BMW M8 and M8 Competition revealed

The clamour for an M version of the surprisingly fleet BMW M850i xDrive can finally calm down, because here it is.

The faster, more agile and lighter new BMW M8 and M8 Competition Coupe and Convertible will be launched on June 26 in Munich, just as the shock over the M850i’s abilities starts to calm down.

A double-bubble carbon-fibre roof leads the way on the design front, with a black chrome grille, four exhaust outlets and bigger air intakes adding to the design differences.

The interior features a new gearshift lever, a thick-rimmed leather steering wheel with red M buttons on the horizontal spokes, a specific M instrument cluster and sports seats with illuminated M8 badges beneath the head restraints.

The new BMW M8s all run LED headlights, though that can be upgraded to the laser headlight, which can reach out to 600 metres of visible range.

The M850i, which led the way as the 8 Series badge replaced the old 6 Series, was the most powerful non-M car BMW had ever built, but the proper M versions lift that to a whole different level.

They’ve cut up to half a second from the M850i’s supercar-level acceleration time to 100km/h, with the M8 Competition ripping through the benchmark number in just 3.2 seconds.

The stock M8 still hauls from zero to 200km/h in 11.3 seconds and BMW claims the M8 Competition will slash that down to 10.6 seconds.

Even the M8 Competition Convertible gets those jobs done in 3.3 seconds and 11.1 seconds, respectively, which seems like about fast enough.

While all four M8 models are technically limited to 250km/h, the can all have their rev-limiters raised to up to 305km/h with so-called driver’s packages.

The standard M Performance Automobiles-branded M850i delivered 390kW of power, but the M8 raises that to 441kW from the same core engine, and the M8 Competition ekes out another 19kW, taking it out to 460kW.

Both of BMW M8 V8s reach their power peak at 6000rpm, where the M850i spreads it across from 5500 to 6000rpm.

The really odd part is the torque figure, where both the M8 and the M8 Competition only match the M850i’s 750Nm, suggesting the eight-speed automatic transmission is approaching its maximum level of torque capacity.

In spite of a bunch of new hardware, both the M8 and the M8 Competition coupes are actually 5kg lighter than the M850i’s 1890kg dry weight (making them weigh in at 1960kg on the EC measurement scale).

Another standout specification is that, like the M850i, the M8s wear 20-inch wheels and tyres, though they’re much wider (particularly at the front) than the full-line flagship’s.

Long the leading engine in the class, the 4.4-litre BMW V8 started the mainstream trend to hot-vee turbochargers, but nobody else followed it down the difficult road to cross-bank exhaust manifolds.

There is now higher fuel pressure for the direct-injection system, rising to up to 350 bar at peak times to help atomise the injection spray and deliver a cleaner burn.

Both cars run big silencers and the exhaust gases exit via a pair of 100mm-diameter tailpipes.

Following the work done on the BMW M5 Competition, the all-wheel drive system can be run as a rear-drive, a full-time all-wheel drive or a rear-biased, part-time all-wheel drive via the car’s user-chooser drivelogic switchgear.

The eight-speed auto’s torque converter completely locks up the instant the car pulls away from rest, with M delivering a fresh gear-lever design for the middle of the central console.

The transmission has three levels of tune, ranging from softer to fully aggressive in the track-style setup.

Like the M5, the real jump forward for the M8 -- and which has helped the M8’s performance over the old M6 -- is the all-wheel drive system. The xDrive set-up joins the Active M Differential to extract drive from each kiloWatt of power.

Remarkable in the M5, it’s also philosophically similar to the set-up in Mercedes-AMG’s E 63 and CLS 63 models. It is intended to provide security nearly all the time and rear-biased fun whenever the driver asks for it.

The grip refinements don’t stop there, with M attacking everything from the engine mounts to the bearings.

The stiffness of the engine mount bushes has gone from 580Nm/mm on the M850i to 900Nm on both M8 models, while they’ve also had more negative camber built in to the front axle, all to benefit turn-in precision.

It retains the core layout of a five-link rear suspension and a double-wishbone front-end, but it’s a bit more complicated than that, with the rubber mounts for the rear-end’s toe links thrown out in favour of ball joints.

The front-end also scores unique swivel bearings, torque arms and control arms to minimise torque steer from the front differential, while the roll centre has also been lowered.

There are even new elastomer bearings to more accurately direct the wheel forces into the subframes and body, plus there are tower-to-bulkhead struts.

M insists the rear-end demanded its own M-specific forged links and stiffer anti-roll bars, and there is also a steel X-brace and an aluminium cross strut between the rear axle and the body.

The hardware is supplemented by its fair share of software, with electromagnetic adaptive suspension all around and Comfort, Sport and Sport Plus settings available to the driver.

It’s all stopped by drilled and ventilated 395mm front discs and 380mm rears, with the front-end braked by six-piston fixed callipers and the rear by a single-piston floating calliper.

There are carbon ceramic discs as an option, with the rear disc remaining the same size, but the front jumping up to 400mm in diameter.

They’re housed inside 20-inch alloy rims, with the all the M8 variants using 275/35 R20 front tyres and 285/35 R20 rears (the M850i uses 245/40 and 275/30 rubber on its 20-inch rims).

At 4867mm long, the M8 adds 16mm to the M850i and its 1907mm width tacks on another 5mm, though all the models ride on the same 2827mm wheelbase. It’s 1362mm tall.

The multi-layer M8 Convertible soft-top opens and closes in 15 seconds, and can be operated at up to 50km/h.

The two bugbears of convertibles have been attacked hard by BMW’s M division, and we’ll find out soon enough if they’ve been attacked hard enough.

The extra bracing and the roof mechanism add 125kg to the mass of the M8 Coupe, tipping the dry-weight scales at 2010kg, and up to 2085kg for the EC version.

It’s lower in the roofline, though, with its 1353mm height pulling 9mm from the stock M8 hard-top’s height, though it retains the other significant footprint details.

It still promises to be a quick car, too, with M boasting a 0-100km/h time of 3.4 seconds for the standard unit and 3.3 seconds for the Competition version, so they add just 0.1sec to the sprint time.

All four versions run the top-level Live Cockpit Professional system from BMW, with its 7.0 operating system and a fully digital, high-resolution instrument cluster screen.

The screen in front of the driver will be 12.3 inches, while there’s also a 10.15-inch touch-screen that doubles as the infotainment unit in the centre of the dash.

There will also be M-specific stuff, like real-time power and torque outputs, track timers, full driving data and grip displays, all of which can be operated by a choice of voice commands, the iDrive controller, gesture control or touch.

The new BMW M8 and M8 Competition Coupe and Convertible will be launched in Germany later this month alongside the all-new BMW 8 Series Gran Coupe, which is also due on sale in Australia by the end of this year and will inevitably form the basis for an M8 sedan.