30 AUGUST 2019The Monticello Motor Club in New York
probably wouldn’t rank in the top fifty of
great circuits. You can imagine the late
Charlie Whiting scrupulously eye-balling
around there with his weighty FIA-
emboldened clipboard and scribbling big
red NOs next to the myriad rules and
regulations a modern circuit must now
comply with. Suffice to say, Monticello isn’t
going to host a round of Formula One
anytime soon –picturesque lush mowed
grass rather than 6ft high catch fencing
and grandiose grandstands, it’s aligned to
the millionaire’s playground or gentleman’s
club racing. But then again, we’re in BMW’s
fastest SUV and the last time I checked,
SUVs don’t belong on bonafide racetracks.
Like the X3 M, Monticello is a
tongue-in-cheek place that ticks enough
corner-to-corner boxes but isn’t bound
entirely to those laminated rules. Blind
apexes, a back straight that sees over 125mph
in a X3 M, an elevated chicane reminiscent of
Laguna Seca’s bowel-f lipping corkscrew and
off-camber braking points that wreak havoc
with excess kilograms.
First however some context. Mercedes
launched the GLC 63 AMG a year ago, and
Audi’s found another use for the 2.5-liter in the
Q3 RS for even longer. Pretty sure a hot Jaguar
E-Pace can’t be too far away either. Up till
now, the X3’s elevator rose to level M40i but
that’s mostly a repurposed 340i xDrive sedan
with some extra ground clearance. The X3 M
is the marriage of two strong, albeit contrary
markets, backed by a depth of engineering
we’ve marveled in cars like the BMW M5, but
will also see strands of in the new BMW M3.
Can’t blame a business-minded BMW for
simply joining the dots following a successful
X5M and X6M.
First the design. In the turbulent wake of
the two abrasive Seven Series models, isn’t it a
relief that BMW’s styling appears back on
track? And I refer to the X4M in this too,
which mirrors the boxier X3 M so closely thatBMW’s chief engineer on the project couldn’t
give me, other than headroom and luggage
space, one area where the two differ. Larger
airdams suck more air which then escapes
through the air curtains. The mirrors have the
signature M-design but being a stickler for
tradition I was disappointed that the iconic
power dome on the bonnet doesn’t feature.
Ditto a carbon-fiber roof. Still, the design is
menacing especially in the Competition spec
we drove validated by a high-gloss black grille,
mirror caps, side gills, and rear spoiler and
lightweight 21-inch wheels with a narrower
size tire for the fronts.
The X3 M still uses the vestiges of BMW’s
interior architecture, predating to a mostly
analog instrument cluster with needles for
needles. This is no shrunken new-gen X5, yet
still performs like an upmarket office through
standard functions like Connected Drive as
well as the Professional Navigation system.
Fewer plastics than rivals is another great trait
from the X3 range. Lit-up M-lettering is doneMotoring
“THE X3M IS THE
MARRIAGE OF
T W O S T R O N G ,
ALBEIT CONTRARY
MARKETS”