Car Moon

The engineering teams over at the BMW Group have their hands full these days as they rush to complete testing of a number of future vehicles.

These include but are not limited to, MINI’s Roadster and BMW’s i3 hatch, i8 hybrid sports car, M6 Coupe, the next generation 3-Series sedan and GT liftback, the 7-Series facelift, the four-door 6-Series GT which we showed you earlier today, and case in point, the convertible version of the M6.

As with the 2012 M6 Coupe, BMW is slowly stripping away the disguise from the rag-top model which will feature the same M Division-tuned drivetrain found in the latest M5 sports sedan.

These are some of the clearest spy shots of BMW’s next M-branded model, the M6 Coupe, which will take its place as the flagship version of the new F13 6-Series.

The recent unveiling of the new M5 sports saloon gives us an idea of what to expect in terms of performance as the M6 will be powered by the same twin-turbocharged 4.4-liter V8 engine.

The force-fed V8 brings an end to a line of naturally aspirated engines for the M6 that started with the iconic straight six of the first generation and continued with the V10 of the outgoing model.

The BMW 1-Series M Coupe is pretty fast on paper. Reaching the 60 mph (96 km/h) mark in just 4.7 seconds is no small feat, but nowadays, it seems that performance cars need to have a respectable “Ring” time under there belt to command respect. Now, a forum member of the 1Addicts fan site who calls himself "SteveD" claims that the Ring time for the 335-horsepower strong M model is 8 minutes and 12 seconds.

If true (and according to the Nürburgring lap times list posted on Wikipedia), this means the entry-level M model is 10 seconds faster than the E46 M3, on par with the E86 Z4 M Coupe, but 7 seconds slower than the E92 M3 .

Never content with BMW's factory offerings, renowned German tuner G-Power has presented its latest accomplishment in the form of the new M6 Hurricane RR, which it claims to be the "world's fastest 4-seat Coupé".

While based on the outgoing BMW M6 Coupé, the Hurricane RR Coupe adopts the V10 bi-supercharger engine from G-Power's M5 Hurricane RR, which delivers 800-horsepower between 7,500 and 8,000 rpm, and a maximum torque of 800 Nm (or 590 lb-ft) generated at 5,000 rpm.

BMW fan-boy and talented photoshop artist Gerald Alvarez (aka Bimmerpost forum member Alpine325ci), continues his series of future BMW renderings, this time with a new 'chop of the next generation M6 sports coupe. Alvarez used the freshly revealed at last week's Paris Motor Show, Concept 6-Series Coupe, as the base car to create the M6 rendering adding typical 'M' model styling traits such as the bumper, side skirt and alloy wheel designs.

BMW bid farewell to the current M6 Coupe and Convertible as production of both models came to an end this week. The announcement also signals the death of the Bavarian firm's 507HP 5.0-liter V10 engine that powered the already discontinued fourth-generation M5, as the next iterations of the M6 and M5 models will make use of a new turbocharged V8 powerplant producing somewhere close to 600 ponies.

Featured in this latest batch of scoop videos are the all-new 2011 M5 sedan, M6 Coupe as well as the 6-Series Convertible [notice the Mercedes SLS AMG Gullwing?], all of which are most likely to go on sale sometime next year. Both the new M5 saloon and M6 coupe say bye-bye to the current models' naturally-aspirated 10-cylinder unit and welcome a reworked version of the X5 / X6 M's twin-turbocharged V8.

For those that find the current generation BMW M6 aesthetically displeasing and/or a far too common sight on the roads, you may want to take a look at this second-hand Fisker Latigo CS V10 that's offered for sale on eBay.

Designed by CEO of Fisker Automotive, Henrik Fisker, who worked in the past for Ford, BMW and Aston Martin, the Latigo CS is a coachbuilt version of the BMW 6-Series that was first introduced in 2006 having received a minor redesigned in 2007.

BMW Individual's marketing guys were clever enough to drum up this little diddy. It's a brief run-through of one Individual customer's - Mark Carson, a Hawaiian native - experience creating his own unique M6.

Barring the cheesy voice-over done by someone who reminds me of George Takei (is that you, George?), the story and process of integrating Koa wood into BMW's big, Individualized GT is actually pretty interesting.

Adding to the long list of independent design studies we've hosted here on Carscoop is this proposal for a next-generation BMW M6 sports coupe by David Cardoso from Belgium. They say beauty is in the eye of the beholder, which means that different people possess different standards of beauty, but we can't help thinking that this Z4-inspired concept for a future M6 would look a lot better with a different face, one that doesn't bring back memories of Bangle's creations.

This month's Frankfurt Motor Show will see BMW launching a special edition version of the M6 coupe called Competition that will be produced in a limited run of just 100 units. While the M6's 507 horsepower V10 engine remains intact, the engineers over at BMW's M division tweaked the Competition model's suspension with new springs, dampers and stabilisers as well as lowering the coupe's ride height by 12mm at the front and 10 mm at the rear.

Say hello to Klaus Hammerschmidt, a 73-year-old retired entrepreneur from Germany that has received the keys to his 135th BMW car, a spanking new 507HP M6 coupe equipped with the Competition Package. Talk about a loyal customer... The 73 year-old's first bimmer was a 1800ti from 1963. If you do the math, that comes to an average of 2.9 BMWs per year. All in all, BMW said that Klaus owned 26 BMW M-division models, 29 BMW Alpina cars and 80 other BMWs. Hit the jump to watch a short video of Klaus receiving his M6.

The BMW V10-powered Wiesmann GT MF5 sports coupe will be setting the pace for the racecars participating at the 2009 FIA GT Championship season that kicks off this weekend on May 3 in Silverstone Circuit in Britain. The limited production German sports coupe boasts a 507HP 5.0-liter V10 engine from the BMW M5/M6, coupled to a seven-speed sequential automatic transmission and a variable differential lock. The rear-wheel drive GT MF5 can accelerate from zero to 100km/h (62mph) in 3.9 seconds and reach a top speed of 310km/h or 193mph.

For BMW tuning aficionado G-Power, there's no such thing as enough power or too much speed. Having already pushed the limits on the M5 Sedan and more recently, the X5 SUV, the German tuner focused its resources on the development of an even more extreme and powerful edition of the 635HP M6 Hurricane. Called the Hurricane CS, the M6 Coupe-based model uses an upgraded version of the M5 Hurricane's 730HP twin-turbocharged V10 that delivers an output of 750HP allowing the supercar to reach a top speed of 370km/h or 231mph.

The global slowdown in the auto sector in 2008 had no affect on BMW's M car division that reported a 50 percent sales increase over 2007. Overall, BMW sold 24,186 'M' vehicles, making 2008 the second best year in the sport division's 30-year-old history after 2002 when it shipped 26,776 units. The driving force behind the M division's success was of course the new BMW M3, which in its first full year of production managed to sell 18,000 units worldwide.

Germans love power and speed. While most of us would have been more than content with a stock BMW Z4 M, the owner of this Z4 that's for sale on a German online vehicle marketplace found that an inline-six with 343 HP couldn't satisfy his lust for speed. So what more reasonable than to throw in a BMW M5 / M6 sourced 5.0-liter V10 engine. But even the M5 V10's 507 HP weren't enough for our German protagonist who decided to replace the Z4's inline-six with an even more powerful, Hartge-prepped version of the V10 delivering a hefty 551 HP. The engine is mated to a six-speed manual gearbox.

Crisis? What crisis? While most car manufactures around the world are seeing their sales plummet in 2008, BMW's M-Division is flourishing in this harsh economic environment having exceeded the previous year's equivalent figures during the first 11 months of 2008 by over 50 per cent! From January to November 2008, BMW has sold 22,340 M-Model cars worldwide compared to 14,092 vehicles in the same period in 2007. In November 2008 alone some 1,900 BMW M automobiles were delivered around the globe. As long ago as August 2008 the worldwide sales figures of BMW M GmbH reached 16,150 units, thus surpassing last year's total figure of 16,128 units.

More than 180 participants with around 120 BMW M model vehicles of all sorts ranging from the original M1 supercar to the latest M3 took part in an official gathering at the Bavarian automaker’s headquarters in Munich, Germany this past weekend. All participants were members of the BMW M-Power club which is limited to owners of the specific model series. The lucky chaps spent the day visiting BMW’s M head office, the BMW World center and the Bavarian firm’s museum. Moreover, along with showing off their latest offerings that included the 2009 M6 with the Competition package, the German automaker treated the M-Power community members with an exclusive close up of the M1 Homage Concept. Hit the jump to view the image gallery. -Continued