BMW Reveals M6 Coupe & Cabriolet

BMW has dropped pictures and details of the new M6 Coupe and Cabriolet before their debuts at the 2012 Geneva Auto Show and 2012 New York Auto Show, respectively.  These steroid-infused versions of BMW's big two door borrow their mechanical bits from the X5/X6M and M5, combining raw power and technology in a fairly AMG-like manner.  More on that in a minute.

There's not a great deal more visual menace to the M6 Coupe/Cab than there is on the standard (F13) 6-series, but it'll still be a hard to miss car.  The fenders are flared gently to accommodate a 30mm track width increase , there's the traditional "gaping maw" front bumper to provide air, and a set of parallel five-spoke wheels hide massive brakes.  The rear bumper is new, with a new diffuser that houses the quad tailpipes.  A neat nod to the past is the small "M6" badge offset in the front grille as a reference to the original E24 M6, and that's about it.

M made an effort to keep the weight of the M6 to a minimum.  On the Coupe, the roof is carbon-reinforced plastic, and both versions get aluminum doors and glassfiber-reinforced plastic trunk lids.  The coupe weighs in around 4,000 lbs (the convertible closer to 4,300) so perhaps they have some more dieting to do.  Good thing it's got a metric ton of power to make up for that.

Like the M5 and X5/6M, the M6 is powered by the S63Tu44 engine.  This 4.4L V8 utilizes reverse-flow twin turbocharging (inlet manifolds on the outside) and twin-entry turbos with direct injection, Valvetronic and Vanos to deliver 560 horsepower from 5,750-7,000rpm, and a thick 502lb-ft torque (680nM) between 1,500-5,750rpm.  Basically, if you can't find power somewhere between idle and redline (7,200rpm), you might not know how to drive.  In addition to having more power and torque and a much more usable powerband, the new V8 will also consume about 30% less fuel than the outgoing model, for the three people who care about that.

Of course, you won't have to be Juan Miguel Fangio to drive it anyway.  All M6's will come standard with the 7-speed M-DCT twin clutch flappy paddle doohickey.  The stability control will come in three flavors- On, M Dynamic Mode (higher slip thresholds and gentler intervention) and Burnouts Galore.  I mean Off.  There might be the option of a 6-speed manual (such as is offered in the US F10 M5) in the future, but not for now.

One of the journalist-created "weak spots" of the old M5 and M6 were it's brakes.  By journalist-created, I mean fat shuffle-steering hacks that had track time in the old model said the brakes had a tendency to go soft too quickly.  As a result, the new binders are freakin' serious - 15.7"/6-piston fixed caliper front, 15.6" 4-piston rear.  There's an option of M Carbon-Ceramic brakes that sheds 43lbs of unsprung mass as well.  Standard rolling stock is 19" alloys with 265/40 front and 295/35 rear tires, but 20" wheels are available (and mandatory with the ceramic brakes; perhaps to offset some of that reduced post-hub mass?) as well.

Despite the more-than-a-damn-GTR weight, both the Coupe and 'Vert will be fast.  BMW says the Coupe will hit 100km/h in 4.2 seconds, with the 'Vert a tenth behind it, and 0-200 in 12.6 (13.1 for the 'Vert.)  Top speed is of course limited to a piddling 155mph, or 189mph if you pay them a large sum of money to change one short string of code in the ECU for you.

So, a 4,000lb twin-turbo automatic gearbox large coupe with enough tech stuffed in there to launch a space ship?  That sounds more like a Mercedes AMG than a BMW M, but it's been years since "M" switched from meaning Motorsports to Marketing.  Guys: they're not going to make us another E30 M3.  They're only making around a thousand 1M Coupes.  Who would've thought that if you were looking for a hardcore 2-door coupe with a manual transmission, Cadillac would wind up higher on the list than BMW?

Gallery below!  Let us know what you think of the M6 in the comments section.