By Rob Einaudi

Editor-in-Chief

Car and Driver recently ran a feature article on the BMW X6 M where they took the new Bimmer off roading, road racing and drag racing. One photo in the article appears to show the Bimmer pulling ahead of an altered wheelbase 63 Chevy II at Milan Dragway. A close look at the photo shows that it is clearly Photoshopped. Well, the Chevy owner is pissed, and has posted on the H.A.M.B. and the Car and Driver forums. And he doesn’t mince words.

Buddy called a coupla days ago kinda laughing asking me when did you get your doors blown off by a suv,I thought he was kiddin me. I know this world is messed up but WHY try to decive the public? Alls I can say is the mag,editors and writers are LAIRS,CHEATERS and WANNA BE SCAMMERS.
Bring that ol bmw out,title fer title and write an artical bout that.
I’ll be driven around in a little red suv.
No wonder the only time i see that mag is in the doctors office,makes me sick.

Keep in mind that the Chevy runs the quarter in high 9s @ 135 mph while the Bimmer covers the quarter 12.8 seconds @ 110mph. A bit of a difference, huh? So does the Chevy owner deserve to be angry? Does Car and Driver owe him an apology for altering the photo? Thanks for the tip, Tim!

By Rob Einaudi

Editor-in-Chief

This one wasn’t even close. The FX50 AWD absolutely murdered the X6 xDrive35i on CarDomain in this week’s Showroom Showdown. I think it might have had something to do with the Infiniti’s 390 hp V8. Some people were wondering why I didn’t put the FX50 up against the V8 Bimmer. Simple: the V8 Bimmer costs a lot more. Anyway, we’ll try to get back to enthusiast cars next week. If you have any suggestions, leave a comment.

By Rob Einaudi

Editor-in-Chief

This week it’s the battle of the yuppie crossovers! The Bimmer’s 3.0 liter turbo inline-6 puts out 300 hp while the Infiniti’s 5.0 liter V8 puts out 390 hp. Both vehicles run in the high $50k range. Which would you choose?

By Joseph DeLucca

Luxvelocity

The BMW product testing team is at it again, this time shooting footage of their hot new BMW X6 M. Yes there is a BMW X6 coming in M form and it will feature a twin scroll turbo V8 which will be “enhanced as it says in the video.” So expect more horsepower and torque than the twin turbo V8 found in the new next generation 7 Series sedan. You can expect over 400 horsepower and sticky all wheel drive for this M-tuned BMW X6.

While out testing Dodge’s 2009 Durango Two Mode Hybrid in the Mojave Desert, Rich Truesdell spotted three new BMWs:  the 2010 7-Series, the 2010 Z4, and a twin turbo V8 version of the new X6 Sports Activity Coupe. More over at Automotive Traveler.

Continue reading "Three New BMWs Spied in the Desert!" »

Driving home from the mall yesterday, I spotted what looked to be a pair of BMW test cars in full camo, so I turned and snapped a few pics. They turned out to be X6′s, BMW’s upcoming "sport activity coupe" with the twin-turbo V8. One of the cars had a weird-looking hood bulge, and the other was being driven by an older guy with a computer. Check below the jump for more pics.

Continue reading "Camouflaged BMW X6's Seen Driving in Michigan" »

We’ve finally gotten a good look at the upcoming BMW X6, a shapely crossover that will really define a new segment – just as we were starting to run out of new segments for carmakers to create. Think of the X6 as a very tall Mercedes CLS with a hatchback. That doesn’t sound appealing? Well, maybe that’s not the best way to describe it.

Mercedes’ CLS more or less invented the ultra-high-end four-door luxury coupe market when it was first introduced. By combining a seductive shape with four-door practicality, Mercedes had a new vehicle that, in many ways, hearkened back to the era of coach built cars. And that’s exactly what BMW is going for the with the X6.

We shouldn’t really say that BMW is inventing the segment because Infiniti created it with the FX, a vehicle that combined the sporty driving nature of a performance sedan with the increased practicality and all-weather capability of an SUV. BMW takes it one step further, however, with a much more four-door-coupe-like design and, no doubt, a significant step up in performance. That’s not to say that the FX isn’t a high performance vehicle – it is, but we’re expecting even more out of the BMW.

From these latest spy photos, we can really see the sloping shape of the X6. There’s hardly a flat spot in the roofline, which slopes back aggressively just behind the rear passengers’ heads. We’ve seen some great spy shots of the X6 that give us an idea of the potentially confining rear seat accommodations. But that’s just like the Mercedes CLS, which has a tight, hard-to-enter back seat, too.

For luxury automakers, we’re guessing this is where the crossover/SUV market will head. These vehicles offer a bit of additional clearance, decent cargo capacity, sporty driving characteristics, limited towing capability and a unique, expressive style – all of the ingredients that will almost undoubtedly spell success.