As the car industry moves towards the future, performance cars become more and more threatened. Sure, the numbers are still here - in fact, they're better than ever (a quick glance at Nurburgring times reveals this). But if we are to talk about the driving experience ingredients that tingle an aficionado's senses, the risk of extinction becomes obvious. One of the most obvious matters of the kind revolves around the exhaust note of new go-fast models, with the upcoming 2020 BMW M8 being an example as good as any.
Just months away from its debut, the M8 is currently completing the final phase of its development on the Nurburgring. And, as you'll get to notice in the spy footage at the bottom of the page, the voice of the big coupe hardly matches the pace of the machine.
After all, the M8 will borrow the tech side of the F90 M5, which means it will be animated by a twin-turbo V8 with at least 600 horsepower on tap (the Competition model is expected to climb towards 650 ponies), so you'd expect the thing to growl like it means business, right?
Wrong. It seems that the M8 will offer the same decent V8 voice as the new M5, the old M5 and the M6 it somehow replaces. Then again, since the M8 is an upmarket move, it would've been nice to see this being translated on the decibel enjoyment field, especially since there's an M8 GTE racecar turning heads out there.
Note that the M8 protoype we have here is being pushed to the limit (it climbs rumble-strips like a mad car!), so I'm not expecting this to be a test that saw the active exhaust being placed into its most quiest setup. Oh, and if I'm wrong and the 2020 M8 will actually have an exhaust mode that will match its flagship coupe status, I'll be glad about my mistake.
We might just find out the answer in June, at the 24 Hours Of Le Mans.
Oh, and if you're looking for proof that, for instance, the new OPF (Otto Particulate Filter) emission hardware doesn't have to bring quitere exhausts, here's the upcoming 2020 Audi RS6 Avant delivering a monstrous soudcheck at the Nurburgring (the super-wagon is also coming to the US, remember?).
In his quest to bring you the most impressive automotive creations, Andrei relies on learning as a superpower. There's quite a bit of room in the garage that is this aficionado's heart, so factory-condition classics and widebody contraptions with turbos poking through the hood can peacefully coexist. Full profile
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