It’s not everyone’s cup of tea, but the BMW X6M Competition is a devastatingly fast SUV. If you’re looking for a big car with bigger performance, this could be it.

I hate the BMW X6M Competition… There, I said it. End of review, turn the virtual page, let’s all move on. According to my editor this concise and overly personal summery was not good enough. The truth of the matter is that I do not want to like the X6M, but there’s a small part of me that does.

Maybe it’s unsurprising that my head is full of contradiction as the BMW X6M Competition is the automotive equivalent of fire and ice. It’s a large SUV with ambitions of being a sporting machine, a sizeable vehicle featuring a less practical coupe roofline, an all-wheel drive SUV that has no intention of hitting the rough stuff. Confused? Join the club. I don’t have a problem with the birth of the ‘super SUV’ – the idea of a comfortable and fast family car works for me – but the X6M brings these two worlds together with the subtlety of a leaf blower.

Looks are subjective, but I’m willing to bet that much of the population with working eyesight find the X6 repulsive – and yet BMW sell plenty of them?! The X6M Competition adds plenty of aggression to its chunky coupe profile. Huge intakes capable of ingesting children dominate the front of the car, with oversized kidney grilles resulting in about 80% of this BMW’s face being made of mesh. Bold lines have been chiselled into the length of this automotive mountain, its vast stature amplified by large 21 and 22 inch alloy wheels. Follow the sloping roofline to the rear to find some recognisable BMW 4 Series traits, just magnified and stretch to fit the sizeable backside of the X6M Comp.

There will be people out there who like the way this car looks, and that’s ok, but then there are also individuals in the population who also like Crocs.

The Interior is actually one of the X6M Competition’s strongest points. It’s a really polished and sculptural space, full of interesting shapes and premium materials. Chunky sports seats similar to those found in the BMW M5 hold front occupants in place, while bright red programable ‘M’ buttons perch on the three-pronged steering wheel.

A tiered carbon-cladded dashboard is dominated by a large 12.3-inch infotainment system. Said display runs the excellent BMW iDrive software that is quite possibly the best in any car at this point in time. A large digital driver’s display also feeds information to the driver in the form of detailed graphics.

Rear occupants of our test car can enjoy their own entertainment displays and stretch out to enjoy respectable levels of leg room. That sloping roofline does eat into headroom though, with anyone over 5’7” struggling to sit upright. Boot space is a good 580-litres, but due to that shallow rear windscreen angle, you loose quite a bit of hight – not ideal for dogs or tall cargo.

Under the bonnet you’ll find the same beating heart as the M5 Competition, so no complaints there. The twin-turbocharged 4.4-litre V8 produced 616bhp and 750Nm of torque, an output that translates to a 0-62mph sprint of just 3.8 seconds and a top speed touching 180mph – not bad for a car weighing 2,295kg.

It goes without saying, but the BMW X6M Competition is incredibly fast. Like a comet screaming through space, this huge hunk of car uses its sheer grunt and all-wheel drive to bully physics into submission. You’re sucked back into your seat while a synthetic but burly tone resonates your eardrums. Its eight-speed automatic gearbox cracks through the gears without hesitation as the world around you becomes a high-speed blur.

Charging towards a tightening series of bends naturally calls for slowing down this big beast. Thankfully, there’s plenty of stopping power with large 395mm discs for the calipers to bite. The steering is weighty and precise, however, its lack of feedback does leave you feeling a little detached from what’s going on.

More impressive is this X6’s quick change of direction that its sheer mass should limit. Instead of a lot of wallowing and understeer, the driver receives sturdy body control and surefooted cornering from the all-wheel drive system. It really is remarkable how keen this car drives through the twisty stuff. While I can understand that BMW’s M differential is hard at work, I can only conclude that these driving manners are only made possible via witchcraft.

Ultimately, that’s where my conflict lies. The BMW X6M Competition must truly be commended for its missile-like performance and the biblical engineering effort afforded to make such a big car dance the way it does. However, the fact that it’s a very large, but arguably impractical for its scale, car is such an oxymoron. Also, the expected comfort of an SUV is compromised by an unsettled ride, courtesy of the very suspension that makes it so good around the corners.

If you can stomach the way this car looks, don’t need the practicality, desire the performance and wouldn’t hesitate at the £115,745 price tag, have at it. The rest of us will be driving the X5M.

Facts and figures

Model tested: BMW M6M Competition

Price: £115,745

Engine: Twin-turbocharged 4.4-litre V8

Transmission: 8-speed automatic

Power / Torque: 616bhp / 750Nm

0-62mph: 3.8 seconds

Top speed: 180mph

Seating: 5

Boot space: 580-litres

MPG: 21mpg

CO2: 300g/km

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