Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Cars
  3. Photo Galleries
  4. News

BMW builds a 600-hp M6, but only for Japan

By
Add as a preferred source on Google

Anniversaries are a great excuse for carmakers to cook up special editions. Most are forgettable, but some, like this BMW M6 Celebration Edition, are truly desirable. However, this model, which was built to celebrate BMW’s 100th anniversary, is only available in Japan.

What makes the M6 Celebration Edition coupe truly special is its hopped-up engine. The 4.4-liter twin-turbocharged V8 produces 600 horsepower and 516 pound-feet of torque, compared to 560 hp and 500 lb-ft. in the standard M6. That’s the same output as the M5 30 Jahre special edition launched a few years ago, which makes sense. The M6 shares the M5’s engine (and many other things), so applying the same modifications should have been pretty straightforward.

All of that power is sent to the rear wheels through a seven-speed dual-clutch automated transmission only and, even though it is a Japanese-market model, the Celebration Edition is available in left-hand drive only. BMW says it will do 0 to 62 mph in 3.9 seconds, and reach a top speed of 189 mph.

Read more: BMW’s M6 GT3 prepares for racing glory

Exterior changes include Austin Yellow paint that makes this M6 look like it just rolled off the set of a Fast and the Furious sequel, and numerous detail changes. The special edition gets model-specific 20-inch black lightweight alloy wheels, extra carbon-fiber exterior trim, and a BMW twin kidney grille in a special black chrome finish.

On the inside, the Celebration Edition gets Merino Black leather upholstery with yellow contrast stitching to match the exterior, plus carbon-fiber trim on the dashboard, steering wheel, and shifter. In case the driver ever gets sick of the noise coming from the 600-hp V8, BMW also added a 16-speaker, 1,200-watt Bang & Olufsen sound system.

Just 13 examples of the M6 Celebration Edition will be built, priced at 23,210,000 yen ($210,561) each. If you don’t live in Japan, BMW is also offering a 100th-anniversary edition of the 7 Series called the BMW Individual M760i xDrive Model V12 Excellence The Next 100 Years. However, only five of these awkwardly-named models will be imported.

Stephen Edelstein
Stephen Edelstein
Former Contributing Editor
Stephen is a freelance automotive journalist covering all things cars. He likes anything with four wheels, from classic cars…
Topics
Tesla FSD update adds a new dialog that previews your car’s parking plan
Version 14.3.4 surfaces the car's intended parking method on screen before it begins the maneuver, a change that makes supervised autonomy feel more predictable.
Tesla FSD Supervised featured

Tesla has started rolling out Full Self-Driving (Supervised) version 14.3.4, and one of its standout additions makes the end of a trip feel notably more polished. The update introduces a new dialog box that appears as the car approaches its destination, showing the driver exactly how it plans to park before it begins the maneuver.

A robotaxi-style arrival experience

Read more
This tiny sensor could help self-driving cars and robots see better in the dark
Penn State researchers have developed a light-adaptive photomemristor modeled on the human eye that achieves over 95% visual accuracy in shifting light conditions.
Waymo Jaguar I-PACE sensors close up

Penn State researchers have developed a light-adaptive sensor component that could make autonomous vehicle cameras and robots far more reliable in shifting lighting conditions. The work, published Monday in Nature Communications, takes direct cues from how the human eye adjusts between bright and dark environments.

Biology as a blueprint

Read more
Rivian R2 first drive: A mid-sized EV game-changer punching above its budget
Smart engineering meets real-world performance in a surprisingly premium $50K electric SUV
Rivian R2 First Drive Impressions

Rivian has officially launched the R2, a smaller, more affordable two-row electric SUV. Despite the lower price point, the company does not seem to have cut any corners on the new vehicle. Instead, many of the savings seem to have been achieved through more efficient engineering.

Examples of that efficiency can be seen in things like the vehicle’s wiring, which has ditched around two miles of cable when compared to the R1. A lot of the vehicle’s systems and chipsets have been compacted and condensed too.

Read more