At times, the business of spying prototypes can be a little monotonous. Pick a spot at the Nurburgring, set up your gear, and start shooting whatever camouflaged car comes your way. And in most instances, those pre-production prototypes aren’t fooling around, but are driven as cleanly as possible. On this occasion, however, the man behind the wheel had a little bit of tail-wiggling fun with the 8 Series Convertible you’ll see in the following spy clip.
Its name is the G14 850i, with G14 being the chassis code for the open-top body style and 850i the nomenclature for the N63 4.4-liter twin-turbo V8. The engine’s burble is more than apparent, sounding more throatier than the F12/F13/F06 650i the 850i will replace next year for the 2019 model year.
“Are you sure it isn’t the M8?” Looking at the exhaust design and the lack of M-specific parts (i.e., front bumper, side skirts, brakes), you can bet your two cents this isn’t the M8 we’re all waiting for. With the F90 M5 boasting 600 ponies and 750 Nm (553 pound-feet) of tire-shredding torque, you can also bet your bottom dollar the F92 M8 will offer more suck-squeeze-bang-blow.
It’s worth noting there will be three different M8 body styles: F92 for the coupe, F91 for the soft-top convertible, and F93 for the Gran Coupe. Similarly, the 8 Series will spawn a Gran Coupe, internally referred to as the G15.
If it wasn’t apparent enough, the lighting system of the G14 850i spied playing at Germany's greatest racetrack is far from ready. The newcomer is still in its testing phase, with BMW having lots to do until it can bring the 8 Series to market to battle the likes of the Mercedes-Benz S-Class Coupe and Cabrio.
3.0-liter inline-six engines are also in the pipeline, turbo diesel included, and BMW is apparently considering a plug-in hybrid powertrain as the most eco-friendly 8 Series money can buy. If the Bavarian automaker can make a case for it, then the 840e iPerformance won’t differ too much from the 740e iPerformance, which relies on a 2.0-liter turbo-4 and an electric motor.
After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well. Full profile
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