BMW M6 Gran Coupe v HSV GTSR W1 2017 Comparison

Germany versus Australia. The latter with a little help from its US ally. It’s a forced induction V8 war.

On the track, the Aussie was on hometurf in more ways than one. On the roads, the famed refinement of the European high-dollar four-door should be a defence that’s hard to get past.

Indeed, on paper, the BMW M6 Gran Coupe lacks for nothing. V8 – tick. Twin turbo 4.4-litre in fact, punching out 441kW and 700Nm (sure it’s 151Nm shy of the W1 but you’d hardly call 700Nm menial).Performance – tick tick tick. BMW claims 0-100km/h in 3.9sec and a limited 250km/h top speed, which actually eclipses HSV’s 4.2sec claim for the W1. It’s a dead-heat for top speed.

Sports – Big tick. It’s an M Car! Sedan – well, sort of tick. BMW calls this car a Gran Coupe. Which means it has four doors with frameless windows and a low slung roofline. Sexy it is, spacious it isn’t.

Rear wheel drive – Bigger tick!

Price – okay, so the whole proposition falls apart here as the M6 is a hefty $130,000 more expensive than the W1. If you’re waiting for our rationalisation or justification you’ll only hear crickets. It’s not coming.

So let’s get straight to the important stuff on the glorious roads of South Gippsland, Victoria where the traffic is sparse and the corners are frequent, varied and fully capable of tying a pretender in knots.

The blue collar brawler
Standing roadside, warm Autumn sun bathing the beautiful green hills, it’s easy to think the end of the world is coming. Either that or the HSV GTSR W1 is approaching the rendezvous. First, there are the tremors, then distant growls like angry dinosaurs have awoken in the valley below. And then the noise arrives like a cruise ship’s bow wave as the car bursts around the corner. It’s metallic, ferocious and L-O-U-D.

From inside the W1, the impact of this noise is completely immersive and apocalyptic. You could drown in this sound. Happily drown…if you follow us V8 fans.

Combine its stupendous noise with the occasional clunk and lash from the driveline (so familiar in generations of Aussie sports sedans) with the extrovert carbon-fibred looks and without doubt the W1 is a wild and undisciplined hooligan. A lout. A lair.

But once underway, the W1 can be almost compliant. We’ve chronicled the whys and wherefores in other places including these:

Cutting to the chase, HSV’s W1 -- with its supercharged LS9 Chevrolet engine, Tremec TR6060 gearbox, Supashock dampers, massive AP racing brakes and semi-slick Pirelli PZero Trofeo R tyres -- delivers a cohesion and involvement once unthinkable in an Aussie muscle-car.

Aided by the twin-rotor four-lobe supercharger, the pushrod engine accelerates with a metronomic ferocity. There are no pretensions here, just blue collar work ethic. At 4000rpm in second gear, or 2000rpm in fourth gear there is monumental response… And it just goes on and on and on.

Yet, for all that brute power, the touch points are surprisingly intimate for an 1895kg car. The gearchange and clutch weighting are both lighter and more succinct than you’d expect. The W1 steers with a directness of response and feel which shames most electric-assist systems – in fact you can wind the steering weight up or down via the Driver Preference Dial but, regardless of the setting, the driver never loses that sense of connection.

Ride with the passive Supashock monotube dampers can be a tad brittle at low speeds, but on these Gippsland roads they combine with the immense stopping power of the AP Racing brakes and the glue-like Pirelli Trofeos to deliver ultimate cornering confidence. The tyres add another dimension to the way this car can be braked, placed and accelerated in the dry (no wet weather during this test).

There’s a slippery diff and torque vectoring thrown in to the mix as well, all of which adds up to the world’s most capable Zeta Commodore-based road car.

Threading up and down our test roads, hammering into closing radius turns, booming out of exits which open invitingly, clamping intentionally late on the 410mm brake rotors (front) with six pot calipers; changing up to third and then down again just to blip the throttle and enjoy the crackle on the over-run (when actually second in the close ratio gearbox suffices for everything from about 50 to 140km/h)... Well, it’s just wonderful.

There’s a flow, symmetry and belief this car delivers which most don’t. You lose yourself in the experience of driving it. The last rear-drive HSV Commodore is the complete package.

The aristocrat
If the W1 sounds like a tough act for the BMW M6 Gran Coupe to live with, you’re right. But rather than go head-to-head with the Aussie bogan, the Beemer brings its own aristocratic character and capabilities to the shootout.

For a start, it is substantially more refined, so it’s quieter at any speed and on any road (the 20-inch Michelins do get noisy on coarse chip). And the BMW’s drivers’ seat is better (although we’re talking ‘A+’ to ‘A’ here), getting the edge thanks to a more supportive base and the ability to adjust the width of its backrest bolsters.

Adjustability is also the key to the M6’s appeal. The suspension can be dialed through a range from relaxed comfort through to hard and even sharper (in Sport+). Likewise the seven-speed dual-clutch transmission, the steering and the double overhead camshaft engine. So you can cruise or bruise, it’s up to you. You can even set individual dynamic parameters and store them under M1 and M2 ‘favourites’ buttons.

Put simply, the W1 doesn’t offer a similar level of variation, nor is it as comfortable and, with the six-speed manual, it’s not as useable around town.

But don’t think the M6 lacks punch. If anything, BMW’s twin-turbocharged V8 is even more amazing than Chevrolet’s LS9 supercharged V8. That’s profanity to local V8 fans I know, but the BMW’s ability to quietly and smoothly streak to astounding speeds is pull-your-arms-out-of-their-sockets gob-smackingly amazing. It is the best part of the M6’s dynamic package. Twin scroll turbos, valvetronic and double-vanos will do that for you.

But everything else about the BMW’s driving lacks the W1’s intimacy. The steering has an extra layer of filtering', the over-judicious software police prohibit the gearbox from downchanging if engine revs are deemed too high (not a restriction for the manual W1) and the ‘box is operated via an annoyingly anti-intuitive gearshifter (or stiff steering wheel-mounted paddles).

Brakes can’t sustain repeated heavy hits either and the tyres simply don’t have the same amazing traction. That said, the BMW’s Michelin’s would probably work a whole lot better in the rain and last longer overall – a few thousand kilometres maximum for the W1’s Pirellis.

So pressing on in the M6 is more of a stop-start affair. Pull it up for the corners, pick your way through while feeling for the road that bit more, then nail the exit and let that twin-turbocharged V8 engine sing.

Beyond the driving
You pay much more for the BMW M6 and you can sense that in the Merino leather-trimmed cockpit and the way it has – for better or worse - cornered the market in buttons and dials. The HSV is good, but it’s not significantly better trimmed, nor presented than a $60,000 Commodore V8.

But thanks to its form over function exterior design, the M6 gives up rear-seat head and legroom to the cavernous W1. There’s a centre seatbelt in the rear of the BMW, although for the life of us we don’t know why.

Curiously, the M6 does include one significant functional advantage over the HSV thanks to its split-fold rear seat. Don’t bother looking for a spare wheel in either car.

Speaking of size, you might be surprised to learn this duo is very close on dimensions. The HSV is 33mm longer at 5044mm, but they are the same width at 1899mm. The M6’s style means it is 73mm lower at 1395mm. The German also has the 49mm longer wheelbase at 2964mm. Both are heavy, the W1 weighs 1895kg and the M6 an even lardier 1950kg. Imposing on the road? Quite.

Let’s talk fuel consumption -- in some ways, the ‘elephant in the room’. In this category, it’s a win for BMW at 19.3L/100km, while the W1 managed 23.5L/100km. Those numbers include track time, cruising time, suburban time and country road blasting. The official claims are in the specs below.

And equipment… Yes we’ll pay cursory attention to that. Well, no surprise the BMW has the advantage here with inclusions such as a full-on BMW Concierge service, four-zone climate control, stunning Active LED headlights and surround view cameras.

But neither car is skimpily presented. The W1 still gets head up display, dual-zone climate and an 8-inch touch screen (The BMW’s massive screen is non-touch). Neither car gets Apple CarPlay or Android Auto.

Safety gear includes at least six airbags and stability control married with a suite of driver assist systems that includes lane departure, blind zone and reverse traffic warnings in both cars. But neither has autonomous emergency braking, an important omission these days. Nor is there an applicable ANCAP or NCAP independent safety rating for either of them.

Neither has been barrier tested for an NCAP safety rating.

Who wins?
Sorry, you’re going to have to wait for that in the upcoming verdict.

We’ll wrap the juicy conclusion to this road test up with the verdict of these two cars along with our video reports inside the next few days.

See you then!

2017 BMW M6 Gran Coupe pricing and specifications:
Price: $299,900 (plus on-road costs)
Engine: 4.4-litre V8 turbo-petrol
Output: 441kW/700Nm
Transmission: Seven-speed dual-clutch
Fuel: 9.9L/100km (ADR Combined)
CO2: 232g/km (ADR Combined)
Safety Rating: TBC

HSV GTSR W1
Price: $169,990 (plus on-road costs)
Engine: 6.2-litre supercharged petrol V8
Outputs: 474kW/815Nm
Transmission: Six-speed manual
Fuel: 16.5L/100km (ADR combined)
CO2: 382g/km (Estimated)
Safety Rating: TBC