Yesterday we were fortunate enough to spot the 4-door 8er with our own eyes with the last bits of camo still affixed to cover up the BMW roundels and trim designations. Although we’ve all seen photos of the GC floating around the web, it always means so much more to see the car in the flesh—you really get a sense for its proportions and finer details when you’re up close and personal.
This one had clearly put on some miles with how many bugs were spattered across the front bumper, but long-distance highway cruising is what this car was made for. The familiarly handsome 8-series fascia is a direct carry over to the 4-door and gives nothing away for the proportions behind. Turn the corner and your stricken with an elongated, sweeping roofline and an extra set of doors. I don’t know exactly how BMW is able to pull off stretching a coupe’s proportions to look so good, but it really is a fetching thing—a more muscular evolution from the departed 6-Series for sure and maybe even better than the 2-door eight that is on the streets today.
The tour continues rearward—while lots of times there’s one section of a car that falls short, I’m proud to report that the 8-Series is a well-sculptured bit of kit through and through. While there are lots of similarities to the coupe, the trunk is a very different area; rather than making do with a small trunk spoiler a la coupe, the gran coupe’s kips up to meet the 4-door’s proportions in a CSL-esque fashion. The result is incredibly beautiful and adds some clever visual balance to the more substantial rear bumper elements (as well as some sporting aggression) to an otherwise elegantly shaped body.
Speaking of elegant, this particular example is optioned with the 20” radial wheels (officially called M Light Alloy Multi-spoke bi-color wheels). These certainly befit the executive exterior and are shod with 245 / 275 Michelins from the factory.
We weren’t able to wait around to get a more thorough glimpse of the interior, but we’d imagine its very similar to the regular 8er. These GC seats were skinned in a very dashing two-tone (Fiona Red / Black Extended in official BMW speak) treatment that really brought out the unique patterning.
All in all, we think it’s a home run for BMW and makes us all the more excited for the M8 variant. What do you think about the latest GC?
