Up:Â Gorgeous inside and out, tons of user friendly tech.
Down:Â The key isn’t that cool.
Neutral:Â BMW nailed their slogan with this one.
When Jake at Luxury Auto Mall of Sioux Falls tweeted me that they had the second most expensive BMW in existence, I knew I shouldn’t dilly dally and started to charge my camera. When I got there, it was sitting quaintly in LAM’s showroom that conveniently had the perfect lighting to accent all of the lines on this work of art. Since this was already sold to a man in Texas, I didn’t technically get to drive it. But I did get the opportunity to shoot one of the most beautiful cars in existence. Jake tossed me the keys and I went to town on the 2014 BMW M6 Gran Coupe.
I didn’t get the opportunity to test the performance but I’ll tell you a little bit about it anyhow. The nuclear bomb that powers the M6 is a 4.4 liter twin-turbo V8 that has been tuned by BMW‘s own M division and produces 560 horses. To keep that power on the ground they paired it with an M tuned 7-speed double clutch with those fancy flappy paddles and massive 10″ thick tires. All of that together produces a 0 – 60 mph time of just under 4 seconds and a (governed) top speed of 155. That’s quite an impressive figure for BMW’s heavyweight that comes in at around 2.5 tons!
And it doesn’t stop there. The M6 is packed with enough electronics to make Skynet jealous. The exterior has every sensor known to man that will keep your butt on the road when things get hairy. It will report if anyone is in your blind spot, keep you in your lane if you start to veer, slow you down or stop you if you get to close to the car in front of you, and even adjust it’s lighting to the particular time of day with adaptive headlights and taillights. And just in case things get really dicey, you’ll have special “M” compound brakes with dynamic brake control that instantly apply maximum brake pressure to stop the car as fast as physically possible. In short, it stops as intensely as it goes.
The interior is on that next level as well. When you get in you’re instantly surrounded by the best materials that money can buy. Comfortable seats, custom stitching, a plethora of controls and buttons, and plenty of “M” badges to remind you of what car you’re in. The most notable piece of equipment was the infotainment center. It had a beautiful color display that was controlled by a wheel where your arm would rest. Most of these types of displays either don’t work. or are really ugly. This one had gorgeous menus with eye-catching transition graphics that all made sense. Menus like that seemed like the final frontier for cars to enter the 21st century and so far the M6 is a front-runner.
At the end of the shoot the only two things that bothered me were that I didn’t get to drive it and the key. The key just seemed a little boring to me and if I’m spending an excess of $100,000, I want a key that makes Richard Branson look twice.
But back to reality. This car is stunning. It looks good from every single angle and that is not an easy feat in the auto industry. It is also functions as a comfortable daily commuter as well as always having that power on tap for when you’re ready to have fun. The 2014 BMW M6 Gran Coupe is not only the best car in the BMW lineup, it’s one of the best cars on the road, period.
