It is faithfully recreated, but with sand rather than pavement.
BMW released 47 photos of the journey in a press release. You can see all of them in the gallery below. The course was built by a team of 50 people who spent two weeks measuring, surveying and building it. Although it may sound like BMW was cheating, the work involved moving more than 3,500 cubic meters. However, we are certain that you will see in the video and photos below that there is still plenty of sand to play with. Why bother with all that? It’s a great question. We think the same thing could have been done by simply laying a course in the sand. We must remember, however, that BMW does not build a Sport Utility Vehicle. It also builds a Sports Activity vehicle, which is the exact same thing, but with aspirations to be great on-road and off-road. Is this what you are doing? We aren’t.
Another theory is that BMW put a lot of effort into Monza’s re-creation in the desert, because it could and because you would do it too if your resources were available. Have you seen the video at top of this page? We love the idea that a X5 can be thrown through the desert like a 100-level game. The X5 looks great off-road, especially with the xOffroad package. That was, in fact, the ultimate goal. Bravo BMW.