What's all this about?

This year is BMW's centenary and the company is doing a number of things to celebrate. One of them is to give away a fancy fountain pen with every example of 100 limited edition 7 Series cars.

What are you on about?

The BMW 7 Series Centennial as a 100-off special that comes with a bespoke Montblanc pen. These cars can be identified by their Centennial Blue Metallic BMW Individual paint, 20-inch V-spoke light alloy wheels in a Silver/Ferric Grey two-tone finish, an interior featuring the finest Merino full grain leather in a quilted pattern and a Smoke White hue (a colour repeated on the Alcantara headlining), and the logo 'The Next 100 Years' branded on the B-pillar, all the headrests within and above the glovebox. The cup holder's lid also features a '1 of 100' motif.

Yes, yes, very nice, but what about the pen?

It has been designed to ape a lot of the Seven Centennial's best features, so the surface structure looks like the quilted seats, the rhodium-plated gold nib has engraving similar to the backstitching on said chairs, and all the transparent elements of the pen are shaded Centennial Blue. This Montblanc stylus will be as limited as the car is.

Which engines are available for the Centennial?

There's a choice of three... two of which haven't been launched yet. Choose from the four-cylinder 740Le plug-in hybrid, the 750Li turbocharged V8 petrol, or the monster 760Li V12, again fitted with forced induction. You can have the 740 or 750 models as either rear-wheel drive or xDrive AWD variants, while the 760Li is xDrive only. And of these, just the 750 is currently available in other Sevens.

Are all Centennials long-wheelbase models, given the 'L' in their badges?

They are indeed, as such luxury requires the maximum of lounging room in the rear. If you want some stats, the Centennial can return anything between 22.4mpg and 294g/km CO₂ (760Li xDrive) up to 134.5mpg and 49g/km (740Li rear-wheel drive), while only the 0-62mph times of the 750 pair have been revealed: 4.7 seconds as rear-wheel drive, 4.5 seconds with xDrive. Power goes 326hp, 450hp and then 610hp, as you add more cylinders.