The 2015 BMW X6 M has reportedly lapped the Nurburgring Nordschleife->ke999 in 8:20 minutes. That's the word from Bimmer Today, which claims that the fast lap was recorded by another German publication, Auto Zeitung. The SUV->ke145 was driven by Nurburgring specialist Horst von Saurma, the man responsible for more than 50 official lap times on the "Green Hell" since the late 1990s.
Though it's impressive for an SUV, the 8:20-minute lap doesn't make the X6 M the fastest crossover->ke288 around the 'Ring. That crown remains with the 2015 Range Rover Sport SVR, which lapped the German track in 8:14 minutes in July 2014. What's more, von Saurma's time is far off from BMW's original claim that the X6 M would be as quick as the previous-generation 2008 BMW M3 Coupe, which needed 8:05 to complete the course. Instead, the SUV was only two seconds quicker than the E46 M3. Both M3s->ke2366 were driven by von Saurma in 2007 and 2000, respectively.
Despite being slower than BMW wanted us to believe, the X6 M was still quicker than a bunch of full-fledged sports cars,->ke506 including the Nissan->ke62 Skyline GT-R R32 and older versions of the Lotus->ke49 Exige S and Porsche->ke1 Cayman S. That's nothing to sneeze at given the SUV tips the scales at 5,185 pounds. The twin-turbo, 4.4-liter V-8 engine and its 567 horsepower and 553 pound-feet of torque, as well as the sophisticated underpinnings that make the SUV handle like an performance sedan->ke142 work as intended.
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Why it matters
Though I find Nurburgring lap times to be rather useless for road cars, I do agree that sometimes they can be used to compare certain vehicles from a performance standpoint. In this case, it turns out the BMW X6 M is significantly slower than the Range Rover Sport SVR, a result which I'm sure many Bimmer enthusiasts weren't expecting.
On the other hand, it's true that this is an independent lap, which means the figure would see an improvement if BMW were to tackle the Nordschleife with a professional team and a racing driver. Still, I'd be surprised to see the X6 M lap the "Green Hell" as quick as the previous-generation M3 Coupe, unless the Germans replaced certain parts with more race-focused ones.
Until further notice, what matters here is that BMW seemingly wants the SUV to be seem quicker than it really is. Again, I'm not saying its Nurburgring lap isn't impressive, I just think we need an official factory-backed lap to solve this case.
2015 BMW X6 M
Learn more about the BMW X6 M from our full review here.