What does BMW’s VDX torque-zilla mean for its M cars?

Because you are an upstanding member of the TopGear.com community, you will no doubt have already read about BMW’s frankly insane 13,269lb ft VDX test mule.

And because you are an upstanding member of the TopGear.com community, your first question will not have been ‘What does this mean for the future of its electric SUVs?’

No, your first question will have been something along the lines of ‘Blimey! An electric M3 is going to be an absolute monster!’ More of a statement than a question.

You’re right though: BMW subtly launched itself sideways down the quad-motor path late last year, and now for the first time we’ve heard just how important the one-motor-per-wheel approach will be for the M department.

“For M cars, it's obvious to have more than just one electric engine [motor],” explains BMW driving dynamics guru Christian Thalmeier. “And with this architecture, we're now able to run up to four engines. So... this is what high potential cars will have in the future. More electric motors.”

BMW’s logic is if its development rig can handle cartoonish levels of power and torque and downforce and just punishment in general, then ‘normal’ driving will be water off a duck’s back for its incoming Neue Klasse EVs. But you don’t go about creating a machine as brutal and violent (TG has hand-picked these adjectives on the basis of its passenger ride back in November) as the VDX without giving thought to the notion of what the tech might do for a good, old-fashioned drift…

“If you want to think of torque vectoring possibilities,” explains Thalmeier – and oh goody, we do – “when you have three electric motors – with one on the front axle and two on the rear axle – you can steer with the rear axle.

“Maybe you steer to the left: if you make the right wheel faster and the left wheel slower, we get this movement like a tank. Yeah? And the car will go fast.

“Without other things, you can agilize [sic] the car only while doing different speeds of the electric motor. This is because they are so quick. And then any actuator – for example in rear wheel steering – it's not so quick as the electric motor. You can enhance cars… like BMW Ms, for example.”

We like this example. A lot. And wonder what it might do for, say, an electric M5, which ballooned from 1,855 to 2,435kg in becoming a plug-in hybrid last year and hasn't emerged from the transition all that well.

Maybe fan-based downforce is the solution for heavyweights? Er, not so fast, says Thalmeier. “I can understand [your excitement] because there’s downforce at 0kph. This is great! There are five impellers inside, and there's a lot of noise.” At this exact moment, the car fires up for a demo on the floor below and the conversation pauses while we have our eardrums pulse-beaten out of our crania. “So I think the answer is clear, yeah? You want something [like this] in the production car? Hmm.”

Well, if Gordon Murray thinks it’s a good idea…