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Written by Rowan Horncastle
You may remember that ten years ago BMW put a thorn in the side of enthusiasts by slapping an M badge on the X5. Not only was it BMW M"s first SUV, it was the first time it had played with four-wheel-drive. Welcome then, to the new BMW M cars joining the Sports Activity Vehicle" club: the X3 M and X4 M, along with both cars" Competition variants. Wound, meet salt. Though, considering one in every three cars that leaves a BMW showroom these days is an X, it"s actually quite surprising the X3 and its coupe cousin (the X4) haven"t had an M makeover sooner. But they"re very much here now. Let"s start with the engine. It"s the most powerful straight-six that"s ever been put in a Bee-Em. It"s also been twin-turbocharged to give the 3.0-litre six-pot 480bhp and 442 lb ft in the standard cars. The Competition cars get an extra 30bhp, taking them to 510bhp. Fed through an eight-speed box, where, like other M cars the aggressiveness of the gearchange can go from 1 (smooth) to 3 (whip-crack-what-was-that?), both the X3 and X4 M can accelerate from 0-62 mph in 4.2 seconds while the Comp cars shave off a further tenth (4.1s). Unsurprisingly, they all wear velocity belts that limit them to 155 mph. The optional M Driver"s Package raises that to 174mph in standard cars, and 177mph in Competition models.
Date written: 12 Feb 2019
More of this article on the Top gear website
ID: 14826
You may remember that ten years ago BMW put a thorn in the side of enthusiasts by slapping an M badge on the X5. Not only was it BMW M"s first SUV, it was the first time it had played with four-wheel-drive. Welcome then, to the new BMW M cars joining the Sports Activity Vehicle" club: the X3 M and X4 M, along with both cars" Competition variants. Wound, meet salt. Though, considering one in every three cars that leaves a BMW showroom these days is an X, it"s actually quite surprising the X3 and its coupe cousin (the X4) haven"t had an M makeover sooner. But they"re very much here now. Let"s start with the engine. It"s the most powerful straight-six that"s ever been put in a Bee-Em. It"s also been twin-turbocharged to give the 3.0-litre six-pot 480bhp and 442 lb ft in the standard cars. The Competition cars get an extra 30bhp, taking them to 510bhp. Fed through an eight-speed box, where, like other M cars the aggressiveness of the gearchange can go from 1 (smooth) to 3 (whip-crack-what-was-that?), both the X3 and X4 M can accelerate from 0-62 mph in 4.2 seconds while the Comp cars shave off a further tenth (4.1s). Unsurprisingly, they all wear velocity belts that limit them to 155 mph. The optional M Driver"s Package raises that to 174mph in standard cars, and 177mph in Competition models.
Date written: 12 Feb 2019
More of this article on the Top gear website
ID: 14826
