The new BMW 1-series M might not hit the road officially until late April, but it’s already hit the track as the official safety car for MotoGP.
Along with a raft of other high-performance BMW cars for official roles, the 1-series M made its on-track debut last weekend at the Qatar GP.
BMW’s support for the top-flight of motorcycle racing is now in its 13th year, and this year BMW M GmbH has built the car as a one-off specifically for the MotoGP series.
Only the 335bhp straight-six M TwinPower Turbo engine (and the entire drivetrain) was taken over unchanged from the production model.
In the interests of weight optimisation, the BMW Safety Car comes with a carbon fibre-reinforced bonnet featuring additional large air vents, as well as polycarbonate side and rear windows. There’s also a special lightweight titanium race exhaust system.
In addition to the production car’s bootlid spoiler lip there is now an adjustable rear wing to provide the requisite downforce, the nose has also been aerodynamically honed. Other track tweaks include a rollover cage bolted behind the B-pillar, the absence of rear seats, two racing bucket seats with 6-point safety belts, an M steering wheel in alcantara and a fire extinguisher are all standard in the Safety Car.
Suspension-wise, the dampers are independently adjustable for bump and rebound, ride height is variably selectable and the camber of the front and rear axle can be altered to suit the circuit. The braking system has also been upgraded with a six-piston fixed-calliper racing brake system.
As well as the fleet of BMW cars, Munich has also laid on two Safety Bikes to help contribute to the safe running of race weekends: a BMW S 1000 RR and a BMW HP2 Sport.