December 10 2009   Story: Bryan Joslin

When the first BMW M3 arrived on these shores, it was a direct offspring of the Motorsport division’s effort to win races on the FIA touring car circuit—bulging, razor-edged bodywork constrained a high-revving engine and dialed-in chassis. The street version was the epitome of the company’s “Ultimate Driving Machine” mantra, even though it only sported a 193-horsepower four-cylinder engine and 205-series tires. How times have changed—that’s all I can think as I buckle in behind the wheel of the latest M-tuned derivative from BMW, the 550-horsepower, twin-turbo V8-powered, all-wheel-drive 2010 X5M.

Today’s M vehicles are a less direct byproduct of racing, but are still very much inspired by the company’s motorsports efforts. As explained by Dr. Kay Segler, president of M GmbH, the current M philosophy is built on four cornerstones — agility, response, feedback and innovation. Modern M vehicles are also burdened with the task of being highly profitable for the parent, as well as casting their glow upon the company’s more pedestrian models in order to remind even the commonest of commoners that every BMW is still the Ultimate Driving Machine.

In many ways, BMW’s M brand has smartly adapted to a changing market, and has largely given it exactly what it wants. No shame in that — it’s how they’re able to keeping building great everyday transportation like the 335i and that’s exactly why we don’t fault BMW for building an amped-up supersport utility/activity vehicle. It’s a logical progression, one we could see coming back in 2001 when BMW’s first SAV was fitted with a 740-horsepower V12 to create the X5 LeMans Concept.

Now the spirit of that once outrageous concept lives on in reality. The X5M (so named because an MX5 is something entirely different) will undoubtedly be as polarizing as a town-hall healthcare debate. But for M enthusiasts it’s not so much a matter of whether one finds favor with the concept, but whether it lives up to the four cornerstones of the M badge, as extolled by Dr. Kay.

Agility
It seems almost unfathomable to be discussing the agility of a 5000-plus-pound utility vehicle in sports car terms, but the X5M takes the already impressive X5 to new levels. The X5’s double-wishbone front and multi-link rear suspensions and xDrive all-wheel-drive system provide an excellent base on which to build a proper M sport-tuned chassis setup, but it’s the addition of Dynamic Performance Control that make this two-and-a-half-tonner dance like Baryshnikov. By directing more torque to the outside rear wheel during aggressive cornering, the X5M manages to eliminate understeer until the physics simply don’t work any more.

The X5M tackles corners like a Mini Cooper. We’ve driven the X5M extensively on the street (and drove the mechanically-identical X6M at Road Atlanta), and it’s entirely unnatural how light and nimble it feels when driven assertively. Turn the wheel and it just follows; no howling from the front tires, no excessive body lean. There are few SUVs we would ever consider taking to a track day or even an autocross (except for the sheer sake of irony), but we suspect the X5M would put more than a few modded-out 3-series cars to shame.

A healthy dose of electronics is what makes all of this possible, of course. Multiple sensors and computers are constantly chattering away at each other to keep every last output in check. There’s simply no other way to make this much mass behave so well so quickly.

Response
Response can come in many forms, but the X5M seems to be most responsive to a heavy right foot. The 5368-pound sport utility seems to shed mass as it propels itself to 60 mph from a dead stop in just 4.5 seconds. The massive torque curve is partly to thank, aided by the overwhelming traction afforded by all four of its gigantic tires – 275/40R20 in front and 315/35R20 in the rear – clawing angrily at the asphalt.

It also helps that the transmission is a willing participant, especially since the only option is a six-speed automatic. Yes, it seems wrong to not even offer a manual gearbox in an M vehicle, but BMW doesn’t even make a manual that can deal with all 500-lb-ft of torque when the turbos are on boost. Luckily the automatic snaps off shifts with lightning speed and, especially in the Sport mode, always finds the right gear for conditions. The full manual mode is close enough to an actual stick-shift, refusing to upshift itself without your input; it’s content to bounce off the rev-limiter all day if you forget to handle the business.

The brakes complete the package. The 15.6-inch rotors being squeezed by four-piston, four-pad calipers in front, and aided by 15.2-inch discs in back quickly convert rotational energy into massive amounts of heat energy. The X5M stops as unbelievably as it launches, and because of the size of the rotors it’s able to do so time after time without fade. Even at Road Atlanta, where we were reaching 140 mph before braking downhill to enter the slow 90-degree left at 10A, the brakes held up for lap after lap, so long as the traction control was defeated.

Feedback
Remember what we said about the electronics doing overtime? The downside to all the electro-intrusion is that the driving experience feels a bit detached. Sure, it follows orders well enough, but as a driver you don’t feel entirely connected to the process. You get a sense that there’s a whole lot of stuff happening between your flick of the wrist and the actual vehicle reaction. From the gas and brake pedals to the steering wheel, the whole sensation is not unlike playing a driving video game; every reaction feels more synthesized than direct. In this area the X5M feels least like any of its M forebears.

Innovation
The most innovative piece of technology on the X5M may be the reverse-flow twin-turbo V8 engine. By redirecting the gas flow through the engine – intake on the outside of the “V” and exhaust manifolds and turbos in the valley – BMW engineers have been able to dramatically reduce turbo lag and improve engine responsiveness. An added benefit of this arrangement is that all of the extra heat that results from turbocharging is already up high, helping to keep intake temperatures down.

BMW might insist the very idea of such a beastly sport utility vehicle is innovative by itself. And while the concept may not be entirely original – packing a screamer motor into a sleeper body has been around forever – it’s the way BMW manages to make it work so well that makes it such a success. The combination of brute strength, a rock-solid platform and sophisticated driving aids in such a functional piece of family-friendly machinery puts the X5M in a class by itself.

But does it deserve to wear the M badge? Well, it’s not the lightweight, purpose-built track car that the original M3 was. It’s not even the slightly heavy but supremely balanced car that the current M3 is. It has absolutely no pretensions of being a race car. But it does deliver a highly entertaining driving experience at thresholds beyond most drivers’ comfort zones. In the 21st Century, that’s probably enough to earn its credentials.