30 Years On, The BMW 8 Series Is All Different And Yet Familiar

2020 marks 30 years since the first time I ever drove a BMW. In fact, that was the first time I even sat in one. That first exposure was to the brand’s flagship at the time, the V12-powered 850i coupe. My most recent BMW ride was again in the brand’s big coupe which has revived the 8 series badging, in this case as the 840i. What has 30 years of “progress” brought us in big BMW coupes?

The original 8 arrived in 1990 as a more upmarket replacement for the much loved 6 series which was one of the best looking coupes of its era. The 8 was quite a departure from the 6 at a time was BMW design was first starting to stretch its legs and move into a more contemporary visual language. That era of the late 80s and early 90s brought us vehicles like Z1 roadster and the E36 3 series. The 8 ditched the classic forward leaning grille of the 6 in favor of a slimline with a miniature version of the twin-kidney grille and pop-up headlamps reminiscent of the classic M1. 

The recently revived 8 series is visually a very different animal. The pop-up lamps went away with the end of the original 8 run in 1999 and have never returned to a BMW and the grille on the new coupe is far removed from the subcompact version of 30 years ago. Fortunately, it’s 2018 debut came before BMW decided to adopt the absurd vertical grilles seen on the new 4 series coupe and the 7 series sedan. While the current 8 series grille is large, it stretches horizontally. 

While not as groundbreaking for the brand as the original, this second generation 8 series is a striking looking design that really only shows off its surprising size in profile. At 191.1-inches long, the new 8 series is large relative to its small cabin, but it’s only 2.9-inches longer than the original. At 3,933-lbs it is about 200-lbs leaner than the 12-cylinder model of three decades ago. 

Back then I was fresh out of school and working as an engineer at the General Motors proving ground in Milford, Mich. GM
GM
had a large fleet of competitive vehicles in its benchmark fleet in those days and when they weren’t being utilized for specific testing they were rotated through the various departments at the proving ground and tech center. We were encouraged to take them out and drive them and even occasionally take them home overnight to get insights for the products we were developing. 

I happened to be working on ABS for the Lotus Elan and Esprit race car at the time so while the 850i wasn’t a direct competitor, it was still in the premium class. There were a number of firsts on that car including a full throttle-by-wire system on the V12. That 5.0-liter engine was smooth as silk and delivered a lot of power for the day. It had two full, independent engine management systems, one for each bank of six cylinders and could actually limp home on one bank if there was a failure of a computer or sensor. 

But keep in mind the context of the time. Around this same time I bought myself a new Mustang 5.0LX and its 225-hp was considered impressive. That engine makes one-third less power than the four-cylinder in today’s Mustang and less than half of what the V8 GT generates. That BMW V12? The one tested by Car and Driver around the same time produced 296-hp and 332 lb-ft of torque. There was a V8 offered a few years later but was less potent. 

In 2020, the “entry-level” 840i is propelled by a turbocharged, direct injected 3.0-liter inline-six cylinder engine. I’m a huge fan of the inline-six layout because it’s so smooth and torquey. With today’s technology strapped to it, that base engine produces 335-hp and 368 lb-ft of torque between 1,600 and 4,500 rpm. There are also turbocharged V8s going up the ladder to the M8, but those are for another time. 

With more power and torque and less bulk, this 840i gets to 60 mph in 4.6 seconds or 4.3 if you opt for the all-wheel drive version. That’s up to 2 seconds faster than the V12. It’s also a lot more efficient than the V12 which had an EPA rating of 13 mpg and C/D observed efficiency of 14 mpg. The new 840i is rated at 25 mpg combined and I saw about 23 mpg during my week of driving. As with so many cars today, one thing you can’t get in a modern 8 series is a manual transmission, something that was available with the 850i.

Over the years, BMW cabins have become much more premium feeling and this 840i is no exception. There are top notch materials throughout and as in the past, the center stack is tilted toward the driver for easy access. The analog dials are replaced by large digital displays for the cluster and the infotainment system and the 8 still uses the very functional iDrive controller for navigating the interface. 

The front seats offer lots of possibilities for adjustment and are supportive for spirited driving. There is a back seat but let’s be honest, no one should ever sit there. It’s hard to get in or out and there is no useful leg or head room. This is a classically beautiful grand touring coupe for a couple. Use the X5 or X7 to haul the family around. 

With the drive mode set to comfort this is an amazing cruiser that is shockingly quiet with the windows up. Squeeze the accelerator and it builds velocity seamlessly and utterly without drama. Switch over to sport and the steering effort tightens up, the dampers get a bit firmer and the engine note gets distinctly more aggressive. Despite being synthetic, they actually sound fairly authentic to what six-cylinder BMWs of the past have been like. 

It feels strange to talk about value in the context of a luxury coupe that costs $101,445 delivered. But when I look back to 1990 and review that old C/D review, it’s quite surprising that this 840i is not substantially more expensive. The car tested by C/D was $90,970 in 1990. Adjusted for inflation, that’s almost $175,000. The 840i starts at $88,000 and even the M8 competition coupe is just $146,000. 

While the current 8 series is far less of a departure from the norm for BMW than the original was, compared to the likes of the Mercedes-Benz S-Class coupe and the Lexus LC, it’s quite competitive. One other way that the new 8 departs from the old is you can also get it as a convertible. While I’m always partial to top-down driving, unfortunately, most of the customers likely to buy an 8 series today are unlikely to want to muss their hair and will thus always leave the top elevated. 

A lot has changed in 30 years and yet some fundamental elements of what makes high-end luxury coupe have stayed surprisingly consistent despite changes in how those goals are achieved.