2020 BMW M8 Competition Laps the Nurburgring in Porsche 911-Rivaling Time

You might end up spending more on a fully decked 7 Series, but while that will offer superior comfort and pampering, it will never match the 8 Series for the wow-factor. There's something profoundly decadent with these large performance coupes that you can't get with other types of vehicles, and a certain variety of people seem to appreciate that.

In their defense, it is kind of hard to argue against a twin-turbocharged 4.4-liter V8 engine with 617 horsepower and 553 lb-ft of torque (750 Nm) that delivers its power through an eight-speed automatic gearbox and BMW's M xDrive all-wheel-drive system, even when the whole powertrain is placed inside a vehicle that is more suited to covering long distances than hooning around a racetrack.

That being said, the BMW M8 Competition proved to be quite adept at the latter too, as the Bavarian performance coupe made a recent stop on the Nürburgring, one of the few racing circuits in the world that needs no further introduction. Behind the wheel of the M8 was Sport Auto's Christian Gebhardt, a racing driver that's not nearly as famous as the Green Hell, but still a lot handier behind a wheel than you or me.

The two-tone (4,321 lbs or 1,960 kg) gran turismo completed the 12.9 miles (20.9 km) Nordschleife section in seven minutes and 32 seconds (and 79 hundreds of a second, if you feel like getting overly specific), which is quite remarkable. For reference, the same driver was only two seconds quicker (7:30.41) in a Porsche 911 Carrera S (992) last year, and the list of cars (make that supercars and hypercars) that rank lower than the new M8 in the list of Nürburgring times contains the kind of names you really wouldn't expect to see there. Think Ferrari, Lamborghini, or Koenigsegg. Hit 'play' on the clip below to watch the entire lap.