[sergey8]

Hi Folks,

Ever since introduction of the 8 and the first time I saw the car in flash I’ve been looking for driver’s reviews of the car. I was eager to understand what this car is and how it drives. However, all the reviews I had come across were made by people who were driving the car straight lines, sitting in the car talking on the video regarding gesture control and showing off the reversing assistant. Neither of the reviews served the purpose and therefore I have made my own.

Please read below and let me know through comments what you think of it.

Since my review is about driving and it is difficult to just tell you how a car drives without comparing it to something else I decided to compare it to M5 F90 Competition. Why exactly M5? Well, for several reasons:

1. BMW positions both cars as their top sports cars for the moment, one being the "ultimate sports car” and the other being “the luxury sports car”
2. They share the same platform although it is modified in different ways to either suit the M5 or the 8
3. They weigh approximately the same
4. They cost approximately the same (well, until the M8 comes out)

I do not mean to compare everyday practicality (otherwise the 8 would immediately leave the comparison). I will also not speak about acceleration itself since for now it is clear who would win.

So, in order to better understand the 8 it makes sense to first talk about what it is to drive the M5 on the street. It is all different on the track since other things matter but on the street it is where this comparison makes sense.

Since all other reviews of M5 I was able to find speak only about how great the car is, that it has 625 horse power and (oh my god) an all wheel drive, I believe some description of how it actually feels on the street is necessary.

I haven driven the M5 Competition for several occasions now and my relationship and my feelings towards driving of this car have passed through several stages which I would like to describe in more detail.

Stage 1: you drive the car for one or two days and you are seriously surprised by how comfortable the car is. It is really-really comfortable. You keep being surprised by how quiet it is, how not hard the suspension is, how it is easy for you to obey the speed limits.

Having driven E63S on the street I can tell you - this is a big achievement. With E63S I was not able to hold the car on the edge of the speed limit - the gas pedal was reacting to my breathing and constantly went beyond it which forced me to set the car on the limiter not to constantly watch the speed gauge.

It is completely not the case with the M5. The car does not do anything until you ask it to, it holds easily to the pace you want it to keep. In fact it is so relaxed that you want to remove your hands from 9 o’clock, 3 o’clock position, put one hand at 12 o’ clock, put the back of your seat a bit further, set your Bowers & Wilkins a bit louder and drive into the sunset.

You are not even bothered by those people around who constantly want to race you after they see the M5 badge - you feel yourself above this, you are a grown up now, you have the M5 - no need to prove anything to anyone anymore

Stage 2: At certain moment in time you realise that you have the M5 nor just for relaxed driving. You even start to worry that the car is too relaxed. To get a relief from these thoughts you put everything to Sport Plus configuration and press the pedal. You quickly realise that the car does everything you’d expect it to do - it accelerates, it steers, it overtakes, it slaloms, it sounds, your passenger is flying around her seat in tights corners. So, everything is as it should be.

So now that you have proven to yourself that it is actually the M5 you are driving, calmed by this sensation you switch again everything to Efficient and continue to enjoy the relaxed driving.

Stage 3: you wake up in the night scared by the thought that you have grown old. You have the fast car you ever wanted and all you want to do with it is to enjoy the relaxed driving and the the looks of it.

So you tell your girlfriend that you go to a pharmacy to buy aspirin, while yourself jump into the car, press the M2 button (you memorised all the Sport Plus setting from the precious exercise) and try to get maximum of sports driving on empty city streets where there are just you and the taxi’s.

You push the car further and further, go through bends faster and faster, one time you almost crash it. The car obeys but you do not feel anything. And then you finally realise what it is that was bothering you all this time.

The car does everything you want but keeps all the sensations to itself. It is more that you are entertaining the car than the car is entertaining you. Going 50 kmh or 200 kmh feels the same, unless you accelerate really hard, the engine sound is actually subdued, you only see bends & corners but do not feel match of them.

This is when you realise that there is a flip side to all that comfort. BMW has created a hugely capable car which can perform pretty well on a racetrack but unfortunately does not give you enough sensation of that performance in your everyday life. Pity.

Somehow this realisation does not leave you very much disappointed. You understand that the problem is not in you and your age and you still have a hugely potent car after all so you settle to that knowledge and will continue enjoying the comfort of the M5.

You remain satisfied this way until your former colleague tells you that his m850i finally has arrived. You and your colleague went both to the racetrack last spring with BMW to test-drive the new M5 on a formula one circuit. You both enjoyed it a lot. Later the colleague has ordered the M5 but then changed the order to m850i.

So he calls you and offers to test-drive his new m850i.

When you first approach the car you can not make much of it. It is so low and so slick so you can barely perceive its presence. The M5 especially in a light color is massively present on the street, the 8 - not so much.

So feeling not very much satisfied by the looks you get into the drivers seat. It is low but you have to go even lower because the roof is also quite low. However, having set the seat to a low position you do not feel any discomfort, in fact it is quite comfy, low but comfy.

You look around, see iDrive 7 with all new buttons, controls and screens. You see merino all over. And … you do not understand where is all that luxury BMW was talking about. It is well made, it is quite pleasantly made but it is not luxury that is for sure. Especially comparing it with Benz.

Here is when you think that you do not get this car. It is nowhere present, neither from inside nor from outside. Without any big hopes and wanting to go back to your M5 as soon as possible you start the engine and begin to drive.

And that is where things change and they change immediately after one meter of driving.

Suddenly you feel young again. You want to accelerate, you want to slalom, you want to go around bends, you enjoy the engine sound. You are playing with the car from minute one. It is fun and it is fun all over again.

Why is that? First and foremost it is because the car gives you all the sensations. You do feel the speed in the 8, you do hear other cars, you feel the car completely when you turn it. In fact it gives you so much more sensation of driving that you can go slower in the 8 and enjoy it more than going twice as fast in the M5.

Second reason (but it is really a second one) is that the car feels very nimble and light. This is of course due to the physics because the 8 wheelbase is shorter then that of the new 3 series (G20) and the center of mass is much lower than in the M5 competition. In addition there is also a four wheel steering.

However between the nimbleness and the sensation it is the sensation of driving which gives you all the enjoyment. Somehow where the engineers insulated the M5 they left the 8 completely talkative and open.

This has a flip side as well. The 8 feels more like a toy than a serious car. People describe it as a GT and this is what it for sure is not. This is not a GT car. This is a toy sports car. If you want to cross continents take an M5. M5 is way more comfy than the 8.

The 8 feels small, open and nimble with all the up and downsides of it. The closest car in sensation to the 8 is …. the 3 series only with more leather, design and room in the interior and a greatly improved exterior. I will say it again - the 8 feels much less comfortable than the M5.

The 8 is the car not for those who like luxury it is for those who would like to enjoy the essence of driving and whose status does not allow them to buy an m2 or m3. It is a driver’s car but of a driver who would like to wear white gloves & a suite instead of the racing Puma shoes and anti fire costume.

Don’t we have a 911 for that? Well, yes we do and presumably 911 will drive better than M8 (due to much lower mass & DCT). However, the M8 or the m850i will also be a lot of fun to drive and not everyone likes Porsche, not everyone likes a really small cabin of 911. Some people want a well driving good looking car which is also rather comfortable - for them there is the 8.

You would be right to notice that the market for such a specific vehicle might turn out to be rather small. I doubt that no matter how much advertising budget BMW would spend here it will ever be able to bring the 8 in terms of desirability anywhere close to 911. Therefore by the end of 2019 we might start seeing large discounts on 8 series at BMW dealers as well as a huge drop in value of the pre-owned cars which will be sold in the beginning of 2019.

By the way for those of you who were asking why there is so little room with the back seats for such a large car. Well, the answer is simple - BMW has chosen for a car with a very short wheelbase (smaller than in G20) and for the large engine (V8). Since the engine needs to be contained within the wheelbase to ensure good balance (so to be behind the front axle) the cabin space is shifted more behind (compared to the 3-series for instance). Therefore, there is essentially no room left for the rear seats which can not move past the rear axle.

All this also show us the expectations regarding the 8 Grand Coupe dimensions. Currently, the 8 is by 11.5 cm shorter than M5 and its wheelbase is by 16 cm shorter. In order to make room for extra seats BMW to my expectations needs to move the rear axle behind by about 8 cm. This means that the wheel base of the Grand Coupe might still be shorter than that of the M5 by as much as 8 cm.

The total length of the car would need to increase beyond that due to low sloping roof line. BMW will need to move the sloping point of the roof further behind the rear sits in order to make room for the head. This would require another cm of 3 in length at least. Overall, the increase of length might be as big as 11 cm bringing the length of the Grand Coupe equal to the length of the M5.

Having enjoyed the 8 I felt very good for my friend for whom it was a second car. As a second car to enjoy once in a while it is a perfect toy.

However, unfortunately, neither the 8 nor the M5 do make a perfect all round car which I was hoping one of them would be.