31in tasteful quantity and it’s only once you’ve
been bombarded with new-gen tech that you
realize how well the older, static layouts work.
Easy to adjust during and cornering and
nicely understated tones and graphics, apart
from those blazing-red M1 and M2 buttons
positioned just north of the thumb placement
on the steering wheel.
BMW’s drivetrain has always been the
benchmark in one-touch programmability.
Despite the X3 M not having a dedicated 2WD
mode in its arsenal ‘because X-models are not
cars you need to slide’ this maintains the
natural f low of a rear-driven SUV right at the
limit. From there power can be divvied front
and rear, left and right with just enough
feedback during each process.
We’re in mode M2 around Monticello,
currently preconfigured the same way I’d have
mine. Steering: Comfort. xDrive: 4WD Sport.
Gearbox: S3. Dampers: Sport. You sit high
which would be disconcerting were the front
axle not as laser-sharp on turn-in. Not in
Italian supercar nervousness, but so true a
fraction off-center that the X3 M’s agility is
like nothing else I’ve experienced in an SUV.
Exciting. And more times than not, the car’s
weight follows, but despite the myriad
modifications like lower ride height and
beefier anti-roll bars the X3 M can’t quite do
the late-brake-and-steer multitask with the
same poise as a sedan. Brakes are the same
effective setup used on BMW’s M760Li which
as we already know stops the heavier car
brilliantly from similar speeds.
Also making its debut is the six-cylinder
engine which has been in the works for the
last five years to meet the latest WLTP while
producing more shove. Only the air
compressor unit from the outgoing 3.0-liter
straight-six twin-turbo was retained. Injection
pressure is up from 200 to 350bar, boost
pressure is lowered to around 2.2 bar and the
whole engine weighs about eleven kilograms
less than the one it replaces. No mutated
hybrid tricks or electrically-driven turbosbecause that doesn’t suit BMW’s high-revving
nature. The Competition’s 22kW muscle gain
and M Sport exhaust drops a boastful tenth
from the 100km/h time.
That same high-revving characteristic true
of the outgoing S55 engine was intentionally
carried over yet without a previous X3 M to
compare impossible to say whether the new
engine feels stronger. But it’s brawny and
supple, producing max power at 6,250, then
holding that to 7,200. Sound? A mature
baritone paired with acute fireworks on the
overrun but conscious to the latest noise
emissions. My guess is they’ll go a bit wilder
with the M3’s four-pipe system.
In the same breath, X3 M is both niche, yet
M Division’s most widely dimpled product. All
the hardware then the harmonious systems
that run them are correct and present you just
operate them from a slightly elevated position,
which is enough just to lower one’s pulse at
the wheel versus the other M-Division models
its componentry will spawn.“BMW ’S DRIVETRAIN
HAS ALWAYS BEEN THE
BENCHMARK IN ONE-TOUCH
PROGRAMMABILITY”