Introduced by BMW in 2005, the M6 is the most powerful and fastest production BMW made to date (June 2007). It shares it's 5 litre V10 with the BMW M5 which produces a maximum of 500bhp. To access the engine's maximum power, the driver has to push the car's "M-button" on the steering wheel which sets the engine, gearbox and suspension in "maximum performance" mode. Otherwise the engine produces around 420bhp. The maximum speed of the M6 is artificially limited to 155mph, but it has the potential to exceed 200mph when unrestricted.
The styling of the current 6 series BMW is one of BMW chief stylist Chris Bangle's better efforts. Bangle has a distinctive style which many find at best odd looking, and at worst downright ugly. I'm not one of his biggest fans but I do think his rendition of the new 6 series is a great looking car, especially in M6 form. An unusual feature of the M6 is the roof section which is made from carbon fibre. This has the effect of lowering the overall weight of the car plus the M6 has a lower centre of gravity as a result, which is beneficial in terms of the car's power to weight ratio and handling.
Less attractive aspects of the M6 are the complex "i-Drive" system (which is a universal control system for the entertainment system, gearbox shift modes, engine power settings and so on) which many owners find overly complicated. Also, the car is a "gas guzzler" which is fine in my view if you can afford the high cost of fuel in large quantities, but the fuel tank is no larger than on a lesser 6 series and apparently most owners only get around 160 miles between fill ups which is annoying (unless you enjoy standing around filling a car with petrol!). Despite these drawbacks the M6 remains one of the best performance cars on the market in 2007.
Kyosho make this 1:18th of the current M6 and it is an excellent model. Like AUTOart, Kyosho are now using photoetched metal to represent the brake discs on most of their current releases and it results in very realistic looking brakes. The thin spoked alloy wheels (unique to the M6) are realistically recreated and apart from the lack of sidewall detail on the tires (a common fault on many current 1:18th releases) the wheels are hard to fault. The interior and engine bay are also very well done on this model. A must have model for BMW fans.
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