BMW X7 review

That said, an enjoyable mid-corner balance is most definitely of the thoroughbred, longitudinally engined variety. Yet you are never minded to take this car by the scruff – or even allowed to get much closer than arm’s length. This sounds an overly optimistic scenario until you realise that with the Porsche Cayenne, and its high-fidelity controls, you can do just that. Same for an X5 M, and even the V8 Bentley Bentayga S.

Comfort and isolation

Any BMW with a ‘7’ on its bootlid should offer decadent levels of rolling refinement, and the X7 doesn’t disappoint. Even stuffed with 4.4 litres of V8 and riding on 22in wheels and tyres with comparatively little in the way of sidewall, the M60i is generously endowed in terms of isolation, ride comfort and all-round serenity. It absorbs the worst of British roads with almost casual disdain and, even on truly choppy B-roads, there’s so little in the way of head toss it can be just a little confounding. How on earth does this skyscraper of a vehicle seem to send its centre of gravity to the deck when you’re in the mood and then relax its muscle fibres to such lavish effect when you want to get from here to there effortlessly?

Some judicious tuning of the air-sprung struts is one answer, but those active anti-roll bars are another part of the equation. More than anything, it’s the small but decisive latter element that seems to have unlocked the X7 M60i’s cake-and-eat-it blend of ride and handling. Primary ride is at all times excellent, with only the occasional inability of the chassis to fully subdue potholes or corrugated surfaces being the only blot on its copy. Unsprung mass is to blame – we would estimate the car’s enormous wheel-and-tyre package to come in at about 32kg per corner. A Range Rover does better here, but only when shod with sensibly-sized wheels.

Alas, neither is the BMW quite as ecclesiastically subdued on the move as the Range Rover (road tested in unsporting, straight-six turbo diesel form). Where at 70mph the Range Rover registered 61dBA on our microphone, the X7 M60i recorded 65dBA, with a similar discrepancy seen across a range of speeds. However, this is not to mark the BMW down. Given its performance and dynamism, it puts in a strong showing, with the Range Rover being simply exceptional.

Track notes

You might wonder why we elected to put the X7 M60i around the Tarmac-track Hill Route at Millbrook Proving Ground rather than through an off-road course, but the decision was made for us by the choice of rubber the car is supplied on: Pirelli P Zero. This is the giveaway that the M60i is, resolutely, a road-leaning performance SUV, where something like a Range Rover is certainly more balanced in its outlook.

The M60i duly impressed on the Hill Route, its 523bhp firing it up steep climbs without hesitation and its combination of air springs, dampers and active anti-roll bars contriving to keep the tall body remarkably flat during hard cornering, so long as Sport+ mode was selected. A little more throttle adjustability would have elevated the driving experience, yet as it is the M60i is dynamically very capable, if evidently lacking the flair of the smaller X5.