2017 BMW M760Li xDrive comes to Australia

Wrestle over Rolls-Royce and move aside Mercedes-Maybach – the BMW M760Li xDrive is coming Down Under complete with a mighty 6.6-litre twin-turbocharged V12 engine.

Priced from $419,900 and due here in the second quarter of 2017, BMW’s M Performance wand has been waved over the latest 7 Series limousine and its Munich masters have clearly resisted any form of replacement for displacement.

With 448kW between 5250rpm and 6000rpm, and 800Nm from 1500rpm until 5000rpm, BMW Australia’s first and only all-wheel-drive sedan sends drive through an eight-speed automatic transmission and can reach 100km/h from standstill in 3.7 seconds.

It leaves this hi-po limo with a faster performance claim than proper M-car sedans, the BMW M3 Competition (4.0sec) and M5 (4.2sec), while humbling price-point rivals.

Its outputs eclipse both the $595,000 Rolls-Royce Ghost (420kW/780Nm) with identical capacity and cylinder count, and the $448,325 Mercedes-Maybach S-Class’s 390kW/830Nm 6.0-litre twin-turbo V12 for power if not torque. Yet both heavyweight sedans can only reach 100km/h in 5.0sec and 4.9sec respectively.

BMW insists this isn’t just a laid-back limo. The xDrive variable all-wheel drive system is “rear biased” and the auto features a sports shift pattern that uses navigation topography information to adjust its gear selection for the road ahead.

An active sports exhaust “emits a rich, cultured burble throughout the rev range” and active anti-roll bars team with the adaptive suspension and 20-inch M light alloy wheels, with 245mm front/275mm rear rubber and monster 19-inch disc brakes behind them.

Of course, there is no shortage of luxury equipment, from gesture control technology, a panoramic sunroof, four-zone climate control with front and rear heating, cooling and massaging functions, refrigerator and even a remote key with a colour screen on it.

An ‘Excellence’ package is also available at no extra cost, which replaces M-Sport styling accents with a chrome-and-woodgrain treatment. For a maximum stealth setting, however, there are no sports-subtracting changes under-skin. That does sound excellent to us...

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