The BMW M8 Gran Coupe is an interesting car. On one hand, it’s a road-going ballistic missile, capable of acceleration so instantaneous it feels like teleportation. On the other hand, it’s a quiet, comfortable and refined cruiser. When it comes to proper grand touring, the M8 Gran Coupe is genuinely difficult to beat. But what happens when it takes on an entirely new type of GT car from a very small manufacturer — the Polestar 1? In this new Top Gear comparison test, that’s exactly what happens.
On paper, these two cars are vastly different. However, they both sort of do the same thing; they’re both very fast, stylish, comfortable GT cars. They just have two very different ways of going about their business.
The M8 Gran Coupe is more traditional, thanks to its 4.4 liter twin-turbocharged V8, 617 horsepower (in Competition-spec) and traditional all-wheel drive system. While the Polestar 1 is more high-tech. It uses a 2.0 liter turbocharged and supercharged four-cylinder engine that combines with an electric motor to make 375 horsepower and drive the front wheels. There are also two additional electric motors out back that combine to make 228 horsepower, with each driving a rear wheel. The engine gets an eight-speed auto and the entire setup is all-wheel drive.
So which is the better car to actually drive? You’ll obviously have to read the TG article to get the real answer, as we don’t want to spoil their article, but the result is more interesting than we’d thought. These two cars offer very different answers to the same question — how to make an exciting, stylish GT car? The BMW M8 Gran Coupe does it the old-fashioned way; with power (lots of power) and comfort. The Polestar 1 does it with bleeding edge tech and sleek, Scandinavian style. Either way, you can’t go wrong but one car is certainly more enjoyable than the other.
[Source: Top Gear]
