BMW’s long standing catch phrase ‘The Ultimate Driving Machine’ rings true for most of what they offer. However, when it comes to the seven series, with its sheer size and weight they had to come up with a new word to describe the driving style to be employed while behind the wheel: Authoritative. One has to fall in love with the honesty and hard work of their marketing department. Frankly, we aren’t sure whether to bust out giggling or to applaud their efforts. Usually words like ‘sporty’ are used quite loosely to describe products with the ‘M’ performance insignia as part of the car’s name.We’ll let you decide.
The new BMW 7 series was launched to mixed reactions from members of the motoring community. The technology on offer had moved the seven series closer to the behemoth that is the S-class but the looks weren’t as warmly received. The main point of contention was that the 7-series looked like a stretched version of the 3-series as opposed to the converse. The S-class and C-class have pulled this off so beautifully and with each iteration of these cars the C-class always looks like a miniaturised version of the s-class and not the other way around. Personally I have no qualms with how the 7-series looks like and I feel that the current generation car looks brilliant in white.
But as the adage goes beauty is only skin deep. BMW have been hard at work with the M760Li xDrive to ensure that the devil is in the details. There is a new 6.6 litre turbo charged V12 generating a peak power output of 448kw(610Hp) at 5,500rpm and an impressive 800Nm of torque at 1,550rpm. The 8 speed steptronic gearbox comes as standard and has been tuned specifically to work in tandem with the V12 engine. All this enables the 760Li to roar past 60mph in 3.7s and to soar to an electronically limited top speed of 250kph(155mph). This limit, for a price, can be raised to accommodate speeds of upto 305kph(189mph).
The suspension has been tuned to offer a mix of sportiness and comfort but as this is big luxury cruiser the emphasis will more likely be on comfort.
There will be two variants on offer: The standard car(if we can call it standard)and the V12 Excellence version. Both cars are similar dynamically with a few cosmetic changes to the interior and exterior. While the standard car screams, albeit silently, of its M-performance pedigree through the V12 and M badges and various accents inside and out, the V12 Excellence is more of a Q car. The standard car has its kidney grille finished in grey while its stable mate has one finished in chrome. The V12 Excellence has a quieter,more comfort oriented exhaust as opposed to the standard car’s switchable sports exhaust. The brake callipers have also been finished in different colours: black for the Excellence and blue for the standard car.
