Archived Road Test
Logic and order go out the window when a car like the M6 rolls into the Car and Driver parking lot. Pencils drop, word processors are clicked off in midsentence, and a line forms in front of the sign-out board as the troops jockey for seat time. Before the editorial "we" turns a wheel, the standard yardsticks by which we judge normal automobiles are locked away in the back rooms of our minds.
This is as it should be, because the BMW M6 is one of those wild, wonderful cars that throw the scales of automotive justice totally off balance. This car doesn't make any sense, for three important reasons: money, money, and money. Average folks just can't understand spending $58,720 for anything that doesn't have at least two bedrooms. Car guys rightly point out that you can get this brand of supercar performance for a heck of a lot less. The M6 shouldn't generate the rave reviews that it does—but it does, and we love it.
If that sounds crazy, then what you need is an hour alone with an M6 to re-groove your value system. Put your right foot down, stir the gears as if you were churning butter, let the tach needle soar, and repeat after us: Move over, Rover; out of the way, little Chevrolet. Mmmm, good. There, now don't you feel better?
The lucky enthusiast who can afford one of the 1200 M6s bound for these shores will receive an automobile with a pedigree. We're not talking about the lineage of BMW performance cars, which stretches back five decades. We're referring to the short but intense racing history written by BMW's Motorsport subsidiary since the late seventies (see sidebar).
The "M" prefix is the racing division's calling card. The M6 was developed entirely by Motorsport, along with its M3 and M5 sister ships. Yes, this is the same Motorsport that was responsible for both the BMW Formula 1 engine that won the World Championship in 1983 and for the M1 exoticar that burst upon the scene back in 1979.
The M doctors were called over to the high-volume production-car side a few years ago when BMW's image was suffering from anemia both here and in Europe. The company had been sliding further and further away from the philosophy of highly charged drivers' cars—the philosophy that put it on the map in the sixties and seventies. The managers in Munich decided that the patient needed an emergency injection of red-hot performance corpuscles to set things right.
The Motorsport-modified 6-series coupe debuted in Europe in 1983 as the M635CSi. The trip to America has taken an interminable three years, but at least none of the good stuff was left on the dock. Our version may have an abbreviated name badge, but that's about its only shortage.
The life force of this Bavarian boomer is a special version of the in-line six-cylinder that powers the standard 6-series car (whose name has been changed this year from 635CSi to L6). Upgraded for M duty with a slight displacement increase, two overhead cams, and four valves per cylinder, the M6's 3.5-liter wails out 256 hp at 6500 rpm, a 74-hp improvement. The new motor is the same basic engine that powered the M1, outfitted now with Bosch's latest Motronic electronic engine-management system.
