A degustation menu of high-performance BMW M vehicles
Tuesday, 30 May 2017
BMW says M is the most powerful letter in the world.
Good claim that, as it underpins the fact BMW has an offshoot called BMW M GmbH that produces a range of vehicles that offer seriously high performance.
The vehicles are fantastic - little wonder then that they are unusually popular in New Zealand. Here, around 10 per cent of all BMW sales are the M models, which in percentage terms may well be the highest takeup in the world.
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The history of the mighty M vehicles goes back to the 1960s when a subsidiary called BMW Motorsport GmbH was formed to facilitate the brand's motor racing programme.
But as the years passed the organisation began to add specially modified versions to BMW's vehicle portfolio that offered much higher performance potential.
The first such car was the famous M1 which was launched for public sale in 1978 - but that vehicle was more of a race car than a model suitable for domestic use.
That changed the following year when BMW Motorsport GmbH developed the M535i, a high performance version of the 5-Series. That eventually morphed into the car we know as the M5, which was launched in 1984. And not long after that there was the model that really cemented the M position on the world's performance scene: the M3.
These vehicles proved so successful that in the early 1990s BMW changed the name of its performance offshoot from BMW Motorsport GmbH to BMW M GmbH - and it has been a success ever since. The brand adds powerfully to a triumvirate of German vehicle manufacturing subsidiaries - Mercedes-Benz AMG and Audi RS are the others - that operate with one thing in mind: performance.
Right now BMW New Zealand is celebrating all of this with an event called the M Festival, which is being held at selected racetracks throughout the country.
The festival has already visited Ruapuna and Manfeild, and it's now at Hampton Downs in northern Waikato.
There, customers can pay to spend a day with a selection of eight different M cars, receive one-on-one performance car tuition with a driving skills instructor, and perhaps most importantly fully explore the performance potential of each vehicle in a racetrack environment.
A degustation menu of M product, you might say.
There's plenty on that menu, too. It begins with the smallest BMWs, the 1-Series hatch and the 2-Series coupe which are available as the M140i and the M240i, and it goes right through to the big 12-cylinder M760Li xDrive.
The M initiative also extends to SUVs with the X4, X5 and X6 models.
The Kiwi motoring media had a go with some of the M product at Hampton Downs, participating in slalom, acceleration and braking exercises before enjoying four-lap blasts around the track in six of the M vehicles made available for the M Festival.
Smallest was the M2 Coupe, the prettiest of the fleet, resplendent in a paint colour called Long Beach Blue. It's powered by a brawny TwinPower turbocharged 3.0-litre in-line six that develops 272 kilowatts of power and 465 newton metres of torque - with another 35Nm available for short terms via an overboost function.
It'll get to 100 kmh in 4.3 seconds via its seven-speed M double-clutch automatic transmission which operates far faster than any manual transmission - which is why that scoot to 100kmh is faster than the official acceleration time with the manual.
So all we needed to do was chuck the auto into Drive and let it work its magic around Hampton Downs, revelling in the sheer power and agility of this short-wheelbase, rear-driven coupe with its active M differential.
Next up was another coupe - the slightly larger M4. This lightweight (1590kg) rear-driven coupe with its 50:50 weight distribution extracts even more grunt from its 3.0-litre TwinPower six - 317kW and 550Nm, which is enough to rocket the car to 100kmh in just 4.1 seconds.
All those figures also apply to the four-door version of the M4, the M3 sedan.
As we said before, this is the famous M, the model that years ago set the M brand on the path to worldwide acclaim.
As the exercises at Hampton Downs quickly proved, this model is equally as agile as the coupe, but offers the added utility of being a traditional sedan.
Move up an engine size and enter the realm of the high-revving V8 and there's the M5 sedan, with the most powerful of all the BMW production engines under its bonnet - a TwinPower turbocharged unit that develops an exhilarating 412kW and 680Nm, sufficient to get to the 100kmh in 4.3 seconds.
Like most other M models this car also has the M high-performance chassis with its active differential, carbon ceramic brake system, dynamic damper control, and M Dynamic mode which features a pair of M Drive buttons on the steering wheel which are configured for a really sporty drive.
The coupe version of this vehicle is the M6, which is even faster - 4.2 seconds to 100kmh, and if it has an M Driver's Package, a top speed of 305 kmh.
Our final drive was the SUV of the selection - the X5 M. This might be a big and heavy (2.3 tonnes) SUV, but it is powered by a Twin Power eight that develops 423kW and 750Nm, which enables it to pound to 100kmh in 4.2 seconds.
Who would have thought you could extract that sort of performance out of a big SUV? And give it the ability to tear around a racetrack, able to keep up with the M coupes and sedans?
But then again, that's what the BMW M selection is all about. As the German manufacturer says, M is about high-performance vehicles that are suitable for everyday use, but which also have the necessary race-oriented features for unrestricted high-performance driving.
And that's a menu for a high level of motoring pleasure.