Today’s update is brought to you by the letter ‘M.’
Concept cars usually serve as a loose preview of what’s to come, because their generally whimsical nature allows carmakers to go nuts and exaggerate technological and aesthetic features to the point of lunacy to get their point across.
However, BMW appears to have missed that directive. Instead, they’ve given us the M8 GranCoupe concept, just unveiled at the ongoing Geneva motorshow, which we’re willing to bet is almost a dead-ringer for the production model that’ll debut next year. They could have lopped off the word ‘Concept’ from the title and told us it would see some minor revisions before production, and we’d have believed them.
“The BMW Concept M8 GranCoupe is more than simply a luxury sports car with four doors. It symbolises a new and unique understanding of luxury. With this car we want to reach people who are looking for something special and who want to stand out from the crowd. Here, BMW M is unmistakably taking luxury out of its comfort zone.” — Domagoj Dukec, Vice President (Design), BMW M and BMW i
The BMW M8 GranCoupe is hardly a surprise to those of us who’ve been following this story while the German luxury marque was teasing it ahead of the Geneva show. After having been blown away by the 8-Series Concept last year, we expected to see that designed carried over wholesale and then being stretched a bit to get that desirable four-door coupe roofline that is ever so fashionable now.
Perhaps concern for doing too little is why BMW chose to debut the 8-Series GranCoupe in full-fat M-Sport trim, going to town with the allowances afforded by affixing that ‘M’ to the bootlid. And in true M fashion, BMW Motorsports has gone nuts with the M8 GranCoupe, making lots of small changes that have contributed to an overall different experience of the modern 8-Series.
What’s evident is BMW’s new design language for its flagship models: The kidney grille is now enormous, and widens towards the bottom, which emphasises the width of the car and its proximity to the tarmac. And that grille is flanked by two high-set, slim headlights replete with BMW’s latest interpretation of its ‘corona ring’ light signatures, and they’ve borrowed from the M8 GTE concept in tinting the headlights a pale shade of yellow.
The big news comes from the flanks of the M8 GranCoupe. The wheelbase has been stretched out to make room for those two extra doors (and the two more passengers that they will inevitably accommodate), though looking at the windowline, there is something that sparks a little bit of concern.
The profile of any modern BMW can be discerned almost immediately by a design feature called the ‘Hofmeister Kink.’ The Kink refers to the point where the rear passenger window meets the shoulder line at the base of the rear-most pillar, which juts back inwards at a sharp angle, to emphasise the strength of the pillar design. This has been a hallmark of BMW design since the 1950s, but in the M8 GranCoupe, it’s almost unrecognisable. Hm.
Moving quickly away from that rather distressing development, the rear of the M8 GranCoupe is more of what we’ve seen on the 8-Series Concept, albeit with some minor modifications to help underline the performance capabilities of this upcoming M car. Horizontal lines are used to break up the various elements at the rear, while the gorgeous, sculpted taillights serve as as the visual highlights of the sculpted back end. Beneath them, you’ll find a very prominent rear diffuser, which BMW M’s engineers will justify provide many grams of downforce, broken up by the familiar (and always welcome) quad-tailpipe arrangement that is one of the calling cards of any BMW M car.
BMW’s not beating about the bush with the M8 GranCoupe concept: This car will be put into production in 2019, after the showroom-spec model arrives on the scene. Both a production 8-Series GranCoupe as well as a full-fat M8 GranCoupe will come to fruition, and will mark the first official M8 and the first-ever four-door 8-Series. We can’t wait.
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