You’ll Probably Never Hear Another M8 Like This
BMW ran the Goodwood Festival of Speed with a race-only downpipe on what was thought to be a street car.
The BMW M8 is the first “luxury-first” M car in the German brand’s long and expansive history. The implication is that, although typically BMW M cars have been all about performance first and everything else second, this time its different. When the 8-series was introduced back in 1990, it was without a doubt designated for the grand-tourer market. Luxury and performance hand-in-hand integrated into a long, sexy, and sleek design.
Not much has changed, in that sense, for the 8-series. Most would say that the modern iteration of the car holds true to the original. However, what if BMW lied to us, just a little bit? Back around the time of the Goodwood Festival of Speed, BMW brought out an M8 to take part in the yearly event. However, this was not just a standard M8 that you could buy off the showroom floor. It wasn’t even an M8 you could custom-order through BMW. This M8 sported a catless downpipe setup with an M-Performance exhaust. Thanks to 19Bozzy92 on YouTube we get to hear exactly what that sounds like.
We were surprised to hear how snarly this BMW M8 sounded flying up the hillclimb at Goodwood. It had some extra bits you won’t be able to find just about anywhere. The key item of interest here is the catless downpipes. For those unaware, a catless downpipe removes the restrictive catalytic converters found behind the turbos. This is then replaced with straight piping allowing for an increase in power and sound. It is known to be one of the best modifications you can make to a turbo vehicle.
Not only is does this mod give the car a distinctive sound on throttle, but also a special idle sound. One can clearly hear the turbos spooling up and down simply from the idle. Not something that’s often seen in stock cars because removing the catalytic converters or other emissions devices is usually illegal.
However, BMW didn’t seem to care, because these pipes combined rather nicely with the M-Performance exhaust. The exhaust you can purchase and enjoy straight from the dealership. However, those thinking that their M8 will sound like this are mistaken unless you too remove your catted downpipes. This might be a little bit of false advertising from BMW.
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