the monkeys at motortrend can't ever put a real comparison test together because of 2 reasons:
1. they aren't smart enough to figure out how to put the close competitors together.
2. they get paid advertising dollars to bias their results (which they will never admit but its true)

the cayenne is a very very very capable sports car. i've seen and riden in them at the track and they are very nice (haven't driven). the body roll will scare the uninitiated, but the grip the car has is impressive. it is a pig tho. weight transition is slow.

on pro awd cars, the bias is rwd. the most successful mix so far is 30% front, 70% rear for racing. anymore up front and you have to run massive camber and toe out and use berms to turn the car (which means slower straight speed and poorer braking). although, you can get on the power earlier in the turn with awd then rwd alone. its all about trade-offs and gambles in racing...

additional camber will definitely help the x5 reduce its understeer. i doubt you will feel any difference in straight line acceleration or braking.

Yeah, that makes sense to me too... not equipping the X5 with the Sp package should have been a dead-give away at their ineptitude and bias.
I made an appointment for a strut brace and camber plate install for next week (Motor Works West in North Jersey). Next, I will have to start thinking about exhaust, and intake (BTW, Dinan just released the High Flow Throttle Body for the 04/05 engines... )

This is truly a slippery slope!

Hey, give us an update on the camber plates as well. Good luck. The throttle body may quicken the throttle response that many were complaining about in the newer valvetronic engines....Hopefully there is software to go with it. Mind you....you won't get any real extra HP, but probably a better, quicker throttle response.

Actually, I spoke to a guy at Dinan today - they claim about 8hp gain with the Throttle Body, and no s/w required. (The Air Mass Meter does need s/w, though. They say Air Mass Meter, the s/w, and the Cold Air intake should be released "soon") And I believe it's the s/w that improves the throttle response...
Thanks for all the advise - and I'll keep you posted on the upgrades!

Just got the camber plates and strut brace installed yesterday... :thumbup: improvements are FANTASTIC! I noticed a big difference on the first turn; this is the way the X5 was intended to handle. I recommend these upgrades for anyone who likes to drive... uh... enthusiastically. ;)

Do you turn the DSC off? I think the stability control kicks in and distrupts any skid way before the real capability of the chasis.

I thought Dinan did not make camber plates for the 04 and later X5s yet. I thought they only had them for 03 and earlier. What year is yours. Also can you use them if you have full air suspension. I dont think you can. I want to get these soon so any feedback would be appreciated.

Haven't tried turning DSC off yet. Not sure how often I'll being doing that, really... I've read that they mellowed-out the DSC settings on the X5 in '04 - one of the many re-workings for the refresh. I haven't pushed it hard yet, but I've only gotten it to come on once on a really sketchy, tight turn. And even then, I didn't really feel the DSC, just saw the triangle flicker in the instrument cluster out of the corner of my eye. :)
In my 328Ci, the DSC was a real party-pooper though. Seems like they did a much better job with this on the new X5's.