND ENGINEERING
While the new X6 M Competition is, of course, fundamentally the same as the car that came out in 2019, this facelifted model is marked out by a surprisingly long list of detail changes, many of them mechanical.
As before, the X6 uses the CLAR platform. It gets double-wishbone front suspension and a multi-link set-up at the rear. Air suspension is either standard or an option on all but the full-blown M cars, which stick with coil springs and adaptive dampers. That seems to be the M way. This generation of X6 M also uses active anti-roll bars front and rear, though their range of functionality appears to be milder than in rivals like the Audi RS Q8.
The ‘M Compound’ brakes consist of cast-iron discs attached via pins to an aluminium centre ‘hat’ that allows the disc to expand and contract, thus making it able to manage heat more efficiently. Carbon-ceramics are not available.
