With BMW remaining steadfast in its belief that it doesn’t need a supercar in its line-up, the M8 Competition remains its fastest model and the German marque’s best rival to the likes of the Mercedes-AMG GT S and Audi R8, even though it is quite different in philosophy.
Whereas the Audi R8 and Mercedes-AMG GT can be considered as true supercars, in particular the R8, the BMW M8 is more of a Grand Tourer in the vein of the Bentley Continental GT. However, that doesn’t mean it’s completely befuddled when taken to a racetrack, as Sport Auto recently discovered when lapping an M8 Competition around the Nurburgring.
Driving the M8 Competition is a twin-turbocharged 4.4-liter V8 engine rated at an almighty 616 hp and 553 lb-ft (750 Nm) of torque. This engine is coupled to an eight-speed M Steptronic transmission that sends power through an advanced M xDrive all-wheel drive system. It is a hell of a machine and can hit 62 mph (100 km/h) in as little as 3.2 seconds.
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With Sport Auto’s Christian Gebhardt behind the wheel, the car lapped the Nurburgring in 7 minutes and 32.79 seconds. That’s very quick and actually matches the 7:32 also set by Gebhardt when behind the wheel of a 2015 Audi R8 V10 Plus. It also matches the best time of the Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio.
Now, like so many other performance cars on the market, we suspect that very few owners of the BMW M8 will ever venture anywhere near a racetrack, let alone one as punishing and unforgiving as the Nurburgring. Nevertheless, it is eye-opening to see just how fast the car is, despite its heft.