The 2014 BMW M6 Gran Coupe is the new flagship car from the high-performance division of the world’s most performance-oriented luxury brand. It gets 560 hp with a maximum of 500 lb-ft of torque, and is calibrated tighter than a well-hitched noose. To say the least, it performs.
Albert Biermann, the chief engineer of the M Brand, showed off his masterpiece to a group of us last week in Austin, Texas, lovingly presenting his cross-bank exhaust manifold with reverse airflow as though it were his child graduated from Germany’s top university with highest honors. The car has a “wide span of engine performance,” he said, and could be pushed to its limits without testing the driver’s sanity.
“A lot of engines,” he said, “when they get to this point, they run out of talent, let us say. This one does not.”
Most importantly, Biermann said, this car can relax under pressure. There’s a water-air cooling system connected to the turbocharger that keeps the charged air temperature down. This creates a lot of backup pressure, he said, so the car can really go hard even when the driving situation grows dire. BMW engineered the Gran Coupe to run steep hills at high altitudes, so as not to alienate potential customers in the Rocky Mountains. He was really proud of his cooling system. “These are really upper Bavarian hoses,” he said. “Lower Bavaria has nothing to do with these hoses.”
Well, we didn’t test-drive the M6 Gran Coupe anywhere near Bavaria, upper or lower, but BMW did allow us to take the car to the Circuit Of The Americas just outside of Austin, an increasingly popular spot for rich drivers who want to push their cars past sane limits. Quickly, the Gran Coupe showed that a “wide span of engine performance” is an understatement. It approached perfection in every aspect.
First prize has to go to the car’s carbon-ceramic braking system, the first time an M product has ever used this technology. A lot of cars can hit triple-digits on COTA’s insane back straightaway, but very few can do that alongside perfectly responsive, precise brakes that require barely a tap to do your bidding. It was remarkable how well the brakes interacted with the six-speed automatic transmission, which opened up on turn-outs and tightened on turn-ins with incredible intuition.
This car has a rear-wheel drive system that’s almost impossibly sophisticated and intuitive, fine-tuned with the transmission to the point where it will up- and down-shift for you at the exact right moments. And it’s totally necessary. As Biermann said, “you have to find something to deal with the 560 horses.”
Even more than most cars at this level – not that there are many — the Gran Coupe has been built for the track-driving experience. It gets even more sophisticated when you put it in “M Dynamic” mode, which partially turns off traction control. There were a half-dozen totally necessary driving instructors on hand at COTA to help us deal with the Gran Coupe’s horses. They suggested that M Dynamic gives the driver a little more freedom coming out of a corner.
True enough, but when combined with the Sport Plus settings, it felt more like I was going to rip through the track barriers and not stop until I reached the Gulf Of Mexico, more than 200 miles away. In some configurations, the Gran Coupe was close to the greatest car I’ve driven, while in others, it was way more than I, a man of admittedly limited abilities, was able to handle properly. Without the various electronic assists, I was seriously sweating the last couple of laps. The brakes were tight, the turns were tighter. The car exploded down the straightaway, and moved easily through some highly-technical S-curves, though with little help from me.
I’d taken to COTA a couple of times, but not in something like this. It was as close to driving an actual race car as I hope to ever come; the Gran Coupe doesn’t have a “Survival Mode,” but that’s how I gripped the steering wheel. I didn’t scream like a frightened child. However, I did consider it a couple of times. I also didn’t vomit, which often happens at a racetrack. When the drive ended, I staggered out of my seat, ripped off my helmet, and walked over to a railing and gagged a couple of times. Another quality track ride had come to an end.
But the best thing about the M6 Gran Coupe is that it also masquerades as a luxury car. As the eminently quotable Biermann said, “this car is good for the opera, yah? You can decide. Mr. Jekyll or Mr. Hyde.”
My drive partner and I took Mr. Jekyll for a two-hour stroll on the curvy roads around Austin’s distressingly parched Lake Travis, all the Gran Coupe’s switches flipped to “Comfort," with the occasional rotation into Sport Plus for some of the turny bits. Mr. Hyde had repeatedly beaten me over the head with his cane, but, as advertised, Mr. Jekyll was a comforting delight. The brakes were just as responsive, though not as sharp, and while the horses were present, the comfort mode reigned them in nicely.
On the racetrack, the transmission had flipped around like a crazed robot violating its prime mission, but here, on the roads, the transitions between gears were subtle, never calling attention to the incredibly complex upper Bavarian machinations under the hood. Our one complaint was that we couldn’t figure out how to stop the car. There was no “P” on the gearshift. At a driver’s change point, someone had to tell us that you run the car into neutral and then activate the parking brake. The 2014 BMW M6 Gran Coupe has apparently not been designed for people who park themselves.
It does have a lovely and luxurious cockpit, as its upper class pedigree demands, with comfortable and form-fitting leather seats. There are cool carbon-fiber accents everywhere, a responsive yet cozy padded steering wheel and a near-$4,000 Bang & Olufsen stereo system. All those aspects had been in place at COTA, but I hadn’t noticed in survival mode. It didn’t feel like the same car, but it was, in fact, the exact same car, with the same wickedly-low, very cool-looking carbon-fiber roof and all kinds of secret engine powers.
The Gran Coupe, like Tony Stark taking off his Iron Man armor and putting on a tuxedo for a formal occasion, transitions easily from turbocharged nightmare to high-end dream. I’ve never encountered a car that works so well in two different personae. Of course, it should, given that the base price for the machine is $115,225. By the time you add in the fairly necessary $9,250 carbon-ceramic brake package and a host of other “executive” doo-hickeys, as well as the fact that the Gran Coupe gets no gas mileage to speak of in any mode, you’re looking at something that costs $137,000-plus. That’s a great deal if the car is going to be your primary residence. Otherwise, it’s a ludicrous and impossible extravagance.
But its demanding high-end customers, who aren’t going to be disappointed by their new plaything. The M6 Gran Coupe is an engineering and design triumph for the M brand, the most luxurious marquee entry in its storied 30-plus year heritage. “Don’t be sad that there’s no M7,” Biermann told us. “From my point of view, you already have one.”
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