BMW M8 Competition coupé (2020) Review: The beast, unleashed

When I reviewed the BMW M850i xDrive last year, I marvelled at its multi-faceted nature. With a moment’s notice, it could switch from comfy cruiser to absolute rocketship, to the extent where the need for an M8 could seriously be questioned. 

But then this matte-blue M8 coupé was delivered to my front gate, and spending some time with this monster was enough to turn me into a believer: BMW M’s (current) pinnacle model may just be the greatest thing they’ve made in decades. Let’s take a joy ride, and you’ll see why.

Styling

The BMW 8 Series coupé is a very good-looking base for an ultra-lux halo car, with classic rear-wheel drive proportions and flowing lines. These design elements remain with the M8, but festooning it with M8-specific bumpers and air intakes ups the aggression level quite a lot. Competition spec (the only trim we get in South Africa) adds gloss-black trim pieces and sprinklings of carbon fibre, as well as stunning two-tone, star-spoke-style alloy wheels for an extra sinister appearance. 

Covering this mean-looking machine in “Frozen Marina Bay Blue Metallic” paintwork (a R 53 300 option) only added to our test car’s sense of underlying menace. The overall effect was much like seeing a pro wrestler in a very well-made suit: dignified and civil on the surface, but with quite a lot of bulging at the seams to indicate that the power and fury within is just barely contained. 

The details are just as intricate, and extend to multi-adaptive Laser headlights and full-LED rear light clusters, model-specific side sills and bumper designs, “M double web” side mirrors, and a pert little spoiler on the boot’s trailing edge – the latter two made of carbon fibre. In short, it’s a stunning-looking car in the metal (and composites), and our test car hogged the limelight wherever it went.

Related: During our launch drive of the latest BMW 8 Series, we commented on the extremely high bar it sets in its class.

 

Engine and drivetrain

The real beauty lies under the skin, though, with plenty of technical cleverness to make this large car dance. Motive power is provided by a development of BMW’s S63 engine: a twin-turbo, 4.4-litre V8, which sends 460 kW and 750 Nm to all four wheels through a ZF 8-speed automatic gearbox. 

Of greater significance than the mere numbers is the torque spread: while the S63 produces exactly the same torque as the lower-spec engine in the M850i, it’s all available over a much wider band – from 1 800 r/min all the way up to 5 800 r/min, rather than to “only” 4 600 r/min in the M850i. 

This gives the M8 even better top-end stamina, and results in a surge of power that extends pretty much from idle speed up to the rev limiter at 7 200 r/min, all accompanied by an authentic V8 muscle car soundtrack (if the standard two-stage exhaust is set to loud mode). It basically doesn’t matter which gear is selected and what the engine speed happens to be – a tickle of the accelerator pedal will have the M8 lunging forward with serious intent, making for deceptively rapid acceleration at all speeds.

 

Performance

Quite a lot of fuss has been made about the M8 Competition’s performance figures, and rightly so – this is an astonishingly potent machine, with numbers that puts it among some very serious exotica. But, no matter how impressive those numbers are, they simply cannot adequately describe the comical ferocity of the power on tap. Neither can words, really, but let’s give it a shot anyway.

Official claims state that the 0 – 100 km/h dash will be over in 3.2 seconds, but that bland number doesn’t even begin to illustrate the effortless nature of this stonking performance. A full-bore launch could even elicit a chirp from the tyres before the M8 rockets away, and after such a launch, the gear changes are sharp enough to whack the back of your head with the head restraint every time it snatches the next cog.

While there is a launch control system, it’s not really necessary: just point the front end where you want to go, flatten the accelerator pedal, and you’re there. Done. The rush of acceleration is immediate, relentless, and sustained, and only tapers off when you lift off the accelerator. There’s always more speed available, all you have to do is ask.

But, thanks to the electronic aids, it’s all perfectly controllable, which makes it preposterously easy to go dangerously fast in a very, very short time. And it’s not like the fun stops at 100 km/h, either: the M8 just keeps on reeling in the horison as long as the driver keeps the pedal buried in the carpet, and is proven capable of running standing quarter-miles in the low-11 second bracket at more than 200 km/h. 

To get anything faster than this, you’d have to look at a proper supercar, and even there, the big BMW will put some serious frighteners on some esteemed machinery. According to BMW, the M8 Competition’s top speed is limited to 305 km/h – a claim that we didn’t test, but which seems entirely plausible, given the storming acceleration on tap even at high speeds.

Related: Larger than life – we reviewed the BMW M850i xDrive convertible last year, and found it difficult to fault.

 

The Drive

As you might have gathered by now, the BMW M8 Competition has tremendous reserves of power. And, truth be told, a mere decade ago, this kind of power would have been the preserve of supercars – supercars that would have been more than a little challenging to manage. But such is the march of technology that a luxury coupé (like a BMW 8 Series) is now more than capable of soaking up that much power, and then deploying it to astounding effect.

To accomplish this, BMW enlisted a host of enhancements, but strangely stopped short of including the rear-wheel steering system of other 8 Series variants. The engineers say that this omission was in the interest of driving purity, but that’s a somewhat moot point: this is a heavy car (kerb weight: 1 960 kg), and the AWD system, adaptive suspension, electrically-assisted steering, and heavy cloak of electronic driver aids put a layer of cotton wool between the tyres and the driver anyway.

To be fair, they did include a Track mode, which sets everything up for old-school slithering fun, but it’s unlikely that a car like this will see much track use – that’s what the M2 and M3/4 are meant to do. Of particular interest (but likely equally limited use) is the M xDrive AWD system's RWD-only mode, selectable via the iDrive controller or one of the configurable M-mode buttons on the steering wheel. 

Doing so also disables the stability control nannies, which in turn demands a driver who’s absolutely on top of their game: with this much power on tap with the flex of an ankle, the rear end can get very unruly very easily without the stabilising effect of the torque management system. And, because there’s so much road grip to begin with, it’s guaranteed that any such rear-end breakaway will be sudden and violent, requiring plenty of skill and road space to recover. Just like it was in olden days of a few years ago, then...

Far better to set the AWD system to Sport mode, because it starts off with a rearward torque bias but still keeps some safety nets active, even as it allows for a wagging tail under provocation. Set up like this, the M8 is crushingly quick and secure under all conditions, and covers ground faster than almost anything else you could imagine. 

Dial it back a notch, and the M8 morphs into a surprisingly comfortable everyday car. The adjustable suspension can soften up to become compliant enough to handle most normal road conditions, the exhaust can be switched over to a soft burble, and the gearbox can be reprofiled to unobtrusively slur its changes. Driven this way, long distances can be consumed without effort – with the exception of frequent fuel stops, that is...

 

Fuel consumption 

Not even BMW themselves are very optimistic about the M8 Competition’s fuel consumption, because they quote an average figure of 10.4 ℓ/100 km. But, alas, the reality looks even worse. Applying plenty of restraint should see low-14 ℓ/100 km averages in mixed-cycle use, but unleashing all that power on a regular basis will quickly see the trip computer running into the 20s. 

Once again, this is a moot point. All petrol-engined cars around the M8’s performance levels are profligate drinkers, and that’s only fair: those horses need to be fed, and employing them will see the fuel tank drained at record rates. Fortunately, it’s unlikely that potential M8 buyers will consider fuel efficiency as a critical factor in any case, beyond the inconvenience of refuelling a few times a week. But, as we said, that’s par for the course in this performance bracket.

 

Space and Comfort

BMW is considerate enough to offer the M8 Competition with a choice between three body styles, of which one is a fastback 4-door “coupé”. That’s the one to get if practical considerations matter beyond the ability to carry enough people and luggage for a weekend away for two. 

The two-door derivatives (coupé and convertible) may be equipped with nominal rear seats, but those are strictly for occasional use: there’s almost no leg- or headroom in the back, and getting in or out of the rear seats is a time-consuming schlepp even with power assistance moving the front seats out of the way. The two front occupants will be considerably happier, though, with plenty of space to move around. As an aside, the coupé (as tested) has more headroom and better sightlines than last year’s convertible. 

Oddment stowage space is also decent, with deep door pockets and a substantial lidded console box, and there’s a phone shelf (with a built-in wireless charging pad) in front of the gear selector, hidden by a smoothly-sliding cover. Cargo space measures a surprisingly generous 420 litres, in a boot that’s fairly easily accessible, deep and long (if slightly narrow). The 50/50-split rear seatback can also be flipped down to extend the luggage space if necessary, and finally put the rear seating volume to use.

As befits a car of this stature and price bracket, the cabin trimmings are first class. The test car’s interior was lined in leather and alcantara, with a two-tone colour scheme and orange contrast stitching. The seats, steering wheel, arm rests, dash top and door cards are trimmed in leather, and the lower console area and roof lining in the suede-like material. Glossy carbon fibre finishes throughout the cabin combined with discreet mood lighting to create a modern vibe, accentuated by the giant display screens that dominate the dashboard.

Related: If you like the M8’s monstrous powerplant but want the space and understatement of a sedan, the BMW M5 Competition may be just what you need!

 

Standard equipment

As the pinnacle of BMW’s range, the M8 Competition comes with almost every possible option as standard. Included in the spec sheet is a beautiful digital cockpit, and the latest-generation iDrive control system for the centrally-mounted colour touchscreen with standard navigation, voice-, and gesture control. 

Here’s a small selection of the nicest other standard features: BMW Laserlight adaptive multibeam headlights, head-up display, a 1 400 watt Bowers&Wilkins audio system with 16 speakers, BMW’s ConnectedDrive suite (including integrated smartphone apps, remote functions, and smartphone mirroring), automated parking, active front seat ventilation, illuminated door sill finishers and seatback inserts (both featuring the “M” logo), heated armrests in the doors and centre console, and adaptive cruise control with lane-keeping assist.

Related: We compared the infotainment systems in the BMW 8 Series, Jaguar F-Type and Mercedes-Benz SL, and the BMW system came out on top.

 

Safety

Being BMW’s flagship sports model, its safety features are top-notch - as it should be, given the sheer speed on offer. The usual things are present: ABS, stability control, 6 airbags, and ISOFIX rear child seat anchors are all standard (and congratulations on getting those child seats in there, by the way!). Euro-NCAP safety testing hasn’t been performed on the BMW 8 Series yet, but the 5 Series (to which it’s very closely related) scored a full 5 stars, and there’s no reason to suspect that the 8 Series will perform worse. 

Other standard safety features include parking sensors all round as well as a surround-view camera system, blind-spot monitoring, cross-traffic warning and rear-collision avoidance, and most of these sensors (as well as the radar- and stereo camera surveillance system) have warnings and reminders that pop up in the various display screens as needed. 

Almost every safety-related component that could be ordered is included in the spec sheet, with the exception of carbon ceramic brakes at R 128 200. We’d normally advise against ticking this option box, but given the M8 Competition’s staggering performance, it might actually be worth considering, even if just for the widened safety margin.

Our test car also came with BMW’s optional night vision system, which includes an interface whereby the clever headlights illuminate pedestrians on the side of the road while simultaneously highlighting them via icons in the central screen (now re-allocated to night-vision display duty), instrument display, and in the head-up display. 

 

Price

With a pre-option list price of R 3 300 272, the BMW M8 Competition coupé is clearly out of reach of the vast majority of buyers. However, within its market segment, it’s actually not too-badly priced – the Mercedes-AMG S63 coupé is a bit more expensive, the more-potent AMG GT 63 S undercuts its BMW opponent (the M8 Gran Coupé) by a small margin, while the Mercedes-AMG GT R two-seater also costs a bit more.

For the rest, the M8 Competition is a lot less expensive than a Bentley Continental GT V8 and Aston Martin DB11 V8 – and make no mistake, this M8 will blow them both into the weeds in a straight line. Yes, the BMW M8 Competition is expensive, but it’s also clear why that high price is actually justified for the hardware, luxury, acceleration, and general usability on offer.

 

The Verdict

At first, having all that power underfoot in a car this big and heavy could be a bit daunting, yet the M8 Competition could be as docile or as brutal as you want it to be. On the one hand it’s an opulent long-distance tourer, but on the other, it’s a cruise missile that will challenge just about anything else in a straight line. As a demonstration of BMW M’s commitment to having their range-toppings offerings deliver on both comfort and eye-watering power in one package, it’s without peer.

But, even though it’s by far the fastest BMW currently on sale, and even though it’s crushingly potent, it’s also stupidly easy to drive very fast. With this car, the laws of physics can be bent all out of shape, its driver becomes the star attraction wherever they go, and it’s practically guaranteed to win any traffic light grand prix. It’s a also a supercar cloaked in a svelte coupé body, and a luxury limo with the spirit of a sports car. 

For this incredible spread of abilities, it surely deserves the rarely-bestowed 5-star rating. There really is nothing else like it at this price point, and it’s a bargain when compared to other super-coupés of similar performance. That it comes nicely-equipped ex-factory and is as usable as any other BMW only sweetens the deal. M for “motorsport?” Not really – the M8 is too big and too heavy to be happy on track. But M for “monstrously, mega-fast” and “magnificent”? Most certainly!

 

* Pricing was accurate at the time of writing, but may change without prior notice. 

** Included in the standard list price is a warranty for 2 years with no mileage limit, and a maintenance plan for 5 years or 100 000 km.

 

Expert rating:

5/5: It does almost everything perfectly – as it should, at this price!

 

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Shop for new and used BMW M8 Competition cars for sale here.

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