Rally racing has always been my favorite style of racing. More so than even Formula One and Le Mans. The reason is that the cars aren’t pretty and the work is dirty. Its just cool to see cars get muddy and dirty and broken and battered all in the name of speed. It also just seems like good fun, as the speeds are high but the traction is low. It’s especially fun to see rear-wheel drive rally cars, as they aren’t popular anymore. So when we saw this BMW 650i rally car, we were very excited.
The BMW E63 650i is many things but light and/or nimble it isn’t. It’s big, it’s heavy, it’s powerful and it’s fast. But it isn’t exactly razor sharp and it doesn’t have the grace of its smaller M siblings. So it probably wouldn’t make a good rally car. Or would it?
Australian rally driver Andi Aigner decided that it would and did indeed make a rally car out of the big V8 6 Series. The stock BMW 650i developed 360 hp and 360 lb-ft of torque from its 4.8 liter naturally-aspirated V8, but we’re not sure what’s been done to it or how much power it puts out now. However, we do know it has a Remus exhaust, thanks to the sponsorship ad in the video and we know that it sounds fan-flipping-tastic.
The V8 rumble and roar is addictive and makes us long for the days before turbocharged BMW engines. Hearing it rip and snort as the 650i slides around corners in the mud is mesmerizing and I could watch it all day. In fact, I want to live in that car as it slides around.
It also looks great. The E63-gen 6 Series was never exactly pretty, with its weird squinty eyes and fussy rear end, but it looks great with a racing livery and covered in mud. It looks like a big, tough brute. And it is one. Except it also has some grace to it, as it’s fully capable of being a ballet dancer in the dirt and mud. Check out this video and tell me you don’t want to do that, too.
[Source: Jalopnik]
