BMW M8 ready for better times
Anybody remember that Jerry Keller song from 1959 called “Here Comes Summer”?
Well, after all we’ve gone through and continue to deal with during the coronavirus crisis, I’m longing for summer and can’t imagine anything more pleasing then a long, long drive in BMW’s 2020 M8 Convertible.
Back in 1959, a staple of every family where I grew up in Windsor, ON, was a Sunday drive out into Essex County to buy produce from the hundreds of roadside farmers’ stands at the foot of their properties or to romp in the sand at Colchester or Point Pelee.
Across the river was Detroit, where no one ever doubted that city was truly the Motor Capital of the World, with prosperity seemingly unending.
As early teens we revelled in big chrome and big V8s and laughed at the tin toy-like things called Beetles and those who drove them.
While my dad had a Desoto Fireflight Sportsman two-door hardtop with a Hemi V8, I was envious of a neighbor who worked at Ford of Canada and drove a robin’s-egg blue 1959 four-seat Thunderbird Convertible.
That, my friends, was the height of family travel in a way we can no longer imagine in 2020.
With that summer song firmly revolving in my mind, one of the cars I scrambled to drive was the 2020 M8 Convertible, one of several BMW Group vehicles made available to a select group of autowriters invited to BMW’s ongoing Test Fest events late last year.
This took place at the BMW Performance Center in Greer, SC, adjacent to its sprawling production plant there.
The M8, in sedan or convertible form, is considered the pinnacle of BMW’s M brand lineup and incorporates lessons and technologies gained in the IMSA WeatherTech Sports Car championship, including a win at the 24 Hours of Daytona.
Power comes from BMW’s proven twin turbo 4.4-litre V8 producing 600 hp and 553 lb/ft of torque. If you chose the uprated M8 Competition version of the Convertible, power increases to 617 hp and the same 553 lb/ft of torque.
With a curb weight of 975 kg, it is no “lead sled” with a 0-100 km/h time of 3.4 seconds and a top speed of 250 km/h. The M8 Competition lowers the sprint time to 3.3 seconds and ups the top speed dramatically to 305 km/h.
The only transmission able to handle that kind of power is BMW’s M Steptronic automatic eight-speed, using a new design shifter or paddle shifters that operate in both automatic or manual modes.
The Drivelogic button allows the driver to select the comfort and speed of gear shifts from comfort-oriented to sport and track focused shifting.
The eight-speed M Steptronic transmission’s controller is able to adapt the shift parameters to the current driving situation by means of intelligent networking with the standard navigation system, enabling it to take the planned route into account.
M xDrive is standard and is a rear biased all-wheel-drive that distributes torque between the front and rear wheels via the transfer case’s electronically controlled multi-plate clutch. After that, the Active M differential splits the power between the two rear wheels as needed.
The system only sends torque to the front wheels when the rear wheels reach the limit of their traction.
That gives the BMW M8 driver the benefit of a traditional rear-wheel drive driving experience. Along with this is the added traction of all four wheels when the engine’s full power output is required.
Another standard feature is Adaptive M Suspension that gathers data from body movement, road surface conditions and steering input to adjust each damper individually within milliseconds, using electromagnetic valves. The result is handling that is both track capable and comfortable on the road.
Three settings (Comfort, Sport, Sport Plus) allow the suspension responses of the BMW M8 to be fine-tuned to the driver’s needs.
One of the beauties of Greer, SC, is that it sits on the southern end of the Blue Ridge Mountains where a quick sprint up the freeway takes you to the road that climbs up to Caesar’s Head State Park.
It is a devilishly convoluted climb and descent more suited to something like a MINI John Cooper Works, but in glorious sunshine, it was top down all the way.
The M8 is a big car at almost five metres long (4,871 mm) and over two metres wide (2,137) including mirrors, but it doesn’t feel like it, or drive like it, for that matter.
Coming at the end of the day at Test Fest, it was the perfect capper, but the real proof will be driving a week with it when we all get over the current crisis.