First drive: BMW M850i xDrive Coupe 2018 prototype

“The UK is an important market for the 8 Series,” says vehicle dynamics engineer Jos van As. “Your roads are often very narrow, sometimes only a bit wider than the car. That means you need the steering to be really precise. The roads are also bumpy and very undulating, so we need to make sure the chassis can deal with them.”

Dutchman van As is ultimately responsible for the way the M850i drives.

Encouragingly, his car-guy credentials are as impeccable as they come. Having rallied an Autobianchi Abarth while at university, he now owns an Ariel Atom, which he has fiddled with to improve its ride and handling. He also drives an E30-generation 325e and laughs like a schoolboy when he describes the car’s tail-happy handling.

The new 8 Series, he says, is a sports car and a grand tourer in one. It should slot into the sizeable gap between the Porsche 911 and Mercedes-AMG S63 Coupé – a niche that has been curiously unoccupied for several years. It’s important to note, though, that the 8 Series isn’t merely a 7 Series with a rakish two-door bodyshell. Its multi-link rear suspension actually has more in common with the smaller 5 Series and it sits on coil rather than air springs. The new model is shorter than the outgoing BMW 6 Series, both in terms of overall length and wheelbase. It is slightly wider, though, and sits much further up the sports carfood chain. Van As doesn’t want you to think of it as a direct replacement for the 6 Series.

What should we make of his claim that the M850i is both a sports car and a GT, though? We’re so used to marketing departments trotting out exactly that sort of unlikely declaration that we’re immune to it now.

However, when it comes not from a clean-cut office type in a slim-fit suit and pointy shoes but from a straight-talking engineer in a zip-up raincoat, it might just be time to sit up and take notice.

The M850i is so loaded up with intelligent control systems and cutting-edge chassis technologies that it could well be the cleverest car BMW has produced. It has adaptive dampers, of course, but also rear-wheel steering, an electronically controlled limited-slip differential in the rear axle and a four-wheel drive system that can intuit exactly where power is needed and divert it there in double-quick time.

It’s also available with active anti-roll bars – the only one of the various bits of chassis technology that won’t be standard fit – that can tweak the roll resistance at either end of the car in real time to make it more agile or more stable.

It’s all about reducing the compromise between long-distance comfort and back-road agility. Only with these various control systems can BMW possibly build a car that’s cosseting and refined one moment, then sharp and responsive the next.

It isn’t enough just to bolt on lots of sophisticated hardware, though. More than anything else, the M850i is an exercise in integration; in making sure all of the systems complement one another and work together towards the same goal.

It’s the seamlessness of this integration of which van As and his team are most proud.

In fact, the new 8 Series is a matter of enormous pride to BMW’s engineers. This is Flasch, van As and the rest of their colleagues showing the world exactly what they’re capable of.

Early impressions of the BMW M850i

Having driven a development car as quickly as I dared along the spectacular B4501, I can tell you they are capable of remarkable things.

There is still a little fine-tuning and refinement work to be done, but the M850i already feels expertly judged. The ride quality is very good, even over rough patches of road, striking a fine balance between pliancy and composure.