We're twisting and turning along a spectacular stretch of canyon road when suddenly we clamp down hard on the excellent vented discs that stop BMW's new 6 Series: We've got baboons in the road. Yes, baboons. A whole crew of them strutting their stuff, big red butts and all.
Things are a little different south of the Tropic of Capricorn in Cape Town, South Africa and environs -- it's awash in sunshine when much of America is shoveling their driveways for the 50th time. It's a near-perfect locale for the international launch of the 2012 6 Series Convertible, a car that absolutely must be driven with the top down to experience its true nature.

It takes a minute to get oriented to right-hand driving on the left side of the road, but once we're out of Cape Town and into baboon country, we settle in and saddle up in the 6's cosseting leather seats, because this vehicle has got plenty of new tricks under its reworked sheetmetal sleeve.
The first trick is making a roughly 4550-pound beast of a car accelerate from 0 to 60 mph in 4.9 seconds. In the 650i coming stateside in May, it's accomplished by activating the wonder Twin Power turbo power, BMW's stout 4.4-liter twin-turbocharged V-8 with 400 horsepower and 450 pound-feet of torque channeled through a killer ZF-sourced eight-speed automatic. American purists, rejoice! A six-speed manual will be available for the tens of 6 Series buyers who opt for it. (The coupe will appear this autumn, and the M6 in mid-2012.)

Oh goodie, a stoplight. After acknowledging the enterprising South Africans hawking their wares in the road ("Nice car, mon!"), it's time to dial BMW's Driving Dynamics Control to Sport+, pop it into manual mode, and grab the well-placed paddles. It's go time. The 245/40 R19 rear meats chirp in second as the double snails furiously spool up and the V-8 roars like an African lion. Nice. Not so nice? The gas mileage. Figures should roughly match the outgoing car's 15/23 city/highway mpg with the automatic, but we're guessing 6 Series customers won't mind.