Hot, actually very hot, on the wheels of the recently introduced V10-powered M5 saloon, BMW is about to introduce its equally powerful two-door, 2+2 coupe cousin, the M6.
Back to the future
New BMW M6
And when the new car hits the UK market in November (or possibly December), at a price expected to be not unadjacent to £80,000, it will be the first time since 1989 that BMW has had M versions of both 5 and 6 Series families on the market at the same time. The last time it happened was way back in the days of the very first generation M-badged production models, led by those same 5s and 6s that were introduced almost simultaneously in 1984, and that in turn was six years after the M (for Motorsport) Division had built its first limited edition road car, the race-bred mid-engined M1 coupe, in 1978. Back then, the M5 and M635Csi shared virtually identical versions of the classic 3.5-litre BMW straight-six engine, modified by the MSport people to deliver what was regarded at the time as a very impressive 286bhp - enough to give the very handsome M635Csi a top speed of about 158mph in the days before such cars were deemed to need maximum speed restriction, with a 0-62mph time of 6.4 seconds, which in its day was very swift indeed for a large, relatively luxurious coupe.
And that is what the M635CSi was, and the M6 is, because more than twenty years on from the launch of the first generation super-6, the basic formula still holds good for the new generation – of performance with style.
Engine
BMW M6 engine
Just like the originals, too, today’s M6 is mechanically very closely related to the latest M5, at least in their very similar drivetrains – and as in the mid-1980s, virtually identical engines in particular. But nowadays, its no longer the classic BMW straight-six layout under the M-car cousins’ bonnets, or even the excellent V8 of the last generation M5 that strutted its stuff before the 6 Series was reintroduced for the new M6 to follow. Now, it’s the spectacularly different 90 degree V10, which is naturally aspirated rather than either turbocharged or supercharged, because BMW believe that gives better power characteristics, has a capacity of five litres, and revs rather higher than most road-car engines to give 507bhp of top-end punch with at least some of the character of a real F1 racing engine – which is the image that BMW hints at with this latest layout.
It doesn’t rev nearly as highly as a real F1 engine, of course, but its peak power is delivered at an unusually high 7750rpm, and it isn’t red-lined until 8250rpm, which gives it a sound all of its own, and especially when it’s being worked hard, when it sounds absolutely glorious. To get that kind of specific output, it bristles with technology – four camshafts and four valves per cylinder with Bi-VANOS variable valve timing for both inlet and exhaust valves, compact, lightweight construction with special strengthening to let the bottom end survive those screaming revs, and an extraordinarily powerful electronic management system that at the touch of a button delivers that maximum power of 507bhp for outright performance, or defaults to ‘only’ 400bhp for, say, poor road or weather conditions – or if you’re a bit more cynical, for political correctness.
Gears
Whatever, it genuinely is a great engine, and enough to give the M6 a top speed (limited now, of course) of 157mph, 0-62mph in 4.6 seconds (which is a whisker quicker than the M5) and the often-used overtaking sprint from 50 to 75mph in either 4.4 or 5.8 seconds, depending on whether you leave it in fourth or fifth gear for the purpose. Both, of course, are pretty quick, and a good measure of real world performance. The M6, like the M5, however, achieves its figures slightly differently from many other cars even with broadly similar performance, and that’s a big part of its personality. You need to use that broad rev-band quite hard to get the best from the big V10, and that means you have to use the gearbox with it – which is the other defining element of the M6. Again like the M5, it uses what the marketing men think of as race-related technology – in this case a manual gearbox with sequential automatic shifting, without the need for a clutch pedal.
And this SMG Sequential Manual Gearbox has no fewer than seven speeds, because that’s what it needs to make full use of a torque curve that’s slightly less towering than the M5’s power curve, and to keep the V10 on the boil. It’s also, unfortunately, just like the M5’s SMG in being the weakest link in an otherwise deeply impressive packet, because just as we observed in the 5, it isn’t the smoothest of shifts, either up or down the box, and there are times when it is so aggressive that you might think you’ve broken it. But BMW are committed to it, and here it stays – unless the conventional six-speed manual rumoured to be under consideration mainly for the more conservative American market comes off, that is...
Launch control
Oh, and just to get it off my chest again, because I really couldn’t believe how unnecessary it was, the M6 also has the same Launch Control feature as the M5, which uses all the trick electronics to let you do full-bore racing-type starts and accelerate all the way to maximum speed without ever lifting off the throttle – just by selecting maximum power and minimum traction control intervention, holding the gearshift while you keep the throttle nailed to the floor, then simply letting go of the stick and riding out the violent torrent of gearshifts and massive acceleration until the power runs out, at maximum speed. As we said then, and we’ll say again, it’s an amusing trick once, but the novelty wears off as quickly as the tyres and the driveshaft joints will presumably wear out too.
On the road
It’s pretty much the only thing I really didn’t like about the whole car, though, and that’s a substantial complement. It looks fantastic, on massive 19-inch five-spoke forged alloy M wheels that put 255/40 and 285/35 ZR19 rubber on the road font and back, and that give maximum cooling space around the huge cross-drilled and radially ventilated brakes, with their race-programme-derived composite steel and alloy discs. Respectively, those give the grip and the stopping power to match the power and the performance, and they make the M6 an iron fist in a velvet glove. The different looks also include a weight-saving carbonfibre roof panel, plus a totally new front airdam and complex rear aerodynamic sections below the rear bumper, as well as extended but quite subtle sill sections, and together they make the M6 impressively stable even at the highest autobahn speeds, while if anything making it look even more compact, and far more muscular than the ‘ordinary’ 6 Series on which it’s obviously based.
BMW M6 - dashboard
It’s superb inside, too, with beautifully understated black-lacquered dash inserts and a classically functional layout – though again going back to old themes, it needs i-Drive like a fish needs a bicycle, because at the sort of speeds the M6 is capable of, simpler is better. However, it’s an isolated criticism of a generally brilliant package, which proved itself on our first acquaintance both on superbly fast and varied Spanish roads and on a very demanding race circuit. Fair enough, an everyday driver might raise an eyebrow at how difficult it is to see double figures on the fuel consumption read-out if you’re pressing on hard, and might wince too at the laughably short range that can imply. He might get a bit concerned at how sticky the big (and expensive) tyres get after a really fast blast, too – but a real M6 owner whose spent that eighty grand just to get into the game in the first place maybe factors little details like that in anyway, without too much distress.
Verdict
Those pay-offs are wonderful, no doubt. The M6 has simply massive grip, lovely handling balance with scope for remarkably fast corner entry speeds before understeer inevitably pokes its nose in, so to speak, and lots of scope for adjusting the rear attitude just with the throttle, because the way it balances steering and power inputs is impeccable. The brakes too, aside from a tendency for the pedal travel to get a bit longer after several quick circuit laps, are almost beyond criticism, and on the road they certainly never feel remotely stretched. Which is maybe as good a way as any of summing up the whole M6 experience – it’s simply one of those cars that gives the feeling that you could drive it a very long way at very high speeds and always want to come back for more. Its personality, too, is different enough from that of the M5 to make it a genuinely different choice (albeit with a near £18,000 price difference), and that’s the icing on the cake. Moans apart, it’s a very desirable piece of kit.
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