Tuesday 6th March 2018

BMW Concept M8 Gran Coupe: Geneva 2018

More doors and more horses for 8 Series' Geneva show car

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BMW's upcoming 8 Series flagship has generated a lot of hype over the past year or so. Spotted testing in both coupe and convertible form, an M variant is confirmed and a GTE racer has been revealed. Other than driving the thing, it seems like there's nothing left to say, right? Well, not quite, actually, as Munich still has one last ace up its sleeve: the Gran Coupe.

Unveiled at the Geneva show today, the BMW Concept M8 Gran Coupe shows the company's full hand for the first time. Until now, we've had only shadowy teaser images to go by, but the concept points at a very aggressive styling tack. Wider kidney grilles and flared air intakes make for an ultra-aggressive front end, a theme which continues throughout the design, culminating in a ducktail spoiler and quad exhausts at the rear of the car.

BMW makes no mention of the engine, but thanks to the GTE's seventh-in-class run at January's Daytona 24, we know that the production car will use a twin-turbocharged 4.4-litre V8, expected to produce around 600hp. This would place it on a par with BMW's own, similarly equipped, F90 M5 but leave it a long way behind the circa 800hp output expected from Mercedes-AMG's upcoming rival, the GT4.

What's slightly less clear, is how that power will be put down. M division president Frank van Meel revealed that, while BMW's engineers sought "to ensure that the standard car wasn't too sporty for its customers", M division "wanted the M8 to feel like a proper step up". Going on to say "we have watched the luxury sports coupé market closely and we see lots of four-wheel-drive cars within it already... There's nothing to fear from four-wheel drive."

Seems like a pretty heavy hint, though the Concept Gran Coupe's own press release describes how the "muscular flared wheel arches offer a visual expression of the power working through the rear axle." An M5-style 'drift mode' seems the best bet, then, its effectiveness already having been proven beyond all reasonable doubt.

According to Senior VP of BMW Group Design Adrian van Hooydonk, "the BMW 8 Series will take over as the new flagship model of the BMW line-up and, as such, combines unsurpassed sportiness and elegance." Expect the M car, and it's four-doored sibling to be priced accordingly. More details on the final production spec, when we have them.

Inspired by the M8 Gran Coupe, but don't want to wait? There are plenty of very tempting M6 Gran Coupes in the PH Classifieds right now...

[TrickyTrevM5]

looks amazing.
I'm guessing 145k for the car when they put it on the market
big numbers in terms of performance, big numbers to be part of the ownership experience.
Looks great though.

[Prinny]

An interesting evolution of the höfmeister kink? Removal of it from the glass surface into the c/d pillar is a big change IMO.

Other than that, I find it hard to get excited about - I’m sure it’ll be a worthy flagship, but I’m becoming more & more convinced that BMW are going in a direction I don’t want to go. (I say this as a 6 & 7 owner).

Wheels are too fussy, but the Green is nice.

[Ares]

Prinny said:

An interesting evolution of the höfmeister kink? Removal of it from the glass surface into the c/d pillar is a big change IMO.

Other than that, I find it hard to get excited about - I’m sure it’ll be a worthy flagship, but I’m becoming more & more convinced that BMW are going in a direction I don’t want to go. (I say this as a 6 & 7 owner).

Wheels are too fussy, but the Green is nice.

What direction?

[Gameface]

Great looking car.

[RevOne]

Looks pretty sweet.
Dont really understand why these are being labeled as an 8 series though. The line of cars (cab, coupe and GC) surely are just the new 6 series??

The 8 series should have been left for a proper halo product

[MustardCutter]

RevOne said:

The 8 series should have been left for a proper halo product

I dunno, that looks pretty special to me. Not as cool as the old 8 series but still very desirable.

[Ares]

RevOne said:

Looks pretty sweet.
Dont really understand why these are being labeled as an 8 series though. The line of cars (cab, coupe and GC) surely are just the new 6 series??

The 8 series should have been left for a proper halo product

Any 'series' isn't a halo product, IMO. A Z8/Z9 would be a halo product.

By upping this to a 8-series, rather than a 6-series, it moves it up a level in prestige.

[E65Ross]

Ares said:

RevOne said:

Looks pretty sweet.
Dont really understand why these are being labeled as an 8 series though. The line of cars (cab, coupe and GC) surely are just the new 6 series??

The 8 series should have been left for a proper halo product

Any 'series' isn't a halo product, IMO. A Z8/Z9 would be a halo product.

By upping this to a 8-series, rather than a 6-series, it moves it up a level in prestige.

It depends on whether it is based on the 5 (like the 6) or whether it's based upon the 7 (like the old 8).

[Ares]

E65Ross said:

Ares said:

RevOne said:

Looks pretty sweet.
Dont really understand why these are being labeled as an 8 series though. The line of cars (cab, coupe and GC) surely are just the new 6 series??

The 8 series should have been left for a proper halo product

Any 'series' isn't a halo product, IMO. A Z8/Z9 would be a halo product.

By upping this to a 8-series, rather than a 6-series, it moves it up a level in prestige.

It depends on whether it is based on the 5 (like the 6) or whether it's based upon the 7 (like the old 8).

Given the fact that the 5-series is based on the 7-series 'CarbonCore' chassis (as the next X5 will be, and the X7), it's an academic question

[Prinny]

Ares said:

Prinny said:

An interesting evolution of the höfmeister kink? Removal of it from the glass surface into the c/d pillar is a big change IMO.

Other than that, I find it hard to get excited about - I’m sure it’ll be a worthy flagship, but I’m becoming more & more convinced that BMW are going in a direction I don’t want to go. (I say this as a 6 & 7 owner).

Wheels are too fussy, but the Green is nice.

What direction?

It’s difficult to quantify, so I’ll probably ramble somewhat. It may well be that it’s my tastes changing against a consistent BMW ethos, but I can’t make that judgement from an unbiased perspective, as it’s my inherent biases under the microscope.

Simply put, as a brand, there’s nothing in the current BMW line-up I like. Subjectively, on the things that matter to me (rwd & handling balance being significant ‘wants’), they’re still better than the majority of the mainstream competition, but objectively, I don’t want one.

To be fair to BMW, the same can also be said for most of all cars on sale. I can appreciate the design (a 6GC looks great), but not want the car at all. I can appreciate the engineering (had a drive or two now of the 718 boxster, it’s great on track, but not geared for a UK b-road IMO) and so I don’t want one of those either. And so on...

I work in & with technology, I’m not a Luddite, but if I were to list the cars I still want to buy/own (exotics aside) none are new, and the most recent is the FFRR (L322).

Manufacturers want to make money, and so niche exploitation is where it’s at right now for them, I have no issue with that. If I may mix metaphors however, the niches they’re trying to fill don’t push my buttons. It doesn’t mean I can’t like the new models for what they are, just that they’re not what I want.

TL;DR - virtually nothing on sale today appeals to me as an ownership proposition.

[culpz]

Looks a fair bit like the new Audi S/RS 5 to me. There's definitely a bit of influence there, albeit the BMW will be set to be much larger, dimensions wise.

[PHMatt]

Looks like a concept car from Max Power.

I love BMW (former e46 and now F25 owner)

Not turned on by that picture at all. Then again, I doubt it'll look anything like that in the metal.

Ps, the M6 GC is probably my pick of recent BMW's.

[PHMatt]

Looks like a concept car from Max Power.

I love BMW (former e46 and now F25 owner)

Not turned on by that picture at all. Then again, I doubt it'll look anything like that in the metal.

Ps, the M6 GC is probably my pick of recent BMW's.

[aston addict]

At last. A BMW designed in the past 10 years that actually looks nice.

[Quickmoose]

PHMatt said:

Looks like a concept car from Max Power.

the M6 GC is probably my pick of recent BMW's.

Agreed.

Great rear end, but the rest looks fat, heavy and cluttered...imo

[boyse7en]

Looks chuffing awful for that sort of money.

Actually it looks awful for any sort of money. It s a bodykitted 5GT thats been vertically scaled 75% in Photoshop

[British Beef]

Really needs pop up lights !!

Just a pumped up 6 series.

I will jump back into my time machine and dial in the good old 80s!!

[ZX10R NIN]

That looks really good I look forward to seeing the coupe.

[Sensei Rob]

The old 8 series looked a hell of a lot nicer.

[Peanus]

i hope the actual 8 looks better than this.