It was a freakishly busy week for fans of fast BMW luxury barges. In the span of five days, the Bavarians took the lid off two separate high-performance versions of the 7-Series. Early in the week, BMW’s quasi-in-house tuner Alpina revealed its latest leather-lined cruise missile, the B7, which rolls into dealerships in September. A few days later, out came the brand-new M760i xDrive, packing a giant twin-turbo V12 and scheduled for release in early 2017.
It’s odd that the the M760i showed up second, because it’s actually the more newsworthy car; Alpina has been making 7-Series-based models since 1987, but this is the first time BMW proper has slapped the letter M onto its flagship sean. Granted, the new car is an M Performance model, which is to actual M cars what Pepsi Light is to regular Pepsi. But a first nevertheless.
Consider just how similar these two are. A glance at the spec sheet might make you think BMW released the same car with two different badges. Dig into the numbers side-by-side, though, and you’ll get a better idea of what’s shared and what’s unique to each.