It’s a known fact that German automakers have the tendency to be extremely prudent when it comes to releasing details about an engine’s output or a car’s performance. Take for example the M5 in its Competition guise, which has a twin-turbo 4.4-litre V8 officially rated by BMW to produce 617 bhp at the crank, but a dyno test from earlier this year demonstrated the car actually offered the exact same amount of power at the wheels. Not only that, torque was nearly 10% higher than what the specs sheets says, at a mountain-moving 606 pound-feet.

If you’re wondering about the connection with the adjacent video, it’s because the M8 Competition Coupe practically uses the same engine as the super saloon. We can therefore expect the hottest M car on sale today to offer borderline identical output numbers during a dyno test. With likely more power than advertised, it wouldn’t come as a big surprise for the M8 in its higher state of tune to offer better acceleration than the 3.2 seconds quoted by the Bavarian brand for the 0-62 mph run.

Case in point, our friends at BMWBLOG asked German professional racing driver Martin Tomczyk to get behind the wheel of the M8 Competition Coupe and put it through its paces in a couple of acceleration tests. It’s important to mention there was no vbox installed inside the car, therefore the car was likely a smidgen slower than the 2.88 seconds measured by our colleagues. Nevertheless, an M8 Competition Coupe in ideal conditions can probably drop below the three-second mark, which is supercar territory.

In the sprint from 0 to 124 mph, the speedy coupe only needed 9.93 seconds to do the job, so let’s say that it completed the task in a little over 10 seconds. That’s mighty impressive for something that while it's not exactly cheap, it also doesn’t cost supercar money.

Speaking of supercars, it makes us wonder what a hypothetical BMW supercar would be like with this engine in a smaller and lightweight package. The M8 Competition Coupe is essentially an amped-up version of a large and luxurious grand tourer, and therefore it’s not exactly light, tipping the scales at just under two tons. Removing some fat by taking out a few of the luxury amenities would create that supercar BMW M wants, but needs to convince the executives it’s worth doing.