M8 Competition or Bentley Continental?
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This is the BMW M8, but not only that it’s the competition, and not only THAT it’s also the Grand Coupe which means it’s the pinnacle of BMW’s flagship 8 series and expectations are high for this one
And they should be high. This thing is approaching $150,000 and it’s the top of the heap in Munich which means the most performance, the most luxury, and the most excitement, so let’s see if that’s true
We’ll start with performance and excitement. Under the skin this M8 Competition is packing the S63 4.4TT V8 form BMW’s M division. We recently drove this engine in the M5 and here it makes 617 hp and 535 lbft of torque. All that power goes through the brilliant shift logic of BMW’s tuned ZF 8 speed transmission as it makes its way to all 4 wheels
And what it results in is 0-60 in under 3 and a half seconds..in a massive super luxury coupe…that was turned into a sedan
You’ve got the S63 big powerful V8
You’ve got the sharpest tuning of the ZF 8 speed AND you have 3 setting of shift ferocity
You’ve got BMW’s special xDrive system that will uncouple the front wheels for skids and slides
You’ve got M-LSDs
You’ve got grippy tires, and you’ve got carbon fiber everywhere
The steering and sharpnes you get from the front end is so precise
The body and chassis composition you get under braking and cornering is so disciplined with these adaptive dampers
And then the power calibration and gearbox tuning brings so much drama that you constantly WANT to push it harder and harder because it seems like the limit of the car just keeps getting higher and higher
The whole car is designed to look low, long and sleek
The Gran Coupe with it’s 2 additional doors get another 8cm from the 2 door 8 series
Which is good becasue it means you can actually sit in the back
But up front let’s talk about the look
The front fascia is so aggressive and elegant i’ll venture to say its the best looking car BMW make currently
The grille is sharp and proportionate to the long hood
It’s a comp so all the accents are blacked out
You’ve got a much more aggressive lower fascia with big vents for cooling the big V8
You’ve got a cool front splitter
Around the side you can see how long this car is and it looks so low and aerodynamic
You’ve got 20 inch competition wheels which are excellent big comp brakes
Not carbon ceramic
Wrapped in XYZ
And then you get this non-function accent gill behind the wheels that looks cool
M wing mirrors and ten miles and miles of sculpted bodywork before you get to the rear ¾
This is my favorite angle of the car
It looks so sleek and modern and expensive
You’ve got this excellent jagged lip spoiler
You’ve got these gorgeous minimal taillights
And then your lower fascia has this aggressive aero cuts in the bumper
And then your big rear diffuser enshrouding your classic quad M exhaust
But there are some things that don’t change like the exceptional build quality and materials
You have exquisite leathers in here that wrap around your dash and of course your seats
Your seats are heated and cooled and light up
Dont think they massage
You’ve got your M steering wheel which feels great and is heated and has the autonomous status lights for traffic jam assist etc
It’s also got the M1 and M2 customizable driver profile buttons right there
You’ve got a head up display which is huge and vivid
You’ve got the fully digital cluster which looks great and is customizable
And you’ve got a nice big infotainment screen
It is running iDrive 7 so technically the older system but it’s not an issue for me at all
You still get wireless car play,gesture controls, 360 and augmented reality cameras, and a drive recorder
And you get really cool luxuries like a bowers and wilkins speaker system with lights inside the speakers that will come on and go off with the music
You’ve got lighting in door cards that flashes red when your door is open to warn other drivers
The only weird thing is that this car doesn’t have massage seats*
It also doensn’t have a pano roof*
In the rear seats though you actually have enough space for grown adults which is NOT something you can say for the 2 door version
In the rear seats you also get amenities like heated seats, climate controls and vents, chargers
HOWEVER, you do have an extension of the center console that results in an unusable middle seat
And yet that middle seat gets a seatbelt
From there teh trunk space is actually pretty good
The opening isn’t huge but it is deep so fairly useable