Josh Giddey is quickly shaping up to be one of Australia’s top basketball talents – and he’s also got pretty tops taste in cars, as his stunning new BMW demonstrates…
The 19-year-old Melbourne native is currently living every teenager’s dream. Last year, the talented basketball player signed a contract with the NBA’s Oklahoma City Thunder until 2023, with his salary for the 2021-22 season a tidy US$5.9 million (small potatoes by NBA standards, but big money for a young man).
He’s been putting that money to good use, too, buying plenty of designer clothes, a few nice watches and a few nice cars, including a Chevrolet Corvette C8. His latest automotive investment is particularly impressive, though: a BMW M8 Competition Coupe.
Giddey loves driving the ‘everyday supercar’ to and from practice – and it’s not hard to see why.
Big and long (4.85m long and 1.9m wide to be exact), the M8 Competition is the most powerful ‘M car’ ever made, and is in many ways a spiritual successor to the E31 8 Series of the 90s.
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Powered by a meaty 4.4L twin-turbo V8, this Batman-esque grand tourer makes 460kW/750Nm and rockets from 0-100km/h in 3.2 seconds and 0-200km/h in 10.6 seconds.
It has a limited top speed of 250 km/h, but that can be raised to 305 km/h with the optional M Driver’s package which also adds high-speed-rated tyres to the car. The M Driver’s package comes as standard on Aussie-delivered M8 Competitions, by the way.
While you can get the M8 Competition in four-door ‘Gran Coupé’ guise (as an aside, what is it with German car brands calling sedans coupes these days?), Giddey has opted for the more pure two-door variant. Considering his 6ft 8in (2.03m) height, he probably needs those big coupé doors anyway…
We’re also slightly tickled by the fact that this young Aussie has bought the most Aussie BMW ever made. Get it? M8? Mate?
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