Don't get us wrong; we've got no beef with enormously powerful luxury vehicles. In fact, we love 'em. But while Mercedes' AMG division has shoehorned their bestial power plants into all manner of vehicles big and small, BMW's Motorsport division has always drawn a line in the Bavarian sand. They'd tune the 3 Series and the 5 Series along with a handful of coupes and convertibles, but that's where it ended. But that line seems to be eroding, as spy shots of what could be an M7 sedan have been snapped soon after the news of M-tuned X5 and X6 crossovers. It's hard to tell from the shots exactly what we're looking at, but it appears to be a sportified version of the latest-generation 7 Series (codename F01), complete with quad exhaust tips and lightweight painted wheels. Of course, it could be a tuner special, a simple M-Sport appearance package or an Alpina version, but then why would the BMW badges be covered? If it is an M7, it would be a first for BMW, and could, according to speculation, derive its power from a twin-turbo V12 with over 600 horsepower. Coupled with some weight reduction, the BMW M7 could give the the Mercedes S63 AMG and Audi S8 a run for their money, of which there is plenty at stake in this stratospheric sub-segment. And as with the reported emergence of an xDrive 7 Series, the Bavarians might be growing tired of seeing their customers leave town for Stuttgart or Ingolstadt.
Are transmissions a new battlefront in the war for customers amongst high end brands? Mercedes has been doing seven ratios for a little while, and Lexus has a new 8-cogger on offer, too. BMW's not content to be trailing with just 6 speeds, so the new 7-series (F01) will reportedly ship with an 8-speed automatic transmission. If high fuel prices and tightening emissions and consumption requirements manage to snuff out our recent horsepower battles, gear ratios are all we'll have left.
BMW's 8-speed fits in the same space as the old 6-speed, and is said to be smoother and more efficient than the outgoing gearbox. Perhaps more important than the greater ratio spread and increased fuel economy that the new transmission will bring is the shifter moves back to the console (cue choir of heavenly angels). Expect the new 8-speed and its modular design to wind up in many BMW vehicles after its initial launch in the upcoming 7-series.
