A total of 30,621 8 Series were produced, 24 of which were manually constructed at the BMW Rosslyn facility in South Africa. For tax-related reasons, constructing the cars locally was more affordable than bringing in the final goods from abroad. 840 prices nowadays start at roughly PS12,000, but an excellent example will cost more, and an 850 will cost much more, with the CSi fetching the highest price.
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Development[edit]
The 8 Series’ final design phase was completed in July 1981, and production development for the vehicle commenced in 1986. At the Frankfurt Motor Show (IAA) in early September 1989, the 8 Series made its debut. The 6 Series’ initial market was intended to be expanded with the 8 Series. The 8 Series was far more expensive and had significantly better performance.
The total amount invested in development was about 1.5 billion Deutsche Marks, or roughly $900 million in 2019 dollars. BMW created the car’s brand-new body using CAD technologies, which were still uncommon at the time. The car’s drag coefficient, Cd=0.29, when combined with wind tunnel tests, was a significant improvement over the BMW M6/635CSi’s 0.39.
The 8 Series was the first road car with a V12 engine paired with a 6-speed manual transmission. It was among the first cars to have a drive-by-wire electronic throttle installed. Along with the Z1, the 8 Series was one of BMW’s first vehicles to feature a multi-link rear axle.
Although the car’s unibody was able to be 3 kg (8 lb) lighter thanks to CAD modeling, the huge engine and additional luxury features made the car much heavier when it was finished, which drew criticism from people who wanted BMW to focus more on the driving experience. The car’s pillar-less “hardtop” body shape, which lacked a “B” pillar, might have contributed to some of its weight.
The early 1990s worldwide recession, the Persian Gulf War, and rising gasoline prices all had an impact on 8 Series sales. Plans for the high-performance M8 model were consequently abandoned in 1991.
After selling 6,920 vehicles, BMW discontinued the 8 Series in the North American market in 1997. BMW sold 30,609 units across all markets before continuing manufacturing for other markets until 1999. Early in the 1990s, the base price for an entry-level 8 series began in the US$70,000 range, which is equivalent to US$145,188 in 2021.
8 Series BMW
A line of grand tourer coupes and convertibles made by BMW is known as the 8 Series.
The E31 model number was used for the introduction of the 8 Series, which was exclusively offered as a two-door coupe. Several naturally aspirated V8 and V12 gasoline engines are used to power it. Although it was launched into production at the same time as the E24 6 Series, the E31 is not regarded as a straight replacement. Due to low sales, the E31 was discontinued in 1999.
Later, the second generation, G15 8 Series, which debuted in 2018, relaunched the model lineup. As the replacement for the F06/F12/F13 6 Series series, it debuted in coupe (G15), convertible (G14), and four-door Gran Coupe (G16) body styles. The G15 8 Series debuts an inline-six-diesel engine; later, the portfolio was expanded to include the high-performance BMW M8 trim and the luxury-inspired Alpina B8.
BMW 850i: A Radical Success
Buyers immediately went buck crazy. Eight days into the show, 5,000 orders reportedly came in; by the next summer, the roughly 12,000-unit annual manufacturing run was completely sold out until 1993. A few die-hard Bimmer superfans were so enamored with the brand that they were more than willing to spend significantly more than the asking price—a behavior that is commonplace now for supercars like Ferraris and GT-division Porsches, but was virtually unheard of back then.
At first, the 5.0-liter V-12 was the only engine offered for the 850i. The 1987–1994 E32 750i was the first BMW with twelve cylinders; the 850i was the only other. With 296 horsepower and 332 lb-ft of torque available through either a five-speed manual or four-speed automatic transmission, the M70 V-12 was a modern powerhouse. Performance was remarkable, with a top speed of 155 mph and a 0-60 mph time that fell somewhere in the low six-second range.
The E31 had amazing visuals and still does. Designer Klaus Kapitza worked with the design and technical team to achieve the lowest drag coefficient possible, ultimately creating a low, lithe form with a 0.29 coefficient of drag that slashed through the air. In order to preserve that gorgeous profile, Kapitza eliminated the B-pillar from the design, leaving a sizable open space where typically there would be bodywork. To make up for this, he installed tightly sealed windows and seat-mounted seatbelts.
Ford 850CSi
The 850CSi is no exception to the rule and has multiple names. In this instance, the word “M8” appears repeatedly.
And that is true. A true M-car is the 850CSi. It has more than just an M-bred engine (type S70, the S indicates M-origin)
but has also been produced by BMW M, as evidenced by the VIN, which begins with WBS (BMW Motorsport) rather than WBA (BMW AG).
However, even if the papers claim that the BMW M8 is the correct model nomenclature, the M-Division has made only modest improvements to the vehicle.
The documents for a BMW 850CSi are as follows:
From August 1992 to October 1996, the BMW 850CSi was only produced in 1510 units. owing to more restrictive emission requirements
Production of the 850CSi stopped in January 1997 because more research and development would have been costly given the small number of vehicles sold.
been too costly. Thus, it will end up in the same place as the Aston Martin V8 Vantage. All dealers who still had a CSi by the end of 1996 were
instructed to license them, even if only for a single day, as it would have been impossible to do under the new rules.
Ten amazing things about BMW’s vintage 8 Series
BMW unveiled the 8 Series Coupe, which would go on to become one of its modern classics, during the 1989 Frankfurt Motor Show.
The “E31” model, which was produced for ten years between 1989 and 1999, was a “clean-sheet” design whose ancestry can be traced all the way back to BMW’s very gorgeous coupes from the 1930s.
Additionally, over the course of its existence, BMW sold 30,621 8 Series Coupes, 24 of which were hand-built at the Rosslyn facility in South Africa (for tax reasons, assembling the cars there was cheaper than importing them). Over 20,000 vehicles, or more than two-thirds, had the V12 engine, and just one in six had a six-speed manual transmission.
The new one, scheduled to debut this year, has now been previewed in prototype images.
The BMW 8 Series is a large, luxurious two-door BMW barge that we quite enjoy. The old girl is amazing for the following ten reasons.
When was the initial BMW 8 Series produced?
BMW enjoyed great success in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The E30 3 Series, E28 5 Series, and E24 6 Series were a string of stylistic and financial successes for the carmaker, filling its coffers with money and its engineers’ heads with concepts. Particularly over its 13-year production period from 1976 to 1989, the first-generation 6 Series (E24) was a sales hit, selling over 86,000 units.
With the first design and conceptual development of the top-of-the-line BMW 8 Series in 1981, BMW set its sights on Aston Martin’s and Mercedes-high-end Benz’s grand tourers with dollar signs in its eyes and the precedent set for a successful big-money, hi-tech BMW coupe. Engineering and pre-production testing began in 1986, and the E31 BMW 8 Series made its full production debut as the BMW 850i at the 1989 Frankfurt auto show after spending the equivalent of $900 million on development expenditures.
Exists a BMW 8 Series?
A GLANCE AT THE 8 GRAN COUPE One of a kind among the vehicles in the BMW inventory is the sizable, opulent BMW 8 Series Gran Coupe. Its outward design mixes the sedan’s roomy four doors with the dynamic look of a coupe.
Is the BMW 8 Series going out of production?
Frank Weber, the chief technical officer at BMW, was extensively interviewed by Australia’s Which Car magazine. Nearly every topic of interest to BMW devotees, both new and old, was covered in the article, including the automaker’s design philosophy, halo cars, and how to keep cars modern when technology advances so quickly relative to vehicle generation cycles. However, out of the piece’s almost 1,700 words, about 47 words in one paragraph that have nothing to do with Weber have become the story: According to rumors, the 4 and 8 Series will be combined into a new 6 Series line by BMW product planners in 2026. According to the speculation, the 8 Series Gran Coupe will be the final vehicle from both lineups to survive. But because it will be incorporated into the 7 Series lineup, it won’t be an 8 Series anymore.
If this were to happen, it would be “simply little parts of history repeating,” as Shirley Bassey once sang. The first 6 Series model debuted in 1976 and remained a shark-nosed icon of stunning badassery until 1989. The first stunning but underwhelming 8 Series debuted in 1990 and persisted until persistent underwhelming sales led BMW to discontinue it in 1999. The 6 Series made a comeback in 2004, not quite as crisp as the first, but still able to captivate a very particular and committed audience. BMW would give the 6 a second generation before finally burying it in 2018 save for the lone 6 Series GT, which was essentially a renamed 5 Series GT. The 8 Series was later brought back to life by the Munich carmaker in 2018, but sales were much slower than before. So, if the rumor about a third act for the 6 Series is true, it will only be the most recent installment in a long-running story.
According to BMW Blog, it obtained this information from its own sources. On the other hand, the demise of the 4 Series could be justified as a result of coupe and convertible sales continuing their downward trends. On the one hand, as the BMW Blog notes, there will be significant technological and electrical advancements over the next four years that may change consumer preferences. However, 2026 is only four years away, which means BMW is definitely quite close to making a choice about the 4er.
Weber’s statement that the next New Class (NKL) platform, which will eventually support every BMW, may easily pave the way for “a highly-emotional car” may interest enthusiasts as well. This might be either an i8 rebirth or a production version of the Vision M Next, the unicorn hybrid or electric halo car that whisperers can’t stop talking about.
But don’t be hesitant to visit Which Car and read the entire interview; there’s a ton more there.
The BMW 8 Series: Is it Trustworthy?
Reliability of the BMW 8 Series BMW’s recent performance in our Driver Power satisfaction poll, where customers ranked the brand 21st out of 29 manufacturers, behind rivals Mercedes, Jaguar, and Lexus, is less encouraging. Within the first year of driving, little under 20% of BMW owners reported one or more issues.
What number of BMW E31s were made?
Production tally A total of 30,621 automobiles were produced during the course of its ten-year production cycle (8-series were produced between 1989 and 1999). 850i/Ci models made up the vast majority of the 8-series output, with 22,800 units created in total.
How much is the BMW i8?
The good news is that the price of the 2020 BMW i8 is same to that of the 2019 model. The bad news is that the Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price (MSRP) for a brand-new i8 Coupe is still $147,500; add $995 for destination, and the price comes to $148,495 overall. i8 Roadster 2020 costs $164,295