Beware of Shark! History of BMW 8-series.

BMW 8-Series (E31) - little known to most car drivers. Few at the mention of BMW 850 recall seeing him once in the pages of car magazines, on posters, or even met on the road. The latter option is rare, because the 8-series - a real exclusive! Even though a decade that this car was on the conveyor, today - is one of the most rare "boomers".

Development of a new large sport coupe, "BMW" began in the mid 80s. While the biggest sporting BMW was the second series, which was issued in 1979. Despite his venerable age, coupe continued to enjoy steady demand. Therefore it was decided to maximize its life cycle, and the new coupe was located above a table of ranks - a place of honor's flagship brand. In the new model the designers used all the most modern and advanced design of the time, because before them was to create one of the most technologically advanced cars in the world! The creation of the car took more than 5 years, and for the development has been spent over 1.5 billion German marks.



The car debuted at the Frankfurt Motor Show in September 1989, the first was a model 850i. Whitelist after the premiere European sales have started, and from January 1990 the car appeared on the markets of North America, Japan, Middle East and other countries. BMW has positioned new product as expensive and luxurious sedan, but handling and dynamic performance also were on top, as befits a "competitor" of Munich.
Particularly impressive is a charismatic and absolutely "male" appearance "eight". Her body looked edgy and neotesanym and narrow headlights coupled with a negative slope of the lattice raditora (like the old BMW!) Gave the appearance truly ferocious anger! Even today, after nearly 20 years after the launch of models into production, "eight" is impressive. Perhaps this impression is emerging from the fact that many design ideas were not used in other models and will forever remain the hallmark of this particular "BMW". What are some pull-out lights - a special style in the late 80s!

The interior of 8-series is quite traditional for the BMW, even then, in 1989, it looked rather unusual. In comparison with the interiors of his day "sevens" and "fives" it was less edgy and had a slightly different architecture. The center console has been "inundated" almost to the horizontal level, and ventilation vents were combined into one unit with the instrument panel visor. Naturally, the center console was turned to the driver. Who else!

According to the conception of expensive and luxurious car, the interior of the 8-series has been well equipped and generously packed with a wide variety of options. Electrical windows, comfortable leather chairs, "climate" - here it was all for the comfort of passengers.
Evolution.

Once in 1989, was a model 850i (under the hood of which was a 5-liter V12 power 300hp), in 1992 there was a more modest version - 840i, which is equipped with engine V8 (286hp). I must say that the "top-end» 850i never very popular - too much (DM200, 000) asked for the car dealers. With the advent of eight-cylinder versions sales dramatically gone up, because the price has decreased by 30 thousand marks! As a result, by 1999 eight-cylinder "eights" were released in 2 times more than the versions with the V12.

Then, in 1992 was introduced version 850CSi, in which the sporting character was especially pronounced. Body of the car as easy as possible (even disappeared in the cabin rear seats), and under the hood of a new, more powerful engine-V12 5,5 l (S70B56), power of 380 hp Maximum speed is much higher than "permitted" an electronic limiter to 250 km / h, and "hundreds" sprint in less than 6 seconds! Development and production division was engaged Version CSi BMW Motorsport, as proudly remind many labels under the hood and in the cabin.

From "normal" 840і's and 850і's CSi-vesion differed reduced by 15 mm ground clearance, the presence of a 6-speed manual transmission and traction control, ventilated brakes and reinforced - the fun part! - Active (thruster) rear suspension AHK (German Aktive Hinterachs-Kinematik). The latter allows you to rotate the rear wheels with front (rear axle controlled naturally not the driver, a control unit AHK), making handling and maneuverability of the car dramatically increased. Maximum angle of rear wheels was 2,5 °.

With the introduction of the 850CSi active rear suspension has been available as an option for other versions. That's just the price of "bite» - DM12 500! Therefore, the "rank and file» 840i and 850i with the system AHK - a rarity.
As the most affordable version of the new "eight" scheduled for release model 830i. The three-liter engine was too weak for the heavy (weighing about 2 tons) of the vehicle, and any further production version of the 830i refused. From March to December 1992 were produced 18 prototypes, none of which has not been sold.
BMW M8.

Until now, a lot of rumors going on around the charged version of the BMW M8. This car is really designed by engineers, and in 1990 he even built a prototype. Under the hood lies the engine S70B56 (6 liter, V12, 550 hp) version uprotsennaya which would then be used in the 850CSi.

Extreme version of BMW Motorsport was to head the list of modifications, but for some reason, the production of "emki" It was decided to give up. At the time, BMW has been in full swing work to create this super car - McLaren F1, which also had to get this engine (with the increased volume of cylinders and high power). Perhaps the company feared the internal competition between the M8 and McLaren decided to "slow down" the project. In addition, a couple of years, it became clear that sales of "eight" is much more modest than originally anticipated and may be why the project was decided M8 "bury."
In 1994, the model got a new 850i engine (M73), which is characterized by increased volume (5.4 liters) and power (326 hp).
In 1996, the upgrade version and underwent 840i - appeared with a modern engine, the volume is 4.4 liters and 286 hp power. At the same time with the production was filmed 850CSi - its engine does not fit into the tougher ecological standards. 

Of the most famous tuning options should be noted Alpina B12, which comes in two versions - B12 5.0 (based on the version of 850i) and B12 5.7. Low-end model (produced from 1990 to 1994) was built on the base model 850і, and in addition to a corporate body kit differed forced up to 350 hp engine. Model B12 5.7 was based on the inherently more "advanced" and "charged» 850CSi, so after all the improvements were much more powerful engine - 420 hp!
But the most powerful atmospheric BMW 8-Series release Americans from North Carolina. The guys from the little-known company PowerPlant Racing cylinder increased to 6 liters and were able to raise output to 410 hp If this figure does not impress you, keep in mind that this was only the most "modest" version of the tune. Also proposed two more "charged" version - with 450 and 500 hp! Vehicle designated as 860i, and apparently differed only modest aerodynamic bodywork around the perimeter of the body. All were released, only 7 of these cars.
BMW 850i Convertible never released, although today some where you can meet and such a version. This product works bodywork studio, which is literally "taken down" the roof of an ordinary coupe.

Final.
Over all 10 years of production is not bad, in general, then, the model 8-series hard fought for survival. This struggle proceeded with varying degrees of success - in 1997 the Germans stopped the sale of "eight" in the U.S., as sales went from bad to worse (for 7 years, was sold just over 7000 cars). As a result, car production ceased in May 1999.
Failure of yet another supercar 90 could well be once again attributed to the recession in the global economy and the subsequent reduction in consumer interest in expensive cars. Still, there were other reasons that are significantly complicated the "eight" path from a factory assembly line to the garage customer. This and the high cost and lack of range of budget modifications, high fuel consumption and expensive to maintain. All this has led to the fact that over 10 years of production was released just over 30 thousand cars - more than modest results.
Today, find the "eight" in good condition on the secondary market is problematic, although there is no shortage of proposals. The minimum value of the car first years of release - 10 thousand euro, and the cost of options, "the younger" (97-97 gg.v.) easily passes for 25 thousand euros.