A BRIEF ENCOUNTER WITH BMW

A few days before the North West was ordered into Tier 3, I found myself in a plane hanger down at the Bicester Heritage museum with the good folks from BMW.

They had quite a few new models for us to play with, erm, drive, from the all-new 4 Series, 5 Series, M5 to the new MINI Countryman, and a few others.

With such a vast amount of loveliness on offer, I decided to head right to the top of the crop and take the new X6 M Competition for a run, and then the X5 M Competition as I’ve always preferred the X6 over the X5, it’s much a funkier design.

As the names suggests, these aren’t your usual Sports Activity Vehicles (SAV), in fact they’re quite unique.

Both the X5 M Competition and X6 M Competition are available in a limited run of just 250 examples each, and both enjoy a high-revving 4.4 litre V8 with two turbochargers, M-specific suspension, M xDrive all-wheel drive and 625bhp on tap.

X6

Settling into the snug bucket seats that hold you in position, you immediately know that both these cars are meant for greater things than just the school run, then, firing up the V8s and you’re subjected to a cacophony of power that settles down to a deep rumble, very satisfying indeed.

Speaking of satisfying, the interiors are a lovely place to while away the hours. The seats are made with Merino full leather trim in exclusive bi-colour Silverstone/Midnight Blue with black Alcantara inserts in the seat bolsters and contrast stitching in Sakhir Orange emphasise the sporting contours of the M multifunction seats.

There are a lot of buttons to press, new owners will need to spend a good day or so going through the manual figuring out what does what! On the subject of complicated, both Competition models have an eight-speed M Steptronic transmission with Drivelogic, whose gearshift characteristics can be adjusted using the Drivelogic button on the M-specific selector lever. I’m sounding like an old man now, “In my day you had two choices, a 4 speed manual or 3 speed auto, and that’s your lot!”

X5

Out on the open country lanes around Banbury, both vehicles possessed character that exudes excitement. Dropping a gear as you approach a corner and powering through it fills you with immense joy, but those 625 horses soon have have you stepping on the equally powerful brakes as both vehicles are far too eager to have you breaking the speed limit.

Further into my short test drive, I may have found their Achilles Heel, as on the narrow and undulating lanes around the village of Aynho I was thrown around a bit, it’s a good job the seat belts clamp you into the seats, otherwise I’d have found myself thrown in the boot.

It’s obvious really, both these SAVs are built for smoother roads, and race tracks.

Despite having a bit of (legal) fun in them both, average fuel consumption for both as around 21-22mpg, which wasn’t too bad, considering.