Just one corner, that’s all it takes. The BMW X6 hurtles towards it with a kind of rock off a cliff momentum, obeys the dab of slow pedal and then makes a hefty lurch for the turn in. you imagine its going to loll and further like an SUV should on a racetrack, an impression magnified by the fact that you are sitting so high up a niftily punted Lotus 2 Eleven could pass under you. But the result is startling. Grip, extra turn-in more grip, more throttle, no lean, no wander. You are out and flooring it, not so much grinning as chuckling. Clearly this much desired SUV meets coupe mash up actually works. But on earth is it doing here, crashing the Gumpert/ Lambo-fest with as much hope of success as a giraffe in dark sunglasses trying to blag his way into a polar bears only golf club? Its here because its designed to perform. Not only that, its designed to do that thing no SUV has yet properly nailed going round corners. Using something called Dynamics Performance Control it dishes torque form wheel to wheel, maximizing grip and thus stabilizing the car, even when you are off the power. This, plus BMW’s awfully good X-drive four wheel drive system and the use of ‘efficient Dynamics’ (brake energy regeneration, a clever alternator and low friction) make a compelling case. Love it or not, it deserves its chance, even in boggo 3.5i petrol form.
But we couldn’t find a group to stick it in, until our eyes alighted on Audi RS6, sitting quietly in the corner, trying to avoid awkward questions about its vicious price tag.(that’s 80 grand to you, fahad—unless you’d prefer an X6, a Clio Cup and three grand in change?).Okay Audi is a different beast, but it shares with the BMW an avowed determination to overcome a massive weight problem and still perform like a stick thin athlete. These two cars at just over 2000kg each pack roughly the same heft. Together all the fat jokes.
