BMW X6 M debuts as MotoGP safety car

Coupes, sedans, convertibles, even sport-wagons... BMW's venerated Motorsport division – known to all the world by the letter M – has tuned all sorts of vehicles from the Bavarian automaker's lineup, but with the launch of the new X5 M and X6 M, this is the first time the tuning division has been tasked with tweaking a crossover or SUV... or anything with four-wheel-drive, for that matter. Purists might view it as a bridge too far for the garage that has turned out such precision driving tools as the original 3.0 CSL, the exotic M1 and the spectacular M3, but Munich's marketing department has evidently wasted no time in assuaging those doubts by putting the new X6 M on the track as quickly as possible, and in one of the most speed-crazed, testosterone-infused forms of motorsport on the planet: MotoGP.

Fresh off the floor of Manhattan's Javitz Center, where it debuted at the ongoing New York Auto Show, the X6 M debuts this weekend Qatar as the official safety car of the MotoGP race at Losail. The new M-tuned "sports activity coupe" joins a paddock full of vehicles provided by BMW to serve as safety cars and trackside VIP transports, including the M6, M5 Touring and M3. This marks the eleventh season in which BMW has partnered with MotoGP.

[Source: BMW via MotoGP]