The furore over BMW’s design strategy had just begun to quieten down following the launch of the 7-Series, Z4 Roadster and 5-Series, then BMW revealed the 6-Series Coupe at Frankfurt. It goes even further than the previous three, pushing design boundaries further forward than many BMW fans think appropriate. Jesse Crosse reports.
When it comes to car design, that old chestnut “form follows function” has never been exploited more so than today. With the explosion in new car niches buyers can choose virtually any style of car to fit their lifestyle and whether it be a roadster, MPV, estate or straight forward saloon, all are targeted at fulfilling a specific role in their owners lives. The exception is the coupe which can be one of a number of things. It can simply be a closed cabin interpretation of a sports roadster or a fastback version of a saloon with a sportier image and it does not necessarily need to be a lightweight, it can be a heavyweight too.
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The new BMW 645Ci fits the last two criteria. It’s based on the underpinnings of the 5-Series but with a completely new body style, and it weighs in at a hefty 1690kg – over 250kg more than its famous 1980s ancestor, the M635CSi. As such, it is no sports car and neither is it trying to be one. With the potent 3-Series range currently topped by the M3 CSL, customers are well catered for in that department. So with the 6-Series, BMW can enjoy exploring a niche it has left untouched since the 8-Series coupe, that of the larger GT aimed at the driver who wants to be flattered by an excess of styling but who has moved on from the minimalist experience of less comfortable and luxurious machinery.
Hybrid construction
Not surprisingly, the new coupe is awash with technology. With the body, BMW has stuck to its strategy of hybrid construction, the front wing panels being manufactured from a thermoplastic and the boot lid from SMC. Weight reduction is carried further elsewhere in the bodyshell through the use of aluminium and lightweight steel. Front strut turrets are cast from an alloy of aluminium, manganese and silicon, while the doors and bonnet are in aluminium. Had conventional materials been used in these areas, BMW says the weight would have increased by 20 percent. Externally, the Coupe also has run flat tyres, adaptive front headlamps and the all-new LED rear lights including the two-stage Brake Force Display which glow brighter under very heavy brake pedal pressure. Inside, there’s standard leather and air-conditioning as well as the second generation iDrive which still fails to be as intuitive as the Audi A8 system.
Under the skin, the 645Ci is equipped with one of the world’s great powerplants, the 333bhp, 4.4-litre V8 which produces a huge 450Nm torque at 3,600rpm. When Germany first turned to V8s in a big way, it was hard to walk away from one without feeling just a little disappointed at the way engineers had managed to subdue the classic off-beat engine note to the point where it lacked interest. Now, the balance has been redressed and while the 4.4 V8 is every bit as refined as it should be, it’s also been endowed with the ability to exercise its vocal chords at full chat. Thus equipped, the power to weight ratio of the coupe is 197bhp/tonne compared to 200bhp/tonne achieved by the M635CSi in 1984 – exactly 20 years before the current coupe makes its debut next year. The new V8, however, is more refined, can achieve 25.9mpg (Imperial), has a range of 650 miles and of course, is Euro IV compliant thanks to its technical sophistication.
In its armoury against emissions and consumption it has three major weapons, the Valvetronic variable valve lift system which reduces pumping losses by allowing the engine to run unthrottled, Bi-Vanos infinitely variable valve timing and a fully variable intake manifold length to optimise torque at a wide range of engine speed and load. The transmission is the latest ZF HP26, the same version of the six-speed gearbox introduced on the 5-Series whose Lepelletier gear set scores over the conventional Wilson design by being more compact, 30kg lighter than the five-speed original and with 29 per cent fewer parts. The 6-Series also inherits the ingenious Active Steering launched on the new 5-Series. By splitting the steering column with a planetary gearbox and electric motor, the lower portion can rotate independently of the steering wheel enabling adjustment of the steering angle by computer. The steering rack itself is a conventional Servotronic unit with a fixed ratio and speed sensitive hydraulic power assistance. Active steering comes into its own at parking speeds, reducing the lock to three quarters of a turn to make manoeuvring easier.
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The coupe is also equipped with Advanced Safety Electronics (ASE) which consists of an optical network capable of analysing the point of impact during a crash. In doing so, ASE can deploy the six airbags intelligently rather than en masse and uses two-stage deployment depending on the crash severity. It will also disconnect the battery and alternator, switch off the fuel pump, unlock locked doors and, if it has been ticked on the options list, call BMW Assist. DSC (dynamic stability control) has been greatly refined since it first appeared in the late 1990s and is relatively unobtrusive in this car. DSC is a combination of dynamic brake control (DBC) and dynamic traction control (DTC) which attempt to sense and correct dynamic instability by the application of individual brakes and throttle intervention.
The stability systems can interact with the Active Steering to correct oversteer and raise the threshold at which DSC intervenes. Manufacturers have generally moved towards a safety-conscious policy of not allowing drivers to completely disable stability controls such as DSC and ESP even if they think they are doing so. Often what happens is that the traction control element is switched out leaving the stability systems to collect the car in the event of a disastrous manoeuvre by the driver. In this case, however, the DSC threshold can not only be raised at the press of a button, but keeping the button depressed for three seconds or more switches everything out for track use.
But while these functions may now have been vastly improved, they are all pretty familiar. Much more radical is the Head-Up display promised for September 2004, but which the press has yet to be exposed to. Chevrolet was the first to go down this route on the Corvette using a relative crude arrangement in the top of the dash to reflect basic display information onto the screen. Though technically rudimentary, the GM version works rather well and it’s a surprise that nobody has bothered to pursue the idea before now, especially with the advent of iDrive and its imitators which do force the driver to drop the eyes from the road. BMW’s HUD uses a projector within the dash to render an image of the instruments onto the inner surface of the windscreen in such a way that the focal point is somewhere near the end of the bonnet. What you see in the 20cm x 10cm image is selectable to some extent and can include sat nav direction arrows as well as more basic things like road speed.
Technically, the 6-Series is hugely impressive, but then the BMW brand is synonymous with technical and dynamic excellence and in all honestly, it’s expected. If there are any concerns it must be over the continual criticisms of the direction in which BMW design chief, Chris Bangle, has taken his craft, especially in relation to the curious rear-end treatments and conflicting shut-lines. Feelings are running so high, dissenters can even sign up to a ‘stop Chris Bangle’ petition on the Internet. However, attitudes have mellowed towards the 7-Series, probably because its aggressive overall look sits well with the kind of senior executive it mostly attracts. In contrast, the 5-Series is less controversial and its treatment less radical, while the flamboyant Z4 is justifiably flamboyant – it is a sports roadster after all.
But for many, the 6-Series is the hardest of the new look BMWs to swallow and in Europe anyway, comes across as a car designed specifically for the US market. The bulbous nose would not look out of place on a Pontiac and the rear is soft and round-shouldered. It’s a far cry from the classic, raunchy 635Csi and others, whose introduction did not require the lengthy philosophising over design that BMW now includes at every launch. In fairness, however, design is perhaps the toughest aspect of defining a brand because unlike technology, which is both measurable and objective, how a car looks is purely subjective. But although a brand leader has to set the pace, there’s a thin dividing line between something that is both radical and aesthetically appealing and that which is just radical.
Phenomenon or disaster?
The jury is still out on the BMW design saga and time will tell whether Chris Bangle has succeeded in setting new trends or attempted to push the boat out too far. Certainly, reservations about BMW design has not been reflected in the showroom – in the UK the 5-Series is proving a runaway success and the 7-Series is ‘meeting expectations’. But design is more important to the 6-Series and the principal reason people choose a coupe. On price, BMW has opted for affordability and with a price tag of just under £60,000 in the UK, the 6-Series is cheaper than a 911 Carrera, Maserati Coupe or Mercedes CL500. BMW says the coupe market in the UK has grown by 50 percent in the last 10 years while SMMT figures reveal the specialist sports car market to have grown from 23,500 in 1993 to 60,000 in 2002. Next year, the Coupe will be joined by a sister convertible, between 600 and 700 of which will be sold in the first year and around 1,000 in a full year.
In contrast, 1,700 Coupes will go to UK showrooms in 2004 following the March introduction, with 2,000 being registered in 2005. Despite Coupe sales being so style orientated the numbers are too small to provide an insight into the wider market’s true reaction to BMW design. So the 64 million dollar question remains. What will be the response to the crucial new 3-Series, expected late in 2005 and what will the effect be on sales? It will be ironic if critics give it the thumbs down. When the current generation 3-Series launched to the press at Jerez in the late 1990s by Wolfgang Reitzle, Chris Bangle’s design was criticised for being too conservative.
