2011 BMW 6-Series Coupe: Official

BMW finally manage to officially reveal the 2011 / 2012 BMW 6-Series Coupe ahead of its debut at the Shanghai Motor Show.

Having turned new car release convention on its head by revealing the 2011 BMW 6 Series Convertible first, BMW has now decided they ought to make the BMW 6 Series Coupe official ahead of its debut at the Shanghai Motor Show next month.

And, as expected,we get pretty much what we got at the Paris Motor Show where BMW were calling this the 6-Series Coupe Concept – a tin-top version of the 6-Series Convertible.

The lines of the 2011 6-Series (as always, make that 2012 BMW 6 Series across the Pond) are less jarring than the last model. That 6-Series could never be called pretty – from any angle – although it was impressive.

Perhaps the 2011 could best be called handsome, but it certainly has more visual prettiness than its predecessor.

The 2011 6-Series will launch with the choice of just two models – the BMW 640i and the BMW 650i. Those of you over 35 will immediately expect that to be a 4.0 litre V8 in the 640i and a 5.0 litre V12 in the 650i.

Sadly, this is 2011 so what you’ll actually get is a a 3.0 litre straight six turbo in the 640i sporting 316bhp and a 4.4 litre V8 in the 650i with 401bhp. Both get an eight-speed auto and the 640i even gets stop-start.

The move to forced induction helps performance and economy. The 630i hits 62mph in 5.4 seconds and returns 36.7 mpg, and the 650i does the same 62mph sprint in 4.9 seconds and delivers and average 27.2mpg. Think 28 and 24mpg in the real world.

The pair of petrols at launch are interesting, but the big sellers and the big performance are yet to come. There will be a 630d and a 640d to come in 2012 and at some point we will see the BMW M6 sporting the 4.4 litre twin-turbo from the X5M with at least 550bhp.

Good numbers all round, just a shame about the paucity of cylinders.

2011/2012 BMW 6-Series Coupe Video

2011/2012 BMW 6-Series Coupe Photo Gallery

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