BMW’s Le Mans racer is ready to hit the road.
The Bavarian brand has announced pricing and specifications for the all-new BMW M8 sports coupe ahead of its arrival in Australia in early 2020.
The new king of BMW M Division is based on the same two-door that the company races against the Porsche 911, Aston Martin Vantage and Ferrari 488 at Le Mans, with both the road and track cars developed side-by-side.
BMW is offering both a standard M8 and the more powerful, lighter M8 Competition around the world, but BMW Australia has opted to only offer the more potent version.
At $352,900 (plus on-road costs) the M8 won’t be cheap, but you get a lot of car for you money.
Under the bonnet is a 4.4-litre twin-turbo V8 producing 460kW of power and 750Nm of torque. It will send all that grunt to the tarmac via an eight-speed automatic transmission and xDrive all-wheel drive system.
The good news is, the xDrive system features a rear-wheel drive mode and an Active M Differential, so if you drift and shred the high-performance tyres that remains an option.
If you utilise the all-wheel drive traction, BMW claims the M8 Competition can manage the 0-100km/h sprint in just 3.2-seconds.
BMW claims that lessons learnt on the development of the M8 GTE racer have been transferred directly to the production car, specifically the suspension set-up. It uses a double-wishbone front layout with a multi-link rear end with reinforcements over the standard 8-Series.
Stopping is handled by M compound brakes as standard but BMW is also offering a carbon ceramic set-up for even stronger braking if customers want. They will be housed inside 20-inch M-style alloy wheels.
The M8 Competition Coupe will go on sale in the first quarter of 2020.
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