2020 BMW M8 Competition convertible growls, whooshes and crackles

BMW M represents the pinnacle of performance for the brand, and the pinnacle of the pinnacle right now is the 2020 BMW M8 Competition. It stuffs M’s 617-horsepower twin-turbo 4.4-liter V8 into a muscular two-door body, along with plenty of chassis improvements and a trick all-wheel-drive system that can run in rear-drive mode. And as a powerful engine should, it sounds pretty good.

In the video above, you can listen to the start-up, mild acceleration, downshifting and hard acceleration of the car. It features the car in the loud exhaust mode, but it can be switched to a quiet mode if you’re not wanting to bother the neighbors. In the loud mode, though, you can get the full range of growls and howls. It has the prerequisite crackling downshifts, as well as a fair amount of turbo whistle. And while it is the “loud” mode, it’s still mellow, except for those firecracker downshifts.