LA show: BMW unveils four-door M8

AUSTRALIAN BMW customers will have a choice of two or four doors when they sign up for BMW’s sports flagship M8 Competition coupe.

BMW Group Australia has confirmed that the hottest Gran Coupe will land in local showrooms around the same time as the similarly armed M8 Competition two-door coupe in the second quarter of next year, with pricing and final specification still to be confirmed for the pair.

The German company outed the M8 Competition coupe and convertible back in June, and now it has detailed the four-door Gran Coupe version that will be formally displayed at the Los Angeles motor show in November.

Sitting on a wheelbase stretched 200mm over that of the two-door coupe, the Gran Coupe gets an extra pair of doors that open up to a rear seat that BMW claims offers “exceptional levels of space”.

“The rear seat design evokes a sport-focused feel with individual character and integrated head restraints,” the company says in its press release.

Although a “base” M8 version will be available in some markets, BMW Group Australia will take only the top-most M8 Competition specification in coupe, convertible and Gran Coupe, with each sharing the M-enhanced 4.4-litre twin-turbo V8 producing 460kW of power at 6000rpm and 750Nm of torque peaking low in the rev rang and stretching up to 5800rpm.

The engine is hooked up to an eight-speed automatic transmission and rear-biased, two-mode xDrive all-wheel-drive system that includes an active rear differential.

Acceleration from zero to 100km/h is the same as the coupe: 3.2 seconds.

While the two-door version comes in both coupe and convertible guises, the Gran Coupe sticks with a solid roof.

Like its two-door siblings, the M8 Competition Gran Coupe gets larger air intakes, M gills on the side panels, slimmer exterior mirrors and a rear spoiler.

Dampers and steering are electronically controlled, allowing them to be personalised, along with brake pedal feel and engine performance. Two of these personal set-ups can be stored and retrieved while drive via a steering-wheel-mounted button.

The instrument cluster and head-up display can also be personalised with M-specific readouts.

M Sport supplies the front seats that come with M8 badges and bi-colour leather upholstery. Similarly, the rear seats with their integrated headrests get a sports feel, doing away with a middle seating position for more sculpted shape.

The addition of the four-door M8 Competition next year will bring the Gran Coupe line-up in Australia to three variants, with the M version sitting on top of the entry-level $199,900 six-cylinder 840i and $272,900 mid-range V8 M850i that are both due in showrooms soon.

Based on those prices, the M8 Competition Gran Coupe pricing is expected to be north of $300,000, but because other Gran Coupe variants are more affordable than the coupe and convertible equivalents, the four-door M8 Competition might still could be the most affordable of the three.

The M8 Competition range will take the battle up to mainly German rivals such as the Mercedes-AMG GT and Porsche Panamera.