BMW Releases Its Own 'Spy Shots' of a Camouflaged BMW 8 Series

More often than not, pictures of new car development mules are taken by renegade spy photographers or eagle-eyed forum jockeys which are then not-so-sneakily passed around on the automotive interwebs like funny cigarettes in a suburban basement once the adults have left town for the weekend. To save us all the trouble, BMW decided to bring its own photog when it took the upcoming 8 Series for a spot of testing in Italy. From the looks of things, the revived Bavarian grand tourer seems to be coming along nicely. 

Providing yet another glimpse of the sleekly proportioned 8er, BMW took a prototype of its future luxury coupe (wrapped in a heavy disguise, of course) to a high-speed proving ground in the Italian town of Aprilia. When put through its paces, the 8 Series apparently delivers agility and precision more than worthy of the brand's "Ultimate Driving Machine" slogan. 

"The vehicle dynamics values already achieved are absolutely impressive," said BMW development and research board member Klaus Fröhlich. "Our customers and fans can look forward to a genuine sports car." While we have no reason to doubt Mr. Fröhlich, we look forward being an impartial judge of these claims when the car comes to production sometime later this year. 

The BMW 8 Series is being developed in tandem with the high-performance M8 and M8 GTE endurance racer, the latter of which will compete for this first time at this weekend's 24-hour race in Daytona before heading to Le Mans in June.