【4K中字】揭秘，寶馬 M8 是史上唯一採用 V12 發動機的 M 級轎車： E31 的故事

Being beautiful shouldn't be a crime Had the BMW E31 been ugly it probably wouldn't have been called an embarrassment to all who rode in it Their words, not mine But look, the 850i had a real problem Its incredible good looks wrote checks that its utterly dull driving experience just couldn't cash That is because the 850i was meant to be a rolling showpiece for ultra-nerdy future tech When BMW deluded itself into thinking rich old men would get turned on by things like multiplexing can-buses and elasto-kinematics when they actually just wanted more sex and more power And so the 850i was a complete failure Until BMW took it to its motorsport division which created the only V12-powered production M car ever That solved the E31 dilemma The car finally drove the way it looked Unfortunately, no one knew about it because BMW didn't bother putting a single M badge on its exterior This is the story of the BMW M8 that you didn't even know existed This episode of Revelations is brought to you by the Hagerty Drivers Club which includes a subscription to our award-winning magazine 24-7 flatbed roadside assistance and far more Join or get more info at the link below The E31 story begins in the early 1980s when BMW's head of R&D said internally that his team knew when it was time that a model lineup must be reborn into a completely new vehicle And so the replacement for the E24 6 series would be a completely new vehicle Meaning nothing like the E24 The only problem was to Dr. Wolfgang Reitzle's dismay the ancient 6 series was outselling all expectations However, if there's one trait that seems to permeate all German car executives it's the ability to ignore success and insist on reinventing the wheel And so, Reitzle's 6 series non-replacement wouldn't be just a regular grand touring coupe based on a sedan It would be a delusion of grandeur A celebratory, self-congratulatory flagship conceived solely to show off his team's obsession with new technology Initial plans for the 8 included solar panels on its roof to power the AC system An acoustic notification radar system that could see through fog to warn of impending objects in its path A tire pressure monitoring system And even moisture sensors that activated windshield wipers And closed sunroofs Jetson stuff 40-some years ago They spent a billion of today's dollars Developing it The last BMW developed With an effectively unlimited budget And the first to be developed using CAD And so even though it was Five honking inches wider than the 6 series Its structure weighed about the same And was a third stiffer Despite the lack of B-pillar Still reeling from the fuel crisis Aerodynamics was a top priority for everyone Because it dramatically reduced fuel consumption Especially at Autobahn speeds And so the E31 Had the lowest drag coefficient Of any BMW ever And a delusional Autobahn flagship Would require, of course, The first 12-cylinder engine To come out of Germany since before the war The 300-horsepower all-aluminum V12 Was created by Siamese-ing Two 2.5-liter single-cam And two valve-per-cylinder M20 straight 6s From the E30 325i So ironically The high-tech new showpiece V12 Wasn't particularly advanced It also wasn't cheap BMW boasted that the M70 V12 Cost more than twice as much As two of those straight 6s did combined Meaning it was four times the price But hey, at least it was lightweight Because the V12 weighed less than the V8s From Porsche and Mercedes But being the first German-speaking V12 In more than 50 years There existed no engine management system Capable of running the thing So BMW just installed two of them This runs as two independent straight 6s It has two of everything Two distributors Two mass airflow sensors Two ignition coils Two fuel pumps In fact, it has two completely independent fuel supplies So if one side of the engine dies It just keeps running as one of those And still makes enough power to cruise At a buck 25 The V12 used the world's first Throttle-by-wire system Using two throttles to balance output Between the two engine halves And it was bolted to a 4-speed automatic Or a brand new 6-speed manual The first ever to be mated to a 12-cylinder The 850i shared its front suspension design With the 7 series that had debuted a few years earlier But the rear end was an entirely new Clean-sheet design In place of the tried-and-true Semi-trailing arm rear end That BMW had pioneered in the late 1950s Was the company's first ever Multi-link rear suspension The integral rear axle Is an ingenious suspension design Known for its ability to separate The bushings that determine ride quality From the bushings that determine handling So you can have very precise wheel control Without harshness Thanks to its pioneering use of elasto-kinematics It was also known for stability Which meant that the engineers Could dial out some of the understeer Without it becoming a handful at the limit We could do an entire episode on it Because the integral rear axle is still used today And it's been a key component In many of the world's best handling cars So on paper the E31 recipe Included everything you'd need For a spectacular performance car Unfortunately on a scale It included all the weight of a luxury car At more than 4,200 pounds The 850i weighed within 100 pounds Of the long wheelbase four-door Limo-like 750i L Ironic since BMW boasted Of all the weight-saving technology Inside the E31 Including its wiring This is the first mass-produced vehicle To ever use a CAN bus And that's standard fare today But it means multiple modules Can use digital signals to talk to each other And chiefly therefore share wiring The list of the E31's industry firsts Is enormous And the kind of thing That could give someone with a name Like Reitzler a stiffy Read all of those if you want But let me just give you one example This car has a system That electrically varies The amount of pressure That the wiper arms put on the windshield To ensure that it wipes properly all the time Conceivably to stop the spray nozzles From getting an infection Then so shortly after completing 400 test laps of the Nürburgring The BMW 850i made its debut At the 1989 Frankfurt Motor Show This was a good time To be a rich German car fan The same year Mercedes debuted The R129 SL Another technological tour de force With a big engine And an even bigger price They both sold out instantly With the 850i racking up enough deposits To account for its first Three years of production And then the magazine reviews arrived And the Mercedes were all glowing and gushing And the 850i, well They didn't have too much nice to say about it It is very pretty And it has the least susceptibility to side winds Of any BMW ever produced And not the ultimate driving machine The reviews were brutal The 850i was boring with a capital B No steering feel, not much speed, no sex And worse, absolutely no noise from the V12 BMW was so hell bent on making a car To show off its technology That it forgot to make a car that would show off At all This was on purpose Let's quote BMW directly for an explanation Opening up the rear silencers A practice that is favored and cultivated Among the Italian sports car producers Results often in an unacceptable noisy mission And constitutes a public nuisance Yes, Jason, a nuisance The 850i is built in accordance With a general acoustic concept That is calling for an extremely low And pleasant interior noise level And despite the car's evident sporting character For it to be quiet And environmentally acceptable to the world at large Stop This story has become tiresome And stupid Do we believe someone Who will be purchasing the Grand Coupe The size of Burgess Gladbach But only two seats Will give one flaming schnitzelfork About any of this No And now is the time on Revelations When we dance Stop your dancing These buyers Didn't care about any of those very German considerations Especially on a car that was dripping With Italian-like visual sex appeal This is what happens When a company's R&D department Engineers a vanity project Conceived to show off what it's capable of With little or no regard To what was expected by its customers And so customers started cancelling their orders And buying Mercedes 500 SLs instead Despite the fact that the 500 SL Had four fewer cylinders and cost more But Mercedes had concentrated on all of the right stuff Its opulent good looks Matched the understated wealth of its customers The interior both looked and felt expensive It had jaw-dropping performance And then a roof that also dropped Mercedes literally couldn't build these things fast enough Meanwhile BMW had to drop the 850i's production From a planned 56 units a day To just 12 The Coupe was such a flop That BMW also killed off plans To make a two-seat convertible version of the E31 Which, hello, should have come first It also killed off plans to make an M8 Which would have been so expensive As to be completely unsellable There was one prototype built, no headlights But a quad-cam 48-valve Independent throttle body Carbon intake 6.1 liter 640 horsepower V12 You know, the one that BMW made For the McLaren F1 Oh, but Germans don't admit defeat quite that easily They had to save face somehow So BMW called M back and said Hey, maybe let's not go so crazy Let's make an M8 that costs maybe 25% More than an 850i Rather than one that costs twice as much And it actually happened Just nobody seems to know about it Probably because in all of its delusions About flagships BMW didn't notice that in its customers' minds An M badge actually signified a BMW flagship And so there wasn't a single M badge On the outside of the car They called it the 850 CSi But it received exactly the same treatment That the E36 did a year later When it was transformed from a regular 325i To a full M car, the M3 Exactly the same recipe, to be precise And the first item is a big engine Built by M with an M badge on it Finally, M70 became S70 When M bored and stroked it To 5.6 liters with higher compression Lighter pistons, a forged crank A higher redline, hotter cams And a less restrictive exhaust It gained 80 horsepower For a total of 380 And 406 whopping pound feet Of naturally aspirated V12 torque You could have any transmission you wanted So long as it was a six-speed manual With a limited-slip differential And the shortest overall gearing Of any V12-powered automobile Before or since Quicker steering, stiffer shocks Springs and bars Plus it was slammed so low That it had an inch less ground clearance Than today's M4 Your OCSIs got rear-wheel steering Plus the biggest brakes in the world With two-piece floating rotors And four-piston fixed calipers They all got M goodies Like forged wheels And a front spoiler And a rear diffuser And no M badges Well, except on the door sills So perfectly hidden That neither passengers nor passers-by Could see them Are you meaning to be joking? Where are the stinking M badges? Very upsetting 愚蠢 The US car magazines agreed Saying the CSI was everything They'd expected from the 8 Series From the get-go Car and Driver said BMW has perfected the species And their CSI's 5.3-second run to 60 Was two full seconds quicker Than the 850i automatic They said the CSI was the target Should Porsche ever decide To replace the 928 And that the CSI rendered The SL redundant And they said one other thing That it was good enough To be called the M8 Clearly they didn't know That legally it was an M8 According to the government The badges on the back Said BMW 850 CSI But the VIN said the manufacturer Was BMW Motorsport And the model name On German certificates of title Was M8 Just 225 of the non-M8s Were sent to America And they sold out immediately Total production was just 1510 units Making the 850 CSI One of the rarest M cars of them all And begging the question Would those numbers have been far higher If BMW had badged it an M8 Or was the E31's fate Already sealed with the failure Of the regular 850i We'll never know But it seems there are two lessons BMW could have taken away From this whole experience Lesson number one Don't let your R&D department Get in the way Of giving customers what they want This obviously fell on deaf ears Given the next car to wear An 8 Series badge was the i8 Another total misread Of market expectations And lesson two What BMW realized is Customers want an M badge On their M car Safe to say BMW has learned that lesson Because today they'd put an M badge On a three cylinder Rolls Royce If they thought they can get away with it But back then BMW didn't know It needed to put an M badge On an M car