A new exhaust system has endowed the Vettel Edition with a further 29bhp and 15lb ft, and the resulting figures of 414bhp and 384lb ft certainly translate to impressive performance in reality. Ask it for everything and it will shift down the road at a pace that's verging on alarming in a two-tonne car, accompanied by an appropriately resonant exhaust note.
It handles appropriately, too. Ride height has been reduced by 20mm and firmer damping reduces the pitch and wallow that you¹d experience in the standard FX50, although at no point can you forget the size, height and general GT nature of this luxury SUV.
But all the extra sportiness does pose a problem. Losing some of the compliance from the already firmly sprung FX has resulted in a very harsh ride. The FX50 has adaptive dampers as standard, but in this guise it just means you go from hard and jittery in Auto mode to outright uncomfortable in Sport.
Does it ruin the experience? Well, no. Many will consider a crashy ride an acceptable compromise for a car with this sort of image and performance, plus every buyer gets a 'money can't buy' experience, which could be anything from a passenger ride with Sebastian Vettel himself to VIP treatment at an F1 race.