BMW celebrates 25th anniversary of the 8-series

BMW's V12-engined technological tour de force carried the grand-touring luxury torch

 Jay Ramey 
This Dinan-tuned 850i is a rare beast, appearing at the 2012 Greenwich Concours d'Elegance. 

BMW is celebrating the 25th anniversary of the debut of the BMW 8-series, which premiered at the 1989 Frankfurt Motor Show. That's right, the 8-series has been with for 25 years. And yes, 1989 was a quarter of a century ago, as if we needed another reminder of just how old we're getting.

The 8-series debuted at a time when BMW was transitioning from a maker of sporty saloons to a true rival for Mercedes-Benz's largest sedans, with the debut of the V8- and V12-engined E32-generation 7-series in 1986. It's easy to forget now, but the E32 was the first modern V8 sedan for BMW in decades; the preceding E23 series topped out with the 3.6-liter straight-six in the guise of the 745i. But the development of new V8 and V12 engines, which have been in gestation since the late 1970s, opened up new possibilities for the Munich-based automaker in segments that it had not fielded a car in for decades.

One such segment was a large luxury coupe, which has been absent from BMW's lineup since the departure of the 3.0 CS cars. But the new 8-series was setting its sights higher, and aimed at offering more power and even more luxury in a package that was years ahead of the competition.

The 8-series became the second post-war V12-powered BMW when the 850i debuted in 1989, and it combined a fresh exterior design with a 5.0-liter producing 300-hp ad 332 lb-ft of torque. That engine was enough to give the coupe the ability to hit 62 mph in just 6.8 seconds, a figure whose meaning is somewhat lost through the passage of time. The 850i came with a choice of a six-speed manual or a four-speed automatic. Being a halo car for the brand, it offered advanced features, like speed-sensitive power steering, Automatic Stability Control plus Traction (ASC+T) and Electronic Damper Control (EDC).

For the 1993 model year, displacement was increased to 5.6-liters on the top version of the 8-series, the 850 CSi. This brought the horsepower output up to 381 hp, with the torque figure rising to 406 lb-ft. The refreshed 850 CSi also benefited from a revised driving dynamics system, which included active rear-axle kinematics, allowing the rear wheels to respond to the car's steering angle and speed, turning in the same direction.

 Jay Ramey 

A rare 850 CSi, all of which came with manual transmissions. 

The 8-series lineup was joined by the 840 Ci in 1993, which featured a 4.0-liter V8 engine underhood, good for 286 hp. Around the same time, the 850 Ci also debuted, positioned just under the 850 CSi but featuring a 5.4-liter V12. This slightly milder version was the third iteration of the V12 in the 8-series, and it produced a healthy 326 hp.

Despite the relative variety in the range, the 8-series remained somewhat of a niche offering. Only 30,621 examples of the car were produced during its 10-year run, which ended in 1999. More than two thirds of all examples featured V12 engines, and they're the ones you're likely to encounter today. Despite the availability of manual transmissions, most buyers opted for automatic transmissions given the overall position of the car in BMW's lineup--as well as considering its competitors, which now included the Mercedes-Benz SL-class and the W140-based CL-class. The 850 CSi remains the rarest version of the 8-series, with only 1,510 examples produced toward the second half of the production run.

The 8-series turned out to be a modest success for BMW, and the company chose not to replace it in 1999, focusing instead on relaunching the 6-series. But, for a while, the 8-series was BMW's halo car. It mightbe difficult to find a good one today, but concours-grade examples are still out there.