Even though we’ve seen the BMW M8 already – and even in Competition guise – the aura around this car still remains, almost tangible. It’s one of the most highly anticipated cars to be launched by BMW in the last decade and for good reason. The first time around, the BMW 8 Series range didn’t get a full-on M8 model, even though the engineers created one in the lab. This time round, things will be different and we won’t get just one M8, but several.
The most important will be the BMW M8 Coupe. It’s the one that a lot of people are hoping will rise to the highest levels of performance and tackle some serious competitors. Chances are it won’t win a track battle with an AMG GT R, but it could beat it in a straight line and for most fans that’s going to be good enough. The M8 Competition is bound to be even better while a potential M8 CS could take things to a whole new level.
Then there are the M8 Convertible and M8 Gran Coupe. While the former will mostly be used for cruising around, the latter could be quite a potent car to make the Mercedes-AMG GT63 S 4-door blush, by comparison. Judging by what the Concept looks like, we’ll get quite a stunning machine. In the meantime, the Coupe was just spotted in the vicinity of the Nurburgring wearing the least amount of camo we’ve seen so far. The photos come courtesy of DCN Cars and show the beautiful shapes of the car.
The BMW M8 will come with quad exhausts, like you see in the picture, but a blacked out diffuser on the rear bumper might not be offered as standard on the M8 and rather could come as part of the package the M8 Competition. The same could be the case with the spoiler on the boot lid, which may not be offered as standard on the ‘regular’ M8. Same logic applies to the carbon fiber roof.
As for the technical side of things, the M8 is promising a lot. Chances are it will be lighter than the M850i thanks to more extensive usage of lightweight materials. At the same time, it will use a similarly-sized 4.4-liter twin-turbo V8 under the hood but, according to BMW officials, it will have over 600 HP. That means the Competition M8 could have around 650 HP and that’s just crazy even for the segment where the M8 will be competing.
With that kind of power and the new M xDrive all-wheel drive high-performance transmission, the new M8 is bound to get an eye-watering 0-62 sprint time. The M5 does that sprint in 3.4 seconds while the Competition model is even faster at 3.3 seconds. The M8 could beat those figures while the Competition version might be even faster.