Hero Cars | BMW M6

6 March 2025 Redazione News, Supercars Lounge

Words Matteo Lavazza / Photos BMW media

Hey you! Yeah, I’m talking to you, the same one who turned up his nose twenty years ago when Chris Bangle gave birth to the very angular BMW M6. At least half of it, given that the front was rounded like a shark’s snout, while the rear was a bit reminiscent of your grandmother’s boxy furniture, which today you would sell along with the cat to put in your garage one of the most exciting grand tourers ever. One word, two letters: F1. Yes, the 2005 M6 introduced the know-how of the top automotive category on a large scale, combining power in spades with a dreamy V10, an authentic audio-mechanical masterpiece that alone would be worth the ticket.

The wait had lasted since the distant 1989, year in which some of you were perhaps not even born. At that time, which if I’m not mistaken is commonly called prehistory, the legendary M635 CSi, alphanumerically known as E24, was being bid farewell. It was a whole different story, not just aesthetically, but in terms of driving dynamics, where excellent power was available, but joining a chassis indebted to the historical period. Legit. In 2003, the 6 Series returned to the limelight and did so with a totally innovative product: a large coupe that actually replaced the more recent 8 Series. The muzzle was still abundant and a key point, but the similarities ended there: Bangle’s creation was more massive, less streamlined and more inclined to be a grand tourer, rather than a high-performance coupe. An incredibly subtle difference that was also mixed with the arrival – two years later – of the mighty M6.

Wider, lower, with huge 285” rear tires and two pairs of exhaust pipes giving voice to one of the craziest sounds ever conceived by a mass-production car, let alone one that doesn’t embody the stylistic traits of a more exotic supercar. The 5-liter V10 delivers 507 horsepower, a number that immediately becomes a reference for the category (even with regards to the M5 sedan from which it borrows its beating heart) and that erases in the space of a second everything that doesn’t revolve around the combination granted by the prestige of an engine of such a displacement and an actual power that can be exploited for real, or if desired even “cut” at around 400 hp via intelligent electronic management designed to make this BMW an object of pleasure and not the fastest and noisiest way to crash your savings into a tree. The big brain is in fact capable of performing 200 million calculations per second and thus offering a driving experience without compromises, even when you decide go serious and push the throttle that drips Teutonic madness to the floor.

The rev scale is frightening: with such power delivered at 7,750 rpm, the apocalyptic bark of the M6 ​​has a maximum torque of 520 Nm and a full-bodied elasticity that moves its approximately 1,800 kg in space and time with an agility that is nothing short of surprising. Thinking that the passenger compartment is then incredibly comfortable even on long distances immediately makes you forgive the need to quench its thirst every hundred meters, regardless of the intensity with which you act on the gas. A completely negligible detail, because the M6 ​​is a car designed for those who demand all things in terms of performance. Its design, so criticized at the time, did nothing but cement it as an icon, crystallized out of time. Twenty years ago, you needed something around €128,000, while today – already in the process of revaluation for a couple of years – you can play with a jewel of F1 derivation for just €35,000. That noise will haunt you day and night.