The new BMW M760e

BMW has a long and storied history of making fast, entertaining and slightly louche sports saloon cars. But how does it fare in the new era of hybrids and electronics? Darius Sanai, who has a rich history of BMW ownership, gets in the saddle of the latest top-of-the-range model, the M760e, in a series of reports

One of my favourite books, growing up as a book-and-car-mad chap in London, was a Roald Dahl compilation called The Wonderful story of Henry Sugar. Aimed more at young adults than children, it is a series of unrelated typically surreal tales that mix brilliant storytelling, myth, and a certain topical character.

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They have, incidentally, just been made into a series of short films by Wes Anderson – essential viewing if you haven’t seen them already.

The BMW M760e’s interior uses high-quality touchpoint

But back to the book. One of the stories is called The Hitchhiker, and it features a successful and wealthy gentleman – it is written in the first person, so I wasn’t ever that sure as a child, and still I’m not now, how much the narrator had the author woven into his persona – who gives a lift to a hitchhiker who turns out to be a dizzyingly brilliant pickpocket, or “fingersmith”, as he calls himself.

I won’t give any more of the story away, but what really mesmerised me was not the dark arts of the fingersmith, but the car the narrator was driving: a BMW 3.3 Li.

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Already a modern classic, or an old car, by the time I read the story, this was a masterpiece of 20th century modern design, inside and out. At that stage I wouldn’t have been able to identify an Eames chair from my school sofa, but I knew a beautiful post-Bauhaus car when I saw one.

‘I liked cars that were beautiful, growlingly powerful without being too flashy, and had the ability to transport you long distances effortlessly’

My school friends worshipped Ferrari and Lamborghinis; but for me that came later. I liked cars that were beautiful, growlingly powerful without being too flashy, and had the ability to transport you long distances effortlessly at high-speed, cigar in one hand, to the most glamorous end of Europe. The 3.3 Li as described in Roald Dahl story ticked all the boxes.

And so few years later, when I had enough money to buy my first car, I bought what was effectively the sexier sister car to the car in the story.  The 3.0 CSi was similarly powerful, but slightly cooler and flashier as a two-door version and unspeakably beautiful.

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After that, working as a foreign correspondent in South Africa, I had a chance drink in a bar with the esteemed chief correspondent of France’s Le Monde newspaper who was selling his car, BMW’s successor to the 3.3 Li, a 733i, a big, fast, imposing and swift saloon. It was not as beautiful as its predecessor, but it was a better car, and I bought it. Fast forward quite a few years and one wonders whether the great-great-great-grandchild of that original car, now dubbed the M760e, has anything at all in common with it apart from the BMW badge on the front and back.

‘The new M760e certainly has distinctiveness and character, but it also has a level of quality that is above anything’

Mine arrives on a drizzly day in December and it looks just the part, an imposing slickly drawn tank of a car in solid grey. If they ever made a nimble version of a battle tank, for commanders to zoom around in, assessing the field, this is probably what it would look like, I ponder.

But while imposing, the slickness of its design means it is not flashy – just like the original car in fact. Driving it around London, it doesn’t incite the aggression and envious looks that some cars of this price and opulence do. BMW has a justified base of admiration among car lovers, and I found I was more likely to get thumbs up and photographs.

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The new M760e certainly has distinctiveness and character, but it also has a level of quality that is above anything until you get into the price category 100% above this one, where Bentleys and Rolls Royces roam.

‘You want to feel quality, and that’s where the M760e really excels’

Particularly delightful to the touch were the glass switches for performing functions like closing and opening the doors, which are heavy and long.

Touch is so important for luxury: it’s what distinguishes the feel of changing the time on a Rolex or helming a Riva yacht. And if you’re going to be spending much of your time complying with restrictive speed limits and traffic, you don’t just want to feel comfortable: you want to feel quality, and that’s where the M6 really excels.

Meanwhile, like any powerful and driver focused car, this is a machine that needs plenty of road to show off what it can do and its first few weeks have been confined to within London’s orbital motorway, the M25. So, soon, I will take out out into the wilds of Britain’s Home Counties, traditional territory of Jaguars, Land Rovers, and men in red trousers who enjoy speaking about their second and third homes, to their second and third wives. How will it fare? Watch this space.

The BMW 760e defines what constitutes a ‘grand tourer’

Long-term review, Episode Two: testing the BMW 760e as a long-distance grand tourer

Among car enthusiasts, there has always been debate about what constitutes a “grand touring” car. Named originally after the travel taken (not by car) by the aristocracy of England in the 18th and 19th centuries to discover the wonders of Europe, the original grand tourers were cars with the power, comfort and capability to drive from London to Venice in two days and still leave the driver thrilled.

As cars became more powerful, more comfortable, and more electric, the term should have become completely moot – and in any case the fastest way to get from London to Venice is on a plane, either your own or someone else’s.

Enthusiasts still love the term though, as it evokes piloting your way across the continent, burning tarmac while in charge of your own destiny.

‘It evokes piloting your way across the continent, burning tarmac while in charge of your own destiny’

And this debate about what exactly a grand tourer is, fed our thoughts while piloting our BMW M760e for its first longer trips. The original intention had been to drive from London to the south of France, but a change of plans meant that trip is now waiting until the sunny climes of summer. Instead, our mini grand tour took place through southern Britain, which doesn’t have too many long straight and empty roads, but nonetheless allowed us the chance to stretch the big BMW’s legs.

We had two questions to ask of it: would it prove to be a truly luxury companion on the open road? And secondly, would this four-door powerful and imposing luxury car have that hard to define grand touring edge?

Some would say a grand tourer cannot have four doors, although it may have back seats accessed via the front doors. But more importantly for us is the question of whether a car is not just comfortable at high speed but feels like you are piloting something special and powerful, with the ability to enjoy itself on the open road.

‘The interior has really been honed from the highest quality materials with no obvious cost savings evident’

A grand tourer may be unsettled around town, but it settles down to a long gait on the highway and enjoys thrashing around high-speed curves on its way to your country manor.

Certainly, this BMW feels supremely luxurious cruising on a highway. That’s not just about power and comfort, it also a feeling that the interior has really been honed from the highest quality materials with no obvious cost savings evident.

That’s a serious statement of intent by BMW: given the cost savings afforded by economies of scale in parts manufacture. This is not just a giant version of the smaller BMWs used by the middle classes around the world to ferry their children to school and sports.

‘The M760e looks likely to be a benchmark in luxury car design and experience’

On the occasions we managed to stretch its legs it did feel more agile than any big saloon car would, normally. Much more fun to drive.

A point of distinction, and for the sanctity of the BMW brand, which has been built for decades on creating the “ultimate driving machine”, to quote an advertising tagline. On our experience so far, the M760e looks likely to be a benchmark in luxury car design and experience.

Episode three: BMW M760e long-term review: the passengers’ view

Car reviews, historically, are written by people who drive the cars they are reviewing. This makes sense if the car in question is made to be driven by its owner. However, in the case of the BMW M760e, the top of the range sedan/limo produced by the German car manufacturer, we imagine in a significant number of cases the person behind the wheel will be wearing a chauffeur’s cap and the people that really matter will be sitting in the back.

‘The high-quality leather and vast amount of legroom offered by this long wheelbase set up in this car means even tall and long-legged passengers felt completely at ease’

So, for the third episode of our time with this stunning and imposing car, we called on a variety of experienced rear passengers to give us their opinions. Comfort of seat and space is an important factor of course, and the high-quality leather and vast amount of legroom offered by this long wheelbase set up in this car means even tall and long-legged passengers felt completely at ease.

There is also excellent personal screen within the door controlling everything from temperature for the individual passenger to window blinds. Delightful.

A rarely mentioned but nonetheless important element of comfort is how the car makes you feel if you are a rear seat passenger. In short, does this car make you feel ill?

‘The car’s grace and power makes journeys disappear fast’

Some passengers are more susceptible than others to sickness, but there are certain cars that consistently create a worse effect than others through a combination of ride, road stance, noise. Some electric cars are particularly bad for combining disorientating silence with floaty rides – a terrible combination.

Our survey of seat passengers in the BMW show that it is one of the best performing of all the cars we have reviewed in terms of the “car sickness” index. We think this is due to accommodation of the measured sounds coming from the car – not silent, but not noisy either – and BMW’s historically slightly sporty stance on the road, which reduces floatiness and lean. Whatever the reasons, it’s a great place to be a rear passenger.

The BMW has ‘measured sounds coming from the car – not silent, but not noisy either’

With the final and most important element of our passenger review comes from one of the car’s most exciting features. At the touch of a button, a cinema style screen descends from the ceiling and displays itself in front of the rear passengers. Connect and you can watch Game of Thrones in your own home cinema with your own individual controls while your driver cruises you down the motorway towards your Cotswold country house.

It works very well and is engrossing for rear seat passengers. The car’s grace and power makes journeys disappear fast anyway, but with this element the M760e becomes the first car in the world where you reset passengers are likely to say, “I hope we’re not there yet!”.

bmw.co.uk

The new BMW XM is the first high-performance car from BMW M GmbH with an electrified drive system

BMW’s sporting flagship promises to be the best of its luxury SUV division, combined with the best of its racy M division. Does it deliver?

Many large SUVs are dramatically imposing, aggressive vehicles that look like they are as likely to declare war on Mars as get you to your destination. Which is fine if you are a certain type of person or in a certain mood. But not always.

The BMW XM is certainly a large SUV. It is also a kind of flagship of the company’s range, combining, in an adaptation of their own words, the best of its SUV division (X) with the best of its sports division (M).

It doesn’t need a racing driver to tell you that a huge, tall wide vehicle is not necessarily best suited to a racing purpose; and nor is a racing car mush suited to carrying several people wearing Etro and Patek Philippe and Off White around in comfort.

But in the manner of an athletic rugby forward, or a centre back, the XM carries off that blend of athleticism and muscle.

Unique exterior design twinned with luxurious interior that showcases the ‘M Lounge’ concept

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What is particularly interesting about the car is that while it looks dramatic and striking, it manages not to look aggressive. Perhaps because of its hybrid nature, it gives off an element of futuristic electric vibe.

It’s also great fun to drive, even in town. BMW have somehow managed to endow it with responsive steering, and very flat cornering, it feels astonishingly agile for a car the size of a small hotel. Like all hybrids, it is very relaxing to drive an electric mode, and when the engine kicks in, you get an overlay of sound.

The nature of the sound divided our passengers: Some thought it sounded cool and racy, others said that such a sophisticated looking car should be seen and felt rather than heard. It’s not as noisy as a Lamborghini SUV, but it’s much louder than a Bentley Bentayga or Rolls-Royce Cullinan. Happy medium or compromise? Probably in the eye of the beholder.

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What sure is that this is a magnificent long-distance vehicle. Back seat passengers get smart, detachable branded leather cushions. (even the plug-in charging cables in the boot/trunk are housed in a rather striking leather overnight bag), there is masses of legroom and a feeling of a huge amount of space and light in the car, and also that the rear seats are well designed, unlike in some of these vehicles where you end up sitting very upright. A journey between London and Oxford was devoured in one gulp without anybody noticing the in between.

Speaking of gulps, in the past an SUV of this size would have been planet-wearingly thirsty, but due to its engine efficiency and electrical assistance, the XM is remarkably frugal – more so than many cars half its size and power.

The high-performance Sports Activity Vehicle (SAV) is powered by a newly developed plug-in hybrid system delivering 653hp and 800Nm of torque

Criticisms? Apart from the size, which you have to be able to deal with f you are buying a car like this, the entertaining and sporty nature of the driving experience means that the ride is quite firm. Don’t expect a limousine here – for that you should look at this car’s I7 sibling. But if you can live with that, this is quite the car.

www.bmw.com

The BMW M5 Competition may retain the conservative form of the 5 Series, but the car’s capabilities say otherwise

In the final part of our Fast & Luxurious car series from the Summer 2021 issue, LUX’s car reviewer takes the BMW M5 Competition for a spin

For an older generation of car enthusiasts, BMW’s M5 has a particular and hallowed heritage. There is intense debate about which generation of M5 history will judge best, whether it’s the original 1980s flavour, the 1990s editions with the souped-up engines, or the 2000s edition with the F1-like V10 engine. It’s a debate that is unlikely to end soon, even with the apparition of this, the latest M5. As usual, it is more powerful, faster and more luxurious than the generation before.

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On driving it down an empty country lane, it is also evident that BMW’s engineers have tried to keep true to the memory of the original in terms of handling. The company may put its ‘M’ for motorsport label on all its fast cars these days, but the M5 has a precision of steering, and a purity of balance, that is unique and highly impressive for a four-door saloon car.

The faster you go, the sharper the curve, the more the car feeds back, feels lighter, at ease. The transformation from big and slightly anonymous car around town – you could be driving more or less any large-ish BMW – to sports car that feels like it just wants to be on a racetrack is quite striking.

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The car’s interior and overall experience for passengers is one of a smart, comfortable saloon car; unless you are taking the car to its limits, they are unlikely to notice they are in anything much different to the executive sedan that shuttled them from the airport. The engine note from its twin-turbo V8 is muted, almost unnoticeable. The ride is firmly controlled and solid. With the driver settings on comfort mode, anyone could drive it anywhere and not know they are in anything special.

That is the way it has always been with the M5. Even the earliest model, in the 1980s when car bodykits and show-off wings were all the rage, was deliberately dressed down to look like a normal BMW; there was even a slower model in the range, the M535i, that looked more showy about its speed. For us it was heartening to see that, despite its size (this car feels enormous), the M5 hasn’t turned into a straight-line drag racer. If your life involves driving down a twisty country lane, this is still the best car in the world.

LUX rating: 18.5/20

Find out more: bmw.co.uk

This article was originally published in the Summer 2021 issue.

Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio

In the second of our supercar reviews, we test drive a road-burning Italian sports car suitable for all the family: the Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio

One of the great conundrums for any current car enthusiast involves trying to work out why the country that produces the greatest supercars in the world has in general not produced anything nearly as outstanding to drive in the fast saloon car category.

If you’re looking for a racy two-seater, you’ll look first at Ferrari and Lamborghini. But if you want to carve similar performance and passion for four or five people, you would, in general, need to look to Germany’s Porsche, Mercedes-AMG, and BMW.

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Meanwhile, Alfa Romeo were world-beating sports cars before Ferrari was even born. Its more recent history as (largely) a maker of saloon cars has been less exciting.

Alfa’s heritage still resonates strongly: as soon as the new high-performance Giulia Quadrifoglio saloon was announced, I had texts from excited Ferrari owners wondering if they had found their next potential family runaround in this four-seater high-performance car.

We took delivery of our Giulia in Zurich. The Quadrifoglio is the high-performance version of the Alfa saloon, and the first thing to note: it looks mean. Beautiful and flamboyant alloy wheels are wrapped in Corsa racing tyres, aimed for use mainly on the track and in dry weather. The car may be a four-door saloon, but it looks like it means business. It has a wide shouldered stance, and the racy feel continues inside, where the combination of bucket seats, carbon fibre and a focused dashboard say supercar more than family car.

So, the Giulia QF can talk the talk, but that’s the easy part. Can it also walk the walk? We are, after all, in an era where any good family saloon/sedan is comfortable, fast and capable. Standards are high, and if you are pitching yourself as both a practical, comfortable car and a sports car, it has never been harder to be at the top of the pack.

First impressions are very racy. This is a car with steering out of a two-seater track machine, and it is extremely bracing. Every millimetre of movement of your hands translates into an equivalent change of direction from the wheels, something that does not often happen with saloon cars which tend to have a lot of safety margin to avoid inexperienced or inattentive drivers wheeling them off the road in a moment of low concentration.

Read more: Behind the wheel of the world’s most powerful supercars part one

The engine sounds glorious; it is a turbocharged V6 with a feeling of being tuned for both sound and power. In a future era where cars are electric or hydrogen powered, the melody of a Giulia QF will be sorely missed. (And before this prompts anybody to write in about greenhouse gases produced by conventionally engined cars, a proper audit of the carbon footprint of every component of an electric battery car should bring you back down to earth.)

So, sharp steering, fabulous sounding engine, fun interior – and how does it drive? The Giulia zinged down the back roads above Lake Zurich with the kind of gusto and brio missing from many of the highly capable but emotionless fast saloon cars on the road today. This is a car that, like some kind of Alpine hound, wants to sniff out twisty roads with delicious curves and power through them, challenging the driver to get everything perfect, balancing their way through the corners before powering outwards
and upwards.

It’s very fast, too – but that is really a given for this category of car, and in a straight line it is neither perceptibly slower nor faster than any of its rivals. It’s more about the way it goes about doing its business with a sense of joy.

But is there a flipside to that, in terms of comfort and practicality? The short answer is no, not really. That Giulia is a good solid motorway cruiser, perhaps not quite as magisterially comfortable as its German rivals, but certainly not flawed. The boot is big, the interior is spacious, although the ride is a little bit bumpy on the big wheels and racing tyres. If you wanted to sacrifice a bit of its alertness for more smoothness, you could swap to Michelin Pilot Sport 4 S tyres, which in our experience come close to giving the best of both worlds.

But given that this is a car aimed at enthusiasts, the sharpness is really no sacrifice to make. For driving your family and friends around with a big grin on your face there really is no better alternative.

LUX Rating: 18/20

Find out more: alfaromeo.co.uk

This article was originally published in the Spring 2020 Issue.

By Darius Sanai
Editor in Chief

Starting on Friday November 25, around 480 supercars and classics will be up for sale in Milan at the RM Sotheby’s Duemila Route (“two thousand wheels”) auction. But it’s not the just the quantity of stock or the lack of a reserve that has excited collectors and dealers from around the world: it’s the quality and variety of the collection.

From a single owner whose business assets were seized by the Italian government, the sale is of a connoisseur’s collection of some of the most exciting and prized cars of the past 40 years, including a phenomenal selection of the hottest market category right now, so-called “modern classics”. The collection is short on the prewar Bentleys and 1950s Jaguars that might have made up a classic collection in the past; instead, it features some of the hottest cars of the modern era.

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The star of the show may be a 1966 Ferrari 275 GTB/6c Alloy, estimated at more than 2.5 million euros (although, hypothetically, if nobody else bids, it could be yours for a fraction of that). However much of the attention has been focused on more modern cars. These include one of a handful of Ferrari 599 Fioranos made with a manual transmission instead of the much more common paddle-shift; a rare Ferrari 575 Maranello with the same transmission; two Porsche 911 GT2s from the ‘996’ model designation, considered the last of the raw driving experience Porsches; a Ferrari F512M, the final, rarest, most powerful and desirable of the Testarossa series of the 1980s and 1990s; and many more, including rally cars from Lancia, a desirable ‘plexi’ Ferrari Daytona, and a 25th Anniversary edition of the legendary Lamborghini Countach, designed by Horacio Pagani, who later went on to found the Pagani supercar brand.

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The collection of the unfortunate, bankrupted collector was as broad as it is deep, with cars for fans of every marque and at every price level: if fast BMWs are your thing, there is a brace of original BMW M3s, a M635 CSi and an original M Coupe. There are Porsches from 1970 to 2007 (a 997 GT3 RS).

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“It’s an extraordinary selection – there is every Porsche 911 you can imagine, for example,” says Alain Squindo, COO of RM Sothebys. “It was amassed relatively discreetly, the collection was not known about before. What’s particularly interesting about this auction is that it highlights what’s particularly appealing to new collectors, 30 and 40 year olds coming into the car world. They are not interested in prewar grand sedans: instead we have sporting high performance stuff, Porsche 911s, Lancia Integrales, Alfas, Astons, thrilling high horsepower stuff.” It’s the sheer quantity that fascinates, he points out: there are two fibreglass Ferrari 308s, four Ferrari Testarossas (all red).

Squindo says most of the cars are “cosmetically pristine” while emphasising that RM Sotheby’s hasn’t had time to inspect them all and that bidders need to look carefully at the particulars in the catalogue. If your newly acquired Ferrari 400i doesn’t work, there’s no comeback.

Still, for a collector of modern classics, the atmosphere will be of a child in a sweetshop. The world’s biggest sweetshop. Just don’t get carried away. Now, I’m going to look at one of those Ferraris…

rmsothebys.com/tv16/duemila-ruote/