BMW Takes Topless 8-Series Cabrio To Death Valley

The new BMW 8-Series has already been unveiled in Coupe form, with its four-door and cabriolet versions soon to follow come 2019. Now, the German automaker is hard at work testing the 8-Series Convertible on the roads between Las Vegas and Death Valley.

By doing these hot climate tests, BMW can gain important insights into how certain mechanical and electronic components handle extreme weather conditions.

Before the new 8-Series Convertible can be unleashed onto the public, it will have to take on temperatures of more than 50-degrees Celsius (122 F), dust formations in the desert, stop-and-go traffic on the Las Vegas Strip, gravel tracks around Mount Whitney, as well as long-distance drives between the Pacific coast and the Rocky Mountains.

While Death Valley is by no means the place for a convertible, the heat and the dryness of the Mojave Desert create ideal conditions for a special type of acid test. What BMW did was to let their 8-Series Convertible prototype sit in the blazing sun for hours, while engineers checked the onboard electronics, sound system, sensors, cameras, displays, connectivity and of course, the automatic climate control.

Meanwhile, by taking the car to the Hoover Dam, the automaker also managed to test out its electronics as far as interference is concerned, while bombarded by strong electromagnetic waves coming from the hydro-power plant turbines. As for the car’s multi-layer soft-top, the desert proved once again useful in testing its dust-proofness.

Both the 8-Series Convertible as well as the Gran Coupe will be unveiled sometime next year.