Back in the early 1990s, BMW was playing with the idea of a 550 horsepower version of its classic sports car, infamously developing a prototype that never made it to production, and was only discussed in detail years after its development. Fast forward 30 years, and the is here for real, and it’s a 600 hp flagship capable of putting all that power down on just its rear wheels.

I only emphasize the rear-wheel drive capability of this new M8 because most modern performance cars, many BMWs included, rely on trick all-wheel drive systems to make sure the high-powered vehicles actually translate all those horses into rapid movement. BMW does this a lot, particularly with its sporty crossover behemoths.

But where BMW stands out among the high-powered Mercedes-Benz and Audi models of the world is it has an option on its trick all-wheel drive system that allows all of the power to head straight to the rear-wheels, like on the .

That M xDrive system is now on the new 2020 BMW M8, with rear-biased all-wheel drive as standard, the option for an all-wheel drive Sport setting, and if you deactivate Dynamic Stability Control (DSC) completely, you get pure rear-wheel drive.

On the standard 2020 M8, a , while the M8 Competition V8 cranks out a little more at a 625 HP, though there’s no separate torque figure listed on BMW’s website.

All versions of the M8—the standard coupe, standard convertible, and Competition versions of both—all get an 8-speed automatic transmission with steering-mounted gear-shift paddles. The cars also come with M Adaptive suspension and a with two different modes—one for comfort and one for ultimate bite—which just sounds primed for confusion.

All cars come with a heads-up display standard and M Mode buttons on the steering wheel that navigate through the driver assistance settings and drive modes, with custom interiors for each model. The Competition cars come with a special “Track” drive mode selection.

I saw the new M8 in a secret room a few months back parked next to the existing prototype of the original 8 Series M model, and while the new car will never hold a candle to the prototype’s full carbon door panels, fiberglass window treatment, and a V12 that shares a lot of its parts with the McLaren F1 engine that BMW designed a couple of years later, it’s still undeniably BMW’s flagship car, even if it looks a little too downplayed for a 600-plus horsepower rear-wheel drive M car.