Last week BMW announced the return of the 8-Series and then quickly followed up by confirming production of the M8, a car that will sit at the very top of BMW’s ever-changing list of cars. So where BMW could have simply made an S-Class coupe competitor, the company went a step further with a track-focused version of the two-door grand tourer. And if they’re smart, BMW will make the standard 8-Series a completely different animal from the M8.
Where the other M-Models represent varying degrees of performance and luxury, only distinguishable from the base models by a few options and horsepower, the M8 needs to be the AMG GT to the base 8-Series’ SL63. Or, more plainly, two cars with nearly identical architecture (in the Merc’s case, front-mounted V8, rear-wheel-drive, two doors) but polar-opposite intentions and target customer. Anything else will just come off as a compromise and completely miss the mark for what this car could be.
In Other News:
BMW is taking the M8 racing, replacing the M6 GTE next year at Le Mans — much like how BMW seems to be replacing the 6-Series coupe on the road, as reported by Road & Track.
At the other end of the spectrum, BMW is doubling down on economic city cars with the X2 and FWD 2-Series.
And somewhere in the middle, the brand’s biggest SUV is on the way.
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