This is one of the great road car engines of our time. It sounds good and goes better. There’s a slight diesel rattle at idle, but nothing’s perfect. Select seventh gear at little more than 1000rpm and there’s still enough muscle to move the 1710kg M6 from 50-70mph in just 7.0sec.
Flick the downshift paddle four times and the SMG will go straight from seventh to third, in which case the same 50-70mph increment is demolished in 2.4sec; in second it takes 1.7sec. A Lamborghini Murcielago will struggle to better that.
And it’s doubtful whether a Lambo would sound much better than an M6 under such circumstances. Due to the cylinder layout there’s a distinct F1-style bark, underwritten by a delicious range of machinations from both the differential and the gearbox.
The only caveat here concerns the SMG’s operation in full automatic mode, which isn’t wonderful. Changes do not occur as smoothly as they should and appear to take place randomly, making it difficult
to anticipate when a change is going to happen and modulate the
throttle accordingly. We’d probably sacrifice the last 10 per cent of shift response in manual mode if the auto function could be improved as a result.
On the other hand, the way the M-button functions could not be made better if they tried. At the press of a button you can transform your M6 from a dawdling and reasonably comfortable super-
coupé into a snarling hot rod. Simultaneously it activates settings for the dampers, traction control, stability control, throttle response and gearbox shift time, and it’s entirely up to you how you program each of these items.
Such gimmickry would remain just that were it not for the M6’s
fundamentally excellent chassis and suspension, and in many ways we have the M5 to thank for this. The M6 does everything the M5 can do and improves upon it in each individual area.
