BMW 6-series Coupe (2011) first official pictures

BMW today released the first pictures of the production 6-series coupe, on sale in the UK in October 2011.

That was the all-but-identical 6-series concept. You may also be confusing this car with the 6-series Convertible, which was unveiled at the decidedly un-sunny 2011 Detroit motor show in January 2011. Now, just in time for warmer weather, here's the fixed-roof version of the new BMW Six. Hang on...

Styling of the new BMW 6-series was apparently 'inspired by well designed waves that caused the lines and volumes in the surroundings of a flow around a body of water'. That probably made more sense in the original German, but the result is a more restrained big coupe with fewer of the controversial details that marked out its predecessor. 

At 4894mm long and 1894mm wide, the 6-series coupe has grown 75mm and 39mm respectively over the previous edition's dimensions. Make no mistake; this is a big GT coupe. 

The 6-series will launch with your choice of 402bhp petrol V8 (650i), or 315bhp petrol straight-six (640i) engines. Both engines earn their model numbers with the aid of turbocharging. The diesels comes along later (presumably with mandatory badge-delete for maximum pose effect). Standard transmission will be the ZF eight-speed automatic, teamed-up with the usual raft of Efficient Dynamics eco-friendly features. 

As we know from part-electrified BMW saloons and SUVs, this ZF transmission can be mated with hybrid modules, so we wouldn't be surprised if an ActiveHybrid 6-series arrived at some point in the future. But for now you'll have to make do with a donor 5-series-style head-up display, adaptive LED headlamps, adaptive damping, Bang & Olufsen hi-fi and a raft of other comfort and convenience features on the options list.

Inside? We're expecting it to be much as the 6-series cabriolet,  BMW's expanded information released after our original story was published show this to be the case. We've updated our photo gallery accordingly. 

By Mark Hamilton