New car news

01 June 2009 - 10:00

7 upped

You'll have heard of Hamann, the German tuning house responsible for a range of spanner-battered monstrosities including the Ferrari 612 Scag, McMerc SLR ‘Volcano', 911 Turbo and that truly unfortunate Cayenne.

By the standards of that array, Hamann's latest effort - the new BMW 7-Series - looks almost restrained.

Yes, it may have 22-inch two-tone alloys, a big bodykit (including a spoiler! A spoiler on a 7-Series!) and lowered suspension, but hey, at least Hamann stopped short of gull-wing doors. Or an all-chrome paint job. Or turning it into a convertible.

Even the power upgrades are relatively restrained: Hamann's 730d gets a bigger exhaust and ECU tweak to boost power from 182kW to 216kW.

However, Hamann does warn that this is only the ‘first tuning stage' - expect more power to follow. Lots more power.