Even shorn of its fixed metal roof, the 8 Series continues to strike a fine balance between dynamism and refinement
When BMW announced the return of the 8 Series, a Riviera-spec flagship convertible was always on the cards.And understandably so. A car whose day-to-day dynamism is broadly comparable to that of a Porsche 911, only with levels of space and opulence more akin to what Mercedes’ formidable two-door S-Class can offer, should appeal just as much in open-air form as it does with a fixed roof, if not more so.The £107,000 M850i xDrive tested here represents one half of the initial convertible line-up – the other half being an 840d xDrive M Sport equipped with BMW’s supremely smooth, economical 3.0-litre straight-six turbodiesel, though an M-badged derivative with more than 600bhp is expected. Both drivelines are carried over wholesale from the coupé, meaning the M850i gets a tractable 4.4-litre twin-turbo V8 packing 523bhp and 553lb ft. Explosive potency ensues, and despite a hydraulic roof mechanism and additional bracing that see kerb weight rise from 1890kg to a stocky 2015kg, the convertible gives almost nothing away to its coupé sibling in terms of straight-line speed, adding just 0.2sec to the 3.7sec 0-62mph time.
Source: Autocar
