Need For Speed

BMW X3M Competition

The Monticello Motor Club in New York probably wouldn’t rank in the top fifty of great circuits. You can imagine the late Charlie Whiting scrupulously eye-balling around there with his weighty FIAemboldened clipboard and scribbling big red NOs next to the myriad rules and regulations a modern circuit must now comply with. Suffice to say, Monticello isn’t going to host a round of Formula One anytime soon –picturesque lush mowed grass rather than 6ft high catch fencing and grandiose grandstands, it’s aligned to the millionaire’s playground or gentleman’s club racing. But then again, we’re in BMW’s fastest SUV and the last time I checked, SUVs don’t belong on bonafide racetracks.

Like the X3 M, Monticello is a tongue-in-cheek place that ticks enough corner-to-corner boxes but isn’t bound entirely to those laminated rules. Blind apexes, a back straight that sees over 125mph in a X3 M, an elevated chicane reminiscent of Laguna Seca’s bowel-flipping corkscrew and off-camber braking points that wreak havoc with excess kilograms.

First however some context. Mercedes launched the GLC 63 AMG a year ago, and Audi’s found another use for the 2.5-liter in the Q3 RS for even longer. Pretty sure a hot Jaguar E-Pace can’t be too far away either. Up till now, the X3’s elevator rose to level M40i but that’s mostly a repurposed 340i xDrive sedan with some extra ground clearance. The X3 M is the marriage of two strong, albeit contrary markets, backed by a depth of engineering we’ve marveled in cars like the BMW M5, but will also see strands of in the new BMW M3.

Can’t blame a business-minded BMW for simply joining the dots following a successful X5M and X6M.