Quote:
Originally Posted by HotRodM4
Just put the S58 or a TT V8 in there ��
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I've been speculating on / wishing for this for a few years now.
Quote:
Originally Posted by NorCalAthlete
I was having this convo at the meetup over the weekend and the CSL thread got me thinking about it again.
Starting points:
- BMW is trending towards bigger and boxier SUV / crossover styles (XM, for example) though the 3 series is still king
- Ford is spinning off (or looking to spin off) the Mustang brand as a separate entity
- Chevy may follow with Corvette, and are making a "Corvette" SUV ala Urus
- Porsche sort of led the charge with the Cayenne / Macan, but now everyone is doing it
- at the same time, Chevy basically said they switched to a mid engine layout because they had squeezed everything they could out of the previous front engine, RWD layout performance-wise
So. BMW.
IF the trend continues towards SUVs, and IF BMW decides they've gotten everything they can out of the layout / platform after the M4 CS / CSL / M3 CS etc....might they decide to switch to a mid engine layout?
Something like a larger i8, with a hybrid straight 6 twin turbo, and xDrive.
Discuss.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by NorCalAthlete
Start with the i8.
Stretch it to accommodate the S58.
Add one or two of the electric motors from the i4 M50.
Give it ~50-100 miles of electric-only range, the rest of the time it's just a power dump for ~650-700 hp.
Trim whatever weight they can to keep it under 2 tons.
Update the interior but for the love of god give us tactile buttons still and don't force everything onto a giant touchscreen. I could maybe see minimizing the driver's dash in favor of more HUD focus, but keep the ID7 style infotainment in the middle, and make it more angled and symmetrical-ish. Ditch the shifter in favor of push button gears like the Lambos have (huracans and aventadors / revuelto, not the Urus). Keep climate control and door locks and emergency flashers as their own dedicated buttons at a minimum.
Oh and none of this passenger display bullshit Porsche and everyone is doing now. Unnecessary.
Give it x drive if possible for launching and hard driving (yeah yeah purists blah blah, at modern power levels it's just flat out better and safer).
Target a 7 minute (or lower) 'ring time.
Keep the price under $200k.
I think something like that would do extremely well.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by NorCalAthlete
I went with the '23 G82 as the last gas one before ID8. I plan on keeping this one to 100k+ miles, but who knows.
If they came out with a mid-engine layout supercar style M4...I'd be sorely tempted to switch instead of keeping my current M4.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by NorCalAthlete
I mean, you could say the same thing about the NSX, AMG GT, etc.
I think if BMW had something that could fill the gap between the M4 and a GT3RS, it would do well. Particularly with C8 corvette competitive looks and performance.
Like, just keep scaling things the same way the M4 vs C8 does.
I'm thinking about it like this:
From $75k-$100k, the M4 is awesome, but the C8 beats it in terms of supercar looks to go with the performance.
From $100k-$200k, you have the AMG GT, 718 higher specs like GTS or GT4, stripped down "poverty spec" 911s (if you're lucky, and not including dealer markups and crap), the NSX, R8 (maybe)(lower specs).
Again this is focusing on the sports aspect moreso than just overall "is there a car from this brand at this price point" otherwise we'd be including SUVs too. The M8 is great, but by all accounts too heavy / touring oriented moreso than performance, while the others listed are much more performance oriented (including the M4, IMO).
BMW simply doesn't have anything at the higher end to take jabs at other supercars. We might have supercar performance or close to it, but nothing in terms of supercar looks + performance.
With prices climbing steadily across the board for pretty much all models and all brands, it makes total sense to me to produce something like this before we're all forced into EVs anyway.
Additional note - while I like the idea of taking the S63 vs the S58, it IS bulkier and heavier (though I'm not sure by how much). So it makes more sense to pair the S58 with a hybrid spec ala McLaren P1 / Porsche 918 since you'd be able to keep the weight down a bit more with a brand that's already gotten pretty chunky.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by NorCalAthlete
Yeah...I mean, ~50% more power, ~200 kg lighter, 3-4x the cost when new and damn near 10x the cost now...it had better win.
Such a gorgeous car though. I do wish BMW had something similar. i8 styling was nice; the performance, not so much. BMW doesn't really have anything to compete with the SLS anymore (maybe the Z8 back in the day?).
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On this particular "we almost made it" prototype, I like the front half but the rear needs some work. It's too uniform / squarish / blocky. Needs more angles, needs more character, different taillights, and for fuck's sake recenter the roundel. Basically that whole middle section of the rear should be integrated with the outer "shrouds" for lack of a better term...to me it's a bit jarring / off how the shrouds and diffuser have some decent angles and then everything in between is just flat and straight. I think even just making the taillights more angular in a sideways Y shape or something would do the trick - like, take the current M4 taillights and instead of curved, make them angled. I dunno but that middle section in the rear just seems really off to me.
Oh and these quotes are just a few from the last year, I've talked about dreaming about a mid engine BMW supercar for longer than that. At times I've also speculated on using the twin turbo V8 instead of the I6 as the base powerplant, but it's bigger and bulkier so not sure how well it would work with the given designs. Either way though, you could easily make a 700-800 hp supercar with them especially when combined with an electric motor or two.