Overview
It doesn’t matter whether you are into the big American V8 muscles or the turbo spooling little engine JDM tuner culture. Deep down our hearts will always be a soft cozy spot for BMWs M division, specifically the M3. With a long history in racing and how the BMW brought the racing culture to the streets with the 3 series, the M3 was a benchmark sports car. Not so long ago, BMW decided to introduce the 4 series that would have a stiff-serious coupe for the M4 variant while the M3 stays as a plush sedan, both sharing almost everything like twins.
It was around the first week of June when BMW launched their new 4 series to the public. It immediately grew a lot of controversy surrounding the large kidney grille which stretches vertically filling a large portion of the front bumper. Seeing that, we can already imagine what the M4 is likely to look like as they usually receive the same treatment as their base models.
What’s New?
The 2021 BMW M4 will largely be based on the 4 series, as always, that was recently launched in June. According to the recent spy shots taken of the M4 prototype of it testing at the Nürburgring, and just like any company that configures their cars by testing them on the Ring, it would be safe for us to expect the M4 to be more expensive with the added performance benefits than the one it shall be replacing.
Prototypes were recently spotted on test runs while wearing a light camouflage warp exposing that enormous grille up front, unlike the previous tester models that wore thick-squared-off camo sheets which basically covered the whole over-sized kidney grille and front bumper intakes. However may we hate on the new front grille, it shall eventually grow on us, or maybe not.
Engine and Performance
The M variants of BMW are built a great thump of power. And their flagship models must have the best of the best engineers working on them. Seeing BMW test these on the Nürburgring, it makes it clear that they are giving us a serious track weapon.
Those over-sized kidneys upfront would obviously allow for more air into the engine bay for cooling sake. And we suspect that the 2021 M4 would be getting an engine transplant from the X3 M & X4 M crossovers. The 3.0-liter twin-turbo inline 6 B58 inside the new M4 should be spitting out about 473 horses just like the M crossovers the engine comes down form. Flasch has claimed the Competition package will be breaking through the 500 barriers and sending out about 503 strong German horses.
Squeezing out every last bit of performance from the M4 would be the best when configured with the all-wheel-drive system, instead of a traditional rear-wheel drive, and a dual-clutch automatic transmission. But for the purist out there, BMW has been kind enough to us all by still offering a six-speed manual transmission for the new M4.
With all this enhancement in the power department, we should be seeing a drastic improvement in the handling department for the M4. We expect to see a standard set of adaptive dampers, optional carbon-ceramic, and some additional upgraded performance enhancements for the more serious, Competition model.
These are all just mostly speculations, we would have to wait until BMW releases some more information or else just wait for them to drop the M4 by September.
Trims and Features
BMWs M4 is the top dog of the 4 series lineup, it gets the most powerful engine and all the bells and whistles. You can get the M4 in either a coupe or convertible with the optional Competition package to give you the most the best out of the M4.
Just like the outgoing M4 and the previous ones, they all shared their interior layout and features with the standard 4 series. It would be difficult to comment on what new features BMW would have in store for us in the new M4 as they have not revealed any of that information as yet, but we should expect high resemblance with the newly updated 3 series. Which comes with an interior design that matches the aggressive appearance of the exterior as well as some genuine materials across the cabin. It goes without saying the M4 would definitely be receiving some carbon fiber trim and faux-suede accents around the cabin with the countless number of “M” badges around the cabin, just in case you forget it’s an M4, even if it sounds and behaves like an animal.
As for the features inside the cabin, this new 2021 BMW M4 could be setting a new standard for the tech inside a sports car. By seeing the latest spy shots of the prototypes, we can say the M4 would be getting a large touchscreen just like all the new Bimmers. It would most likely have most of the infotainment features such as the myriad controls which allow you to operate and navigate menus through voice command, rotary dials, buttons on the center stack, and even hand-gestures. We should expect to see the 2021 M4 come standardly equipped with Wi-Fi hotspot and Apple CarPlay along with the existing outstanding features like 14-speaker Harman Kardon audio system and wireless phone charging.
Safety
It would be tough to judge the safety of the new 2021 M4 since neither NHTSA nor IIHS has put the car to test. Even the 4 series that has been out for a good month now. The current outgoing M4 hasn’t been tested as well, pretty common for the majority of the high-performance sports cars in the market. However, the 2018 3 series was awarded as Top Safety Pick by IIHS, it shares the same underpinnings with the current-gen M4. having said so, we expect the next-gen of M4’s to have various driver-aid features such as automatic emergency braking, high-beam headlights, and city collision mitigation. Although Mercedes being Mercedes have always been in the lead with their sea of on-board safety features.
Verdict
The 2021 BMW M4 would be hitting the public roads from September, it should be quite a month to look forward to for the BMW fans since the long-awaited updated M3 shall also be making its appearance as well. If the M4’s over-sized kidney grille is a huge turnoff, do not worry because you are not the only one, the M3 should be having a more traditional grille that would be sticking to its around the grille region and now stretching down to meet the front splitter. Although if what you want is a serious track weapon, the over-sized kidney grille M4 will be your best fit.