Driving down a 3 lane divided surface street in Miami I am pleased to see an 850i working its way through traffic about 2 car lengths ahead. I work my way up behind him and soon both of us are in the middle lane passing slower traffic to our left and right. Up ahead clear traffic emerges, and I know it's going to be on as soon as we pass the last bit of slower traffic.

He goes for the left lane, I go for the right, and it's on. My car never felt so slow. Right out of the gate, I was toast (of course), but it was still a blast seeing a fine example of BMW engineering leave me in the dust.

Just how fast is that 850i?

I think from a roll they are pretty quick, lots of torque. From a stop they are probably pretty sluggish, I think they weigh like 4000 pounds. Transmission makes a difference too Im sure.

I see like 380hp, V12, 5.0L, 0-60 in about 5.5s.... I'd say, should be about the same as the E36 M3, at least till about 100mph.

Those are more like 850CSi numbers, a regular 850i has closer to 300 hp so my guess is in the mid-6's to 60.

Yeah, but they were already moving where that displacement and torque means a lot...

Yes, this was from a roll, and we were already passing slower traffic to our left and right, so we both hit the gas starting from somewhere in the neighborhood of 35 - 40mph. The 850i pulled away with ease, bascially. However, an a$$hole in an XJ8 this morning tasted M-power no less than 3 times on my way into work . . . . . I know, I know, it's kind of like bragging about taking out your father's Oldsmobile, but sometimes the circumstances make even the easy kills worth mentioning . . .

Slightly off the 850i topic, but:
My morning commute has one section right before the office where a single lane road turns into a divided boulevard for about 1 mile. This boulevard was recently repaved, has relatively few intersections and only 2 traffic lights, one in the middle and one at the end, where I turn off anyway. The morning ritual is to pass slower traffic as soon as the boulevard starts for a 1/4 mile run, downshift into 2nd and take a 90degree turn as fast as conditions warrant, redline 2nd somewhere after exiting the turn, and cruise through the remainig 3/4 mile section which has a slight S turn.

To make a long story short, the a$$hole in the XJ8 behind me tried to dive for the open lane early, I cut him off, he was pi$$ed and started tailgating, I did my normal run, leaving him WAAYYYY back even before the turn, took the turn like a man, leaving him even further back. I got caught in some traffic in the S-turns and here he comes, flying up on my rear bumper again. The traffic clears, I accelerate hard, leaving him yet again wondering what happened. I turn off, he continues on straight.