Behind The Wheel Of The Coolest New BMW Drop Top

With the birth of an all new top-of-the-line convertible, BMW has reworked both the car and the nameplate to move the 6-series successor up the pecking order and name it the 8-series, in a rebirth for the famous badge. As a part this 8-series range, the convertible is the 2nd of the cars and we drove it in sunny Portugal

- Yogendra Pratap

The moving up of the coupe, convertible and gran coupe range up above the seven to 8-series meant that the car had to set new benchmarks as far as flair, sportiness, driveability, technology, interiors and performance went. In fact, as soon as we knew that the Eight was coming, we were expecting it to be the pinnacle of everything BMW, combined with the nature of the car itself, which in this case was the convertible, that we drove around the mountainous regions in the south of Portugal.

As far as the size goes, the previous generation 6-series convertible in fact had a longer wheelbase and was overall longer as well. The 8-series convertible is just about the right size to make it a large car but still keep some of the sporty DNA intact. The new car also seats just four with the rear two seats more suited to young adults.

Exterior styling on the 8-series convertible has a lot more flair than BMW would previously afford to its large cars. The new slim headlamps are a marked contrast to the large single-piece kidney grille, the jutting out front apron and the sharply contoured bonnet. With a wide and low stance, the rear is very expressive as well and the large 20in wheels with mixed tyres complete the purposeful and sporty look. The slim light design even for the tail-lamps along with the twin-tailpipe exhaust make the rear well planted and seemingly low while for the first time the sides see such sharp character lines, previously the privilege of only the smaller convertibles like the Z4 in the BMW range.