The Salzburgring’s surface is perfection, billiard ball smooth. Wipers on, we drive behind an instructor who is in radio contact with each car. Six cars head out onto the track and we build up speed lap on lap. The track is wet yet on lap five I enter the final hairpin at close to 190km/h, oblivious to the velocity, such is the technology behind these peerless machines.

It includes the intelligent XDrive all-wheel drive system, which electronically controls the distribution of power between front and rear axles. In the X5M and X6M this is set up with a rear-drive bias for the first time, which means – depending on the situation – less drive is directed to the front than in the regular X5 and X6 models. This enables controlled drifting, a unique experience in an AWD vehicle.

But there is more: Dynamic Performance Control is the logical extension of  XDrive. It ensures variable distribution of drive between the rear wheels, increasing torque on the outer wheel when negotiating a bend, thus maximising agility.
Earlier, I did enter the second chicane too fast and would have exited rapidly into the vegetation in most other vehicles. But the fail-safe technology of X5M / X6M quite literally kept me on track. As this memorable day progressed it got better, the directional stability of these cars being so superb that the acceleration out of corners is phenomenal.

January/February 2010