INSTANT MESSAGING SHORTHANDWILL forever render BMW’s latest performance flagship the BMW ‘Mate’, but its abilities on the road decide whether it will endure as a car that will live on in evo’s pages in years to come.
On recent form, that’s in no way guaranteed. The M division has made some very capable cars over the last few years, but less frequently have they been the dominant class leaders of yore. It took some massaging for the M3/M4 to become the car it should have been from the start, as revealed in Competition Package form, and the M2 only showed its best side as the M2 Competition.
Tellingly, the £123,435 Mate drops tomarket badged M8 Competition right from the off (in the UK, at least), which makes you wonder whether the M badge is enough on its own these days. If ‘M’ isn’t inherently analogous with competition already, then how deserving of the badge are the cars that currently wear it?
The 1885kg weight of the M8 Competition Coupe doesn’t exactly scream motor sport, though given M badges also reside on SUVs these days perhaps we should be thankful the M8 is at least low-slung, and has a centre of gravity below that of an M4. But at nearly 4.9 metres long and 1.9 metres wide it’s certainly not compact – the racing version’s planetary dimensions have already become the stuff of merciless internet memes.
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Esta historia es de la edición December 2019 de Evo.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.
Ya eres suscriptor? Conectar
BEST BUYS BMW M CARS
THE PERFORMANCE CAR LANDSCAPE WOULD HAVE looked very different over the last five decades without BMW. Its M division, founded in 1972, has produced some of the best driver’s cars ever to hit the road, and in the process has provided a stream of benchmark models for its rivals to chase. In recent years, stricter emissions regulations, downsizing and electrification have seen some of those rival cars falter, yet by and large BMW’s M machines have remained strong. In fact, some rank among the greatest the department has made think of the eCoty-winning M2 CS and M5 CS while others are the only options worth recommending in their respective segments. Price tags have risen with performance, however, putting those latest offerings out of reach for many, but the marque’s popularity means there are numerous earlier M models available on the second-hand market for far more attainable figures. Here are four of our favourites.
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