BMW's most amazing secret. The car they SHOULD have made.

[Byte]

OMFG!!! What a car! What a waste to have ignored it.

Unfortunately their next top-of-the-line coupé won't be really nice...too much SL-like for my taste.

[VWKafer]

Sooooooo, a wonderful segway in to another question....


Will BMW produce a supercar?

[Z Draci]

After the Z10 comes out, I'm sure nobody will care if the M8 existed or not.

[geoff_a_pult]

Do we actually have any new information about the Z10, or are you just basing that on the fact that I brought an old thread back because I'm an idiot?

I don't think BMW really has any desire to make supercars. They seem to enjoy sticking to excellent all around cars with sporting potential, with occasional forays into speed.

I think the M6 or the old Z8 are as far as they want to go making supercars after the M1 debacle.

Still, I wish they had made the M8 so I could pick up a used and vaguely affordable one now. Not that I could even do that (Damn college..... costing so much).

[MadCow809]

Originally Posted by geoff_a_pult

Do we actually have any new information about the Z10, or are you just basing that on the fact that I brought an old thread back because I'm an idiot?

I don't think BMW really has any desire to make supercars. They seem to enjoy sticking to excellent all around cars with sporting potential, with occasional forays into speed.

I think the M6 or the old Z8 are as far as they want to go making supercars after the M1 debacle.

Still, I wish they had made the M8 so I could pick up a used and vaguely affordable one now. Not that I could even do that (Damn college..... costing so much).

i doubt that BMW will make any supercars, reason being that the supercar market is already saturated, there are simply too many supercars out there. BMW is already quite happy with their M cars, while offering great comfort level with a hint of supercar performance and handling, i think BMW is quite proud of themself. but then again i will be veyr happy to see BMW make a nice supercar to outperform a ferrari

[marcos_eirik]

Originally Posted by thedguy

The Mclaren F1 engine is an evolution of this motor! (the Mclaren is S70/2).

Alright, time to kill an internet myth...

The McLaren F1 engine is nothing like the engine they had in the 8-series, or planned for the M8. It shares the number of cylinders but that's where the similarities stop. It was specially made for McLaren, and shares more with their straight sixes from the M3 and M5, than the S70 V12 from the 8-series... The planned M8 had a normal 8-series V12 engine with new DOHC 48v cylinder heads (Called S70/1), the F1-engine was a brand new construction from scratch loosely based on R&D from the E-34 M5 engine (Despite similar sounding names, S70/2 for the F1 and S70/3 for the LM) Looking at it you will se the heads on the McLaren F1 engine has a lot in common with the straight six that later found it's way into the M3...



Let's take the short, short story from the start. The first manufactor McLaren did some developing with was Honda, they were to make a 450hp engine, based on F1 R&D. But then the Bugatti EB110 and the Jaguar XJ220 came along, both with a 100 hp more than planned for the F1, this seemed silly with a car that exspensive. So they demanded a 5,3-litre minimum and over 550hp, then Honda would need to develop a brand new engine, which was out of question.

During the Hockenheim GP in 1990 Gordon Murray met his old mate Paul Rosche from when he worked with Brabham who asked him about how his supercar project was going, Murray answered that he was just missing an engine and time was starting to run out. Then Roshce invited Murray to Bayern to see the S70/1 from the M8-project. Murray made it clare once he saw it that it was much too big and far too heavy. So then Roshce said they'll make a new engine, but he told Murray to instruct the M-Sport engineers closely about what he wanted from it.

After three weeks Murrays demands from the engiene was clear, 550hp+ and 7500 rpm redline, no more than 250kg and for the love of god, no more than 600mm long. It also had to be stiff enough to serve as a stressed member, and it needed to be dry sumped. This was in November 1990, and by christmas 1991 the engine was ready. But it turned out to be 16 kg heavyer than Murrays demands, which he unexpectedly ignored because the engine was a lot more powerfull, 627hp, so it was it was in percentage twice as more powerfull than heavyer than Murrays original demands by a rate of 14 to 6,5 against.

My source is the "Driving Ambition - The official inside story of the McLaren F1" by Doug Nye, Ron Dennis and Gordon Murray himself, so it should be reliable...

(PS! It's not the first time...)