BMW has showcased the 8 Series Gran Coupe, a stretched out 4-door coupe version of the 8 Series. The car, derived from the 2-door Coupe is longer, wider and more spacious making it a more comfortable GT car where the 2-door doubles up as a sportscar.
The Gran Coupe has grown a fair bit over the Coupe. It is 231mm longer, 30mm wider and 61mm taller. The wheelbase itself is 201mm longer than the regular two-door. The front track has remained the same, while the rear is now wider by 28mm and at 1671mm it is the widest of any production BMW at the moment. The most obvious change on the outside is the addition of two doors, which are rather neatly integrated in to the coupe silhouette. Up front, it gets adaptive LEDs as standard and you can optionally spec it with BMW Laserlight. The BMW 8 Series also gets a panoramic sunroof as an option – a single glass piece that stretches right from the windscreen to the rear window, and a part of it can open too. BMW has limited the increase in weight over the regular 8 Series to 70kg, using aluminium liberally for the doors, the bonnet and even the engine subframe.
There’s a huge focus on the interior too – this is the most luxurious variant of the 8 Series, after all. The instrument panel and doors come fully wrapped in leather as standard. The rear seats are sporty too, offering good lateral support and it only comes in a 2+2 layout with a tunnel in the centre. That said, the rear seats still feature a 40:20:40 split for better luggage carrying capability. It gets adaptive suspension for better body control in a variety of situations.
The 8 Series Gran Coupe comes with a number of drivetrain options. There’s a total of three engines on offer: two petrol and one diesel. The BMW 840i Gran Coupe gets a 3-litre straight-six petrol that makes 335bhp and 500Nm – and comes with the option of a rear-wheel drive or all-wheel drive setup. There’s also a straight-six turbo-diesel in the 840d Grand Coupe – again a 3-litre unit that puts out 315bhp and 680Nm, and comes with all-wheel drive as standard. The most powerful is the M850i, that has a 4.3-litre V8 petrol engine that puts out 522bhp and 750Nm. Again, it only gets all-wheel drive and will accelerate to 100kmph in 3.9 seconds. The 840i and the M850i also get an M Sport differential as standard. The M850i also looks far more aggressive as it gets the M body kit as standard.
The 8 Series sits in hallowed company, going up against the likes of the Mercedes-AMG GT 4-door, Audi RS 7 and even the Porsche Panamera.