Officially official: BMW 1-series M for 2011
M division boss confirms arrival time for baby M-car
The boss of BMW's M division, Dr Kay Segler, has officially confirmed that an M version of the 1-series will arrive in 2011.
Segler revealed the news to German car mag Auto News on Tuesday (read the interview on the Auto news website here if your German's good, or bung it through Google Translate and see if you can make sense of it).
The new car will be based on the 1-series coupe, but won't be called the M1 - that remains reserved for the original mid-engined supercar. More likely is a nomenclature along the lines of 135i M, especially since the new baby M-car will use a more powerful version of the 135i's 302bhp turbocharged straight six for its motive power.
Segler also confirmed that the new M5 would hit showrooms in 2011 and that, as has been widely anticipated, the V10 from the E60 M5 will be dropped in favour of the twin-turbo V8 from the X5 M and X6 M.
Lightweight tricks will also feature on the new M5, including a carbon roof similar to the one on the current M3.
They have an M1 coming out which they can't call an M1 because of sentiment.
They have a new sub-1 series smaller car coming - expect to see the 0.516i on the road soon.
They have a 2-seater sports car which is preposterously christened the "Z4 sdrive35is".
They have M versions of the X5 and X6 which they have had to call X5/X6 M rather than adopt their regular naming strategy for M cars, due to a popular Japanese roadster that you may have heard of (and its less popular coupe cousin).
Don't these people think things through?
I used to own a 130i, that's nice and simple - a 1 series with a three litre engine.
They have an M1 coming out which they can't call an M1 because of sentiment.
They have a new sub-1 series smaller car coming - expect to see the 0.516i on the road soon.
They have a 2-seater sports car which is preposterously christened the "Z4 sdrive35is".
They have M versions of the X5 and X6 which they have had to call X5/X6 M rather than adopt their regular naming strategy for M cars, due to a popular Japanese roadster that you may have heard of (and its less popular coupe cousin).
Don't these people think things through?
I used to own a 130i, that's nice and simple - a 1 series with a three litre engine.
If it's anything like the car that's been bashing around the 'Ring, then it will be likely to have (aside from speculation over the actual power/torque output) bespoke bodywork (flared arches, revised bumpers), an M-diff, quad-exit exhausts and possible CSL-esque alloys like the latest Competition version of the E92 M3.
Which would be a good thing. Because if I have one criticism of the 135i, it's that it's a little too refined for its own good and could do with being a little lairier. It's not that it isn't very quick, it could just do with feeling as quick as it is.
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