BMW 8 Series Convertible Teased for the First Time

BMW revealed the 8 Series coupe body style earlier this summer, and now it’s beginning to tease its next variant of the flagship two-door: the 8 Series convertible. While hot weather testing in Las Vegas and Death Valley, BMW snapped its own spy shots of a camouflaged 8 Series drop-top.

Like many other automakers, BMW tests in Death Valley for its unique climate and extreme conditions. The temperature can climb to more than 120 degrees in the summer, which by itself would challenge any drivetrain. Combine that extreme heat with the region’s dry, dusty landscape and you get a punishing testing ground unlike any other in the world. To mix things up, the convertible also spent time inching along in stop-and-go traffic on the Las Vegas strip to see how the cooling system holds up with limited airflow.

As pretty as these shots are, they don’t really tell us anything new. They are the first official teasers from BMW, however. Like other prototypes we’ve seen, this mule wears a black cloth top, which is stowed in most of the photos. And just as you’d expect, the interior looks pretty much the same as the 8 Series coupe, featuring the same wide central touchscreen and all-digital instrument cluster.

BMW gives no details on drivetrain options for the convertible, but you can expect the M850i xDrive coupe’s twin-turbo 4.4-liter V-8 and eight-speed automatic transmission to be one available combination. In the coupe, the boosted V-8 is tuned to make 523 hp and 553 lb-ft of torque and is paired with a rear-biased all-wheel-drive system.

 

We don’t have an official date for the 8 Series convertible’s debut, but we wouldn’t be surprised to see the topless variant show up at the Paris Motor Show next month. That would give BMW some space between this model and the third body style in the lineup, the four-door 8 Series Gran Coupe, which could debut next year in Geneva.

Source: BMW

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