TopSpeed Renders the 2017 BMW M7
If the rumors are to be believed, BMW will finally be making an ultra-fast M-badged version of its luxury barge, the 7 Series. TopSpeed has gathered up the collective news and even made a handsome render of what the new car might look like. The crew at TopSpeed is a little low on hard details, but they have done their best to collect as many rumors as possible, and then added their own dab of speculation on top in order to try and create a thorough picture of what’s to come. Thankfully, BMW never veers too far from their ordinary excellence, so it’s pretty easy to figure out what might be coming in a new M7.
Starting with the look, I think TopSpeed’s render artist got it pretty close. The new 7 Series will look a lot like a stretched version of the 5 Series, and the M-specific touches will be subtle but aggressive. A sharper nose with larger grilles, a small skirt down the side, and a rear bumper with large quad exhausts are all a guarantee. Where things get shady is in the powertrain department.
TopSpeed thinks that the new M7 will use an uprated version of the 6.0-liter V12 found in today’s top-spec 760i, but I am not sure I agree with that. Mercedes uses a V12 in the S65 AMG and Audi uses a V8 is the S8 sedan, but both feature turbocharging. Rather than trying to push the naturally aspirated V12 in the 7 Series up to 600+ horsepower, I would expect BMW to employ a turbocharged engine. The company has already pushed their 4.4-liter twin-turbo motor up to 567 horsepower for the X6 M, so I don’t see it being too much trouble to push that same engine up to the 625 mark. Then there is the possibility of turbocharging the V12 to be more competitive with the S65. With a small pair of turbos on the 6.0-liter V12, BMW could easily reach the 700 horsepower mark and increase economy at the same time.
We still aren’t even sure this car is coming yet, so take all of this with a healthy dose of salt, but if the rumors are true, the BMW lineup could be getting a lot more exciting in a year or so.
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via [TopSpeed]
