BMW has officially taken the covers off the new 8 Series Convertible roughly three weeks ahead of its grand unveiling this month.
The new car now sports a soft-top as a main focus of interest. However, getting rid of the hard top has made the car no less elegant. BMW has gone the fabric way for the new convertible that we assume is because of space and weight a metal top adds to the car.
BMW claims that the top can be lowered within 15 seconds at under 31mph. The company is providing the top with two colour options including the standard black or dark grey.
Like the Coupe, the convertible is a four-seater as well. Compared to the standard 8-Series, the convertible features less shoulder room with a slightly more upright seat due to the additional rollover protection. However, the knee room in the car remains the same while giving a little more of headspace to the passengers. Other than that, the Convertible sports pretty much the same interiors as the Coupe. However, the new interior comes with a bit more practicality for drop-top driving. The front passenger and the driver seats now come with an additional neck warmer that blows warm air in three different levels of intensity.
The soft-top has, however, come with a cost in terms of boot space. The total volume of the convertible's boot space has dropped to about 350 litres with the roof closed compared to the Coupe's 430 litres. On the contrary, convertible owners will still benefit from rear seat backs with a 50:50 split - through the through-loading opening has shrunk a little.
A convertible iteration has also called for a weight penalty. The extra bracing to the chassis to keep the body similarly rigid to that of the Coupe, extra cross struts and a new underbody panel, plus the mechanism for the roof itself, results in an additional 125kg.
BMW has compensated the suspensions due to the added weight by beefing it up slightly. Mechanically, the convertible will resemble the Coupe with the standard 840d: a twin-turbo 3.0-litre straight-six diesel. The 316bhp, 700Nm unit propels the 840d from 0-100kph in 5.2 seconds and on to a limited top speed of 250kph.
In M850i petrol, features a 4.4-litre twin turbo V8, it makes 523bhp and 750Nm. A set of 18-inch wheels are provided as standard across all the models of the convertible along with Merino leather trim, a Harman Kardon sound system and adaptive LED headlights.
