Up front, your driver can take in the custom ALPINA instrument cluster, heated steering wheel, and plethora of buttons and cameras and radar guided driver aids for safety’s sake. These are important in a car with 310 km/h on its speedometer.
Hell, there’s even a toggle switch to pick one of four driving modes ranging from comfortable to race-track ready, which alter suspension, transmission, steering and engine characteristics in real time.
World-class gadgets
Wondering if the B7 has a certain feature? Yes.
Rear and side-mounted parking cameras? You got it. Massaging seats? Yep. A head-up information display? Uh-huh. Radar cruise with stop and go for a ‘no-pedals-required’ rush-hour commute? Check.
Night vision? Ditto. The latter feature proved welcomed and highly functional during several late night drives through your writer’s Northern Ontario locale, where it quickly identified roadside pedestrians and wildlife before they were visible in the xenon projector headlights. Neat stuff.
At first, the cabin presents an intimidating number of buttons, displays, knobs and readouts. Once learned though, drivers have easy access to a dozen or more features that will wow and delight their lucky passengers.
A rocket-powered luxury spa
Of course, being a 7-Series, everything in the cabin feels extremely plush, dense and substantial. There isn’t a speck of low-budget plastic or a flimsy piece of switchgear anywhere inside-- and comfort, quiet and luxury are all at world-class levels.
Trouble is, even at 120km/h or greater, the B7 never feels like its working. You’ll want to add more throttle, speed up a little, or hear some form of satisfying sound from the wind over the car, or the road beneath it. There’s virtually no perceivable sign that the B7 is moving quickly-- until far beyond advisable velocities.
Said velocities are reached in quick order thanks to BMW’s 4.4 litre V8 engine. Twin, inboard-mounted turbochargers with liquid-to-air aftercoolers sit between the banks, jamming the cylinders full of cool air and high octane fuel on demand.
The standard version of this engine makes 400 horsepower. In the B7, it makes 500. And it might be the size of Canadian Tire-- but this luxo-barge isn’t as heavy as you think, so it goes like all heck.
 |
| At first, the cabin presents an intimidating number of buttons, displays, knobs and readouts. (Photo: Justin Pritchard/Auto123.com) |
Hell, there’s even a toggle switch to pick one of four driving modes ranging from comfortable to race-track ready, which alter suspension, transmission, steering and engine characteristics in real time.
World-class gadgets
Wondering if the B7 has a certain feature? Yes.
Rear and side-mounted parking cameras? You got it. Massaging seats? Yep. A head-up information display? Uh-huh. Radar cruise with stop and go for a ‘no-pedals-required’ rush-hour commute? Check.
Night vision? Ditto. The latter feature proved welcomed and highly functional during several late night drives through your writer’s Northern Ontario locale, where it quickly identified roadside pedestrians and wildlife before they were visible in the xenon projector headlights. Neat stuff.
At first, the cabin presents an intimidating number of buttons, displays, knobs and readouts. Once learned though, drivers have easy access to a dozen or more features that will wow and delight their lucky passengers.
A rocket-powered luxury spa
Of course, being a 7-Series, everything in the cabin feels extremely plush, dense and substantial. There isn’t a speck of low-budget plastic or a flimsy piece of switchgear anywhere inside-- and comfort, quiet and luxury are all at world-class levels.
Trouble is, even at 120km/h or greater, the B7 never feels like its working. You’ll want to add more throttle, speed up a little, or hear some form of satisfying sound from the wind over the car, or the road beneath it. There’s virtually no perceivable sign that the B7 is moving quickly-- until far beyond advisable velocities.
Said velocities are reached in quick order thanks to BMW’s 4.4 litre V8 engine. Twin, inboard-mounted turbochargers with liquid-to-air aftercoolers sit between the banks, jamming the cylinders full of cool air and high octane fuel on demand.
The standard version of this engine makes 400 horsepower. In the B7, it makes 500. And it might be the size of Canadian Tire-- but this luxo-barge isn’t as heavy as you think, so it goes like all heck.
 |
| The standard version of this engine makes 400 horsepower. In the B7, it makes 500. (Photo: BMW) |