On this episode of Ignition
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MotorTranscript
00:00 Friends, it's time to wake up and smell the Hefweizen.
00:04 The M division has changed.
00:06 Cars like the E36 M3 and the E39 M5 are but fading memories.
00:13 The E30 M3 is dead and buried.
00:16 In fact, BMW is not even in the business of building lightweight, great steering sports
00:21 sedans these days.
00:23 Instead, they're chasing volume and luxury.
00:26 Same goes for the fabled M division.
00:29 Just think of the M5, the M6, X5M, X6M.
00:33 They're all very fast and very heavy.
00:36 The lightest vehicle I just mentioned weighs 4,600 pounds.
00:40 BMW these days is different.
00:44 However, there's one BMW product that I still connect with, the Grand Coupe, or as I like
00:50 to call it, the Grand Coupe.
00:52 To my mind, it's the near perfect combination of style, luxury, and performance.
00:58 The Grand Coupe is also sexier, more alive, and just plain more fun than other BMWs.
01:04 And the M division just sunk their claws into one and are calling the results the M6 Grand
01:10 Coupe.
01:11 I have a feeling it just might be BMW's ultimate driving machine.
01:16 So, what makes the M6 Grand Coupe?
01:42 Well, mostly engine.
01:44 Now, a colleague of ours named Ezra Dyer at Automobile Magazine, he went ahead and
01:50 took a regular M5, stuck it on a dyno, and it made 660 horsepower.
01:56 So I am driving a 660 horsepower car.
01:59 And remember, come July, they're going to actually be adding something called a competition
02:04 package or something nuts like that, which is going to add supposedly 25 more horsepower,
02:09 which means at that point the cars will be about 700 horsepower and still rear wheel
02:13 drive.
02:15 Unbelievable.
02:17 This car happens to have carbon ceramic brakes, which is good because you need them.
02:25 You need to haul all this bulk down in a hurry.
02:28 And if you're on a nice sporty road like this, you want to do it over and over and over again.
02:33 This car also has a manual transmission.
02:35 That is a USA only option.
02:38 And I've driven this car and I've driven the dual clutch, and I'm here to tell you, don't
02:43 get the manual, get the dual clutch.
02:48 It just suits the character of the car so much better.
02:51 And as my cameraman Anthony was pointing out, this particular unit, it's that old Getrig
02:56 unit.
02:57 It's already two generations out of date.
03:00 Companies are not putting development money into manuals.
03:03 They're just not.
03:04 That technology has reached a dead end.
03:10 I've got the throttle in Sport Plus.
03:12 I've got the suspension just in Sport and the steering just in Sport.
03:15 Now you can go Sport Plus.
03:17 I don't like super firm rides.
03:18 I like cars to lean a little bit when you're going into a corner so you can feel what they're
03:22 doing.
03:23 Also the steering in Sport Plus, it's so artificially heavy.
03:26 It just kind of feels like an Audi.
03:29 So you know, it's an M car, so you know it's going to be fast, but what this car does that
03:34 the others just kind of can't do is there's something stylish about it, something hip,
03:40 something cool for lack of a better term.
03:42 But it's just, it's a good place to be.
03:46 This might be my favorite interior on the market right now.
03:50 I mean, they have managed to leapfrog Audi.
03:52 They've leapfrogged Mercedes.
03:53 They've leapfrogged Jaguar, whoever else.
03:56 I mean, this is just such a great looking cockpit.
03:59 I'm sure some of you saw the head-to-head, but the last time I had my hands on an M5,
04:08 I got to say I was really disappointed.
04:10 It just, it was fast in a straight line and that was kind of it.
04:15 But this thing, this M6 Grand Coupe, different.
04:19 And I'm not sure what they did, although they do claim, BMW says that the tuning between
04:23 the M6, the M5, and the M6 Grand Coupe, they're all tuned differently.
04:28 But whatever they did, they did it right.
04:30 I mean, this thing just handles so well.
04:33 It's such a blast to drive.
04:36 And the M5 just wasn't.
04:54 Howdy y'all.
04:55 Right now, I'm standing on pit lane at the still new Circuit of the Americas racetrack
04:59 just outside of Austin, Texas.
05:02 This is the big Texas-sized F1 track.
05:05 And I'm standing right next to the very first M Division product.
05:09 This is the car that started it all, the legendary BMW M1.
05:13 Why?
05:14 Well, if you're going to talk M Division and racetracks, you've got to start with this
05:19 car.
05:20 But also, it's nice to know where a brand comes from.
05:22 Now, even though the newest M product, this M6 Grand Coupe, is much larger, has more doors,
05:28 and a thousand times the power, the BMW guys have assured me that it has some of the secret
05:33 sauce that made this car so great.
05:36 Does it?
05:37 We're about to find out.
05:38 Also, we are ditching the manual transmission for a dual-clutch.
05:41 Why?
05:42 Because we're on a racetrack, and it works better.
05:45 Anyways, wish me luck.
05:55 This is a big boy Texas-sized track.
05:59 And turn one here is about 100 feet of elevation.
06:02 I'm just seeing if there's anyone in my blinder.
06:05 And this is the third gear corner.
06:08 And one of the things I like best about this M6 Grand Coupe, and really all of the modern
06:12 M's, is the heads-up display.
06:15 Really lets you know exactly when you need to be changing gears.
06:19 And it's so bright and so visible.
06:21 It's kind of like all the other manufacturers.
06:23 They really need to go back and reconsider their heads-up display solutions, because
06:29 none of them are anywhere near as good as what BMW has.
06:37 This is a nutso track, and it's always hard to evaluate a car on a track you've just been
06:43 on for the first time.
06:45 I've done about five laps so far.
06:47 My big takeaway impression, aside from the fact the track is just huge and with 20 turns
06:52 almost never-ending, is that while you normally wouldn't want to take a 4,600-pound-plus car
07:00 onto a racetrack, the M6 Grand Coupe has some attributes that make it pretty good.
07:10 For one, power.
07:12 We are on the big back straight now.
07:15 This is a three-quarter of a mile straight, and by the end of it, we'll be going 150 miles
07:21 an hour.
07:22 Right now, 127, 130, 140, 150.
07:28 Breaking zone.
07:32 And what's nice is these carbon ceramic brakes-- actually, I overbraked.
07:36 You can just grenade the brakes, going 60 miles an hour right now, into this turn, get
07:42 on the gas.
07:44 And what's nice is if you do make a mistake in this car, in terms of gearing, there's
07:49 so much power that you just kind of use your right foot to make up for it.
07:54 It's very forgiving.
07:55 And so what's going through my head right now is that, as we discovered on the road
08:03 portion of this drive, this is a proper luxury car.
08:06 It's a Gran Turismo, a Gran Tourer.
08:08 Yet here we are on an F1 track, and this thing's absolutely eating it up.
08:13 I mean, what a monster of a car.
08:19 My camera guy, Anthony, he was calling it Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, but he's absolutely
08:24 right, except that Mr. Hyde can drive in this car.
08:29 And you wouldn't think it.
08:30 This is heavy, shouldn't handle like this, but just digs in and goes.
08:35 I don't know, they've really got something special on their hands here.
08:39 And it really makes you wonder, why are they bothering with the M5?
08:52 And more impressively, I mean, it's been so long since I've had this much fun in a modern
08:57 BMW.
08:58 I mean, the story lately has been, eh, the steering, eh, you know, the can't hear anything.
09:05 And you have a little bit of that in this car, but there's something magical about the
09:08 Gran Coupe platform.
09:09 And then you stuff that M5, M6 motor in here, and my god, I'm going 150 miles an hour right
09:18 now.
09:19 Jesus, what a car.
09:23 Unbelievable.
09:24 Unbelievable car.
09:25 Aside from a lower price, there's very little else you could ask for in a car.
09:33 I had a feeling going in that I would enjoy the BMW M6 Gran Coupe, but I had no notion
09:39 that I'd walk away quite so in love.
09:41 There is absolutely no question in my mind, the M6 Gran Coupe is BMW's ultimate driving
09:48 machine.
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10:37 (dramatic music)
10:40 you