Superhero material
POWER OF M: THE FIRST 7 SERIES EVER TO WEAR THE FAMOUS M BADGE
This is the first 7 Series that gets to wear the M badge Mark Jones
BMW say ‘M’ is the most powerful letter in the world, and there is nothing quite like a bit of 6.6-litre V12 twin turbo power to drive this point home. BMW are keeping a 30-year old tradition alive with the introduction of their flagship M760Li xDrive. And I got to drive it, fast, in California at the car’s world media launch.
This is the first time in the 40 years of BMW 7 Series that the large luxury sedan gets to wear an M Performance badge. And wear it well it does. There is a proper 448kW of power and 800Nm of torque from just 1550rpm lurking under your right foot. Now even though this is a full two-ton, full sized luxury limo, the claimed 0-100km/h figure is a supercar bashing 3.7 seconds, with the standard speed limiter electronically limiting the go to 250km/h or 305km/h if you go for the optional Driver’s Package.
Power transfer is via the stateof-the-art eight-speed Steptronic Sport transmission as fitted standard. But for the M760Li, the box has been tuned specifically for the V12 engine by BMW’s M Performance department, and delivers sportier and even faster gear changes than ever before.
The car features an Executive Drive Pro suspension with active roll stabilisation that can be changed at a mere push of a button, from ‘Comfort’ to ‘Sport’. While this happens, throttle and steering response is dramatically sharpened up too, and I feel this is the part most owners are going to like the most.
One moment you have a very docile, quiet, soft riding limo underneath you, push a button, and the car puts on its M Performance superhero suit and transforms into a dynamic, hard charging beast of a machine. And If you are too lazy to even push a button, you can select ‘Adaptive’ mode and via the navigation data being fed into the car, the 760 will automatically change the damper, throttle and steering settings based on the road you are about to face.
Now normally I would say at this point, the fun would be trying to get all that power and torque