The new BMW M760e

BMW has a long and storied history of making fast, entertaining and slightly louche sports saloon cars. But how does it fare in the new era of hybrids and electronics? Darius Sanai, who has a rich history of BMW ownership, gets in the saddle of the latest top-of-the-range model, the M760e, in a series of reports

One of my favourite books, growing up as a book-and-car-mad chap in London, was a Roald Dahl compilation called The Wonderful story of Henry Sugar. Aimed more at young adults than children, it is a series of unrelated typically surreal tales that mix brilliant storytelling, myth, and a certain topical character.

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They have, incidentally, just been made into a series of short films by Wes Anderson – essential viewing if you haven’t seen them already.

The BMW M760e’s interior uses high-quality touchpoint

But back to the book. One of the stories is called The Hitchhiker, and it features a successful and wealthy gentleman – it is written in the first person, so I wasn’t ever that sure as a child, and still I’m not now, how much the narrator had the author woven into his persona – who gives a lift to a hitchhiker who turns out to be a dizzyingly brilliant pickpocket, or “fingersmith”, as he calls himself.

I won’t give any more of the story away, but what really mesmerised me was not the dark arts of the fingersmith, but the car the narrator was driving: a BMW 3.3 Li.

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Already a modern classic, or an old car, by the time I read the story, this was a masterpiece of 20th century modern design, inside and out. At that stage I wouldn’t have been able to identify an Eames chair from my school sofa, but I knew a beautiful post-Bauhaus car when I saw one.

‘I liked cars that were beautiful, growlingly powerful without being too flashy, and had the ability to transport you long distances effortlessly’

My school friends worshipped Ferrari and Lamborghinis; but for me that came later. I liked cars that were beautiful, growlingly powerful without being too flashy, and had the ability to transport you long distances effortlessly at high-speed, cigar in one hand, to the most glamorous end of Europe. The 3.3 Li as described in Roald Dahl story ticked all the boxes.

And so few years later, when I had enough money to buy my first car, I bought what was effectively the sexier sister car to the car in the story.  The 3.0 CSi was similarly powerful, but slightly cooler and flashier as a two-door version and unspeakably beautiful.

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After that, working as a foreign correspondent in South Africa, I had a chance drink in a bar with the esteemed chief correspondent of France’s Le Monde newspaper who was selling his car, BMW’s successor to the 3.3 Li, a 733i, a big, fast, imposing and swift saloon. It was not as beautiful as its predecessor, but it was a better car, and I bought it. Fast forward quite a few years and one wonders whether the great-great-great-grandchild of that original car, now dubbed the M760e, has anything at all in common with it apart from the BMW badge on the front and back.

‘The new M760e certainly has distinctiveness and character, but it also has a level of quality that is above anything’

Mine arrives on a drizzly day in December and it looks just the part, an imposing slickly drawn tank of a car in solid grey. If they ever made a nimble version of a battle tank, for commanders to zoom around in, assessing the field, this is probably what it would look like, I ponder.

But while imposing, the slickness of its design means it is not flashy – just like the original car in fact. Driving it around London, it doesn’t incite the aggression and envious looks that some cars of this price and opulence do. BMW has a justified base of admiration among car lovers, and I found I was more likely to get thumbs up and photographs.

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The new M760e certainly has distinctiveness and character, but it also has a level of quality that is above anything until you get into the price category 100% above this one, where Bentleys and Rolls Royces roam.

‘You want to feel quality, and that’s where the M760e really excels’

Particularly delightful to the touch were the glass switches for performing functions like closing and opening the doors, which are heavy and long.

Touch is so important for luxury: it’s what distinguishes the feel of changing the time on a Rolex or helming a Riva yacht. And if you’re going to be spending much of your time complying with restrictive speed limits and traffic, you don’t just want to feel comfortable: you want to feel quality, and that’s where the M6 really excels.

Meanwhile, like any powerful and driver focused car, this is a machine that needs plenty of road to show off what it can do and its first few weeks have been confined to within London’s orbital motorway, the M25. So, soon, I will take out out into the wilds of Britain’s Home Counties, traditional territory of Jaguars, Land Rovers, and men in red trousers who enjoy speaking about their second and third homes, to their second and third wives. How will it fare? Watch this space.

Find out more about the BMW’s open road capabilities in the next instalment, coming soon